Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge – A Little Expression Of Love

Image ~ 25 March 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 6 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge – A Little Expression Of Love

Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge! We are so excited to be sharing this hop with you. The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping!

Today’s sketch has been provided by lovely Sally Shaw from Sallystampers blog.

WOW! this sketch really sat me down for a moment. In a good way of course – great creative exercise for my grey cells. And here’s what I came out with:

A Little Expression of Love card dimensions:

Basic Black cardstock: 11-6/8″ x 4-1/8″ scored in half at 5-7/8″ (29.7 x 10.5 cm scored in half at 14.8 cm)
Whisper White cardstock for the inside: 3-2/8″ x 4-2/8″ (8,4cm x 10,7cm)
3 strips of Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper: 4-6/8″ x 2″, 4-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ & 4″ x 1″ (12cm x 5cm; 11,4cm x 3,9cm & 10,2cm x 2,5cm )
scraps of Whisper White for stamping and die-cutting.

First, I stamped the palette image from Painter’s Palette Stamp Set on Whisper White cardstock in Versamark, and heat embossed it in gold. In the middle, using Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the sentiment in Basic Black. Because I didn’t want all that white space around the sentiment, I took a ‘dotty’ stamp from the same set and stamped it a couple of times in Sahara Sand. I die cut my piece using Layering Squares Framelits Dies.

Next, I created my circles and I’ve used a really cool and easy technique to do so. I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock, clear stamping block H and three ink pads: Island Indigo, Mint Macaron, and Sahara Sand. First, I inked the clear block with Island Indigo ink and dragged it through the cardstock. I repeat it with other two ink pads, making sure some of the colours overlap, creating fun, distressed design. I die-cut various circles from my piece.

Card assembly. I adhered strips of DSP to the base using snail adhesive, followed by circles. The sentiment is popped up on dimensionals. For the inside, I added Whisper White panel and few leftover circles too.

To wrap up my design together I wanted to add some extra golden accents to the card. I’ve used gold Wink of Stella to add some soft random splotches to the DSP and circles (I masked the sentiment for this step). Next, using same ‘dotty’ stamp as for the sentiment, I stamped it randomly on the card base in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold.

I have to tell you, I enjoyed the process of designing this card and watching how it comes together nicely. I hope you like it too.

Now be sure to hop along to see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is lovely and talented Jillian.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day

Roses and Dragonfly Thank You For A Smile Card for GDP#075

Image ~ 24 February 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 10 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Roses and Dragonfly Thank You For A Smile Card for GDP#075

Hello and welcome everyone! Today I’ve got for you a card I created for this week’s Global Design Project theme challenge: Winged Creatures. I’m bit late to the party but thankfully not too late.

I’m a big fan of detailed die-cutting and had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while now, just never had enough time to try it.

In this card, I’ve incorporated two die-cutting techniques – inlaid die-cutting and partial die-cutting – using a couple of detailed die sets: Rose Garden Thinlits Dies and Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies.

Roses and Dragonfly Thank You For A Smile Card dimensions:

Sweet Sugarplum cardstock: 11-6/8″ x 4-1/8″ scored in half at 5-7/8″ (29.7 x 10.5 cm scored in half at 14.8 cm)
Whisper White cardstock cut into two panels: bottom one measure 5-6/8″ x 4″ (14,5 x 10,2 cm) and top one 5-1/2″ x 3-7/8″ (14 cm x 9,8 cm)
Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper: 5-1/2″ x 3-7/8″ (14 cm x 9,8 cm)

To create my card I started with die-cutting.

I wanted this small dragonfly to be in the foreground of my die-cut panel so I run it through my Big Shot first.

For this technique, you first want to die-cut the image you want to have in the foreground of your card and you work your way backwards. Everything you die-cut later will appear to be ‘behind’ this first image.

Once it has been die-cut, I removed the dragonfly die and die-cut and I placed the rose die on the panel. I placed it the way that some parts of the die overlapped the negative space where dragonfly was die-cut previously from.

Again, I run it through the Big Shot and very carefully removed my rose die-cut from the die, being careful not to lose all the separate pieces as I will need them all to inlaid them back to my panel. I die-cut two more partial roses (one at a time) from the same panel, every time making sure they overlap the space of a previously die-cut image and saving all the little die-cut pieces. I arranged all my die-cut on the desk, so I knew

Once all the images were die-cut, I adhered what was left of the panel to the Blooms & Bliss DSP piece. And now the fun began: I had to inlay all the die-cut outlines where they came from.

The easiest part was to inlay the dragonfly outline. From there, I worked my way through the roses in the same order I die-cut them. Once I was done, I matted my detailed panel with slightly bigger Whisper White piece and next mounted it onto my Sweet Sugarplum card base.

I masked bottom part of the sentiment ‘Thanks for the smile and everything else’, stamped it on a strip of Whisper White cardstock in Basic Black Archival Ink and cut it into a banner. I also cut a banner from Sweet Sugarplum cardstock and adhered them both to my card, offsetting slightly.

I was pretty happy with the outcome but I had a feeling that something was missing. So I masked the detailed part and all the edges of my card, and I added some tiny speckles in Basic Black and Sweet Sugarplum. Few rhinestones wrap up my card.

I hope you feel inspired and that you give this technique a go. Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge #15 – Follow Your Dreams

Image ~ 19 November 201621 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 14 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge #15 – Follow Your Dreams

Welcome to our 15th sketch challenge blog hop! This month it was me who had a pleasure to create a sketch we are gonna work with. Here it is:

When creating this sketch, I won’t be lying, I had our new Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies in mind. And however I don’t have these dies yet myself, I hope to see them used a lot through this blog hop.

I know that in the ‘age’ of everything ‘clean and simple‘ and ‘less is more‘ in crafting world, layered, ‘busy’ and distressed cards are kinda faux pas. But I can’t help I love them the most! I love all the organic, (sometimes messy) creative process of designing a card.

For my card base, I’ve used Island Indigo cardstock (standard top folding A6 size). The first layer is Vellum that measures 4”x 5-5/8” and next one is Whisper White 3-7/8”x 5-1/2” panel which I stamped using Hardwood background stamp in Sahara Sand. But because it felt rather ‘boring’ I also added few ‘splotches’ from Gorgeous Grunge stamp set in Mint Macaron, stamping them off a couple of times. I distressed the edges of my panel using regular scissors.

I also created a similar panel for the inside of the card, but this time I also stamped off the Hardwood image few times, so it wasn’t as crisp as the one on the card front.

I took two pieces of Blooms & Bliss DSP, which measure 4”x 1” each, and cut them into banners. One of the banners I adhered flat down using a fast fuse and a second one I pop with dimensionals with few lengths of Linen Thread underneath.

To create large roses I punched six flowers using Pansy punch from Mint Macaron cardstock (three flowers create one rose). For white tiny roses, I punched nine flowers using Petite Petals punch (again three flowers create one rose). I also punched one petite petals flower from Mint Macaron cardstock to create tiny leaves: I cut the shape apart so I end up with two double ‘leaves’ and one single ‘leaf’. White roses appeared bit ‘blunt’ so I decided to add some interest to them: using Island Indigo ink and a small paint brush I added some ‘speckles’ to them.

I also decided to add some sparkle to my flowers. I dipped the edges of petals first in watered-down Multipurpose Liquid Glue and next in Dazzling Diamonds glitter, and let it dry. Once they were ready I adhered them to the card with glue dots.

For the sentiment, I decided to use this awesome quote you probably have seen many times on the net: “Follow your dreams”. We might don’t have a stamp set with this sentiment, but this is where our amazing various alphabet sets come in handy.

Using Labeler Alphabet stamp set and Basic Black Archival ink pad, I stamped “follow your” on a 2/8” wide strip of Whisper White cardstock and cut it apart. Next, using Brushwork Alphabet stamp set and Basic Black Archival ink pad again, I stamped “Dreams” on a Whisper White panel that measures 7/8”x 3-1/2”, and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder for extra oomph. I pop ‘narrow’ part of the sentiment with dimensionals. For a wider piece, I created a vellum mat that measures 3-5/8”x 1”, and adhered them to the card front with a fast fuse.

Do you like my project?! If so, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you!

Now, be sure to hop along and see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is Jillian’s blog – go and see what she has made for you.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Anna' Stampin' Cave

creative life by anna krol – stampin' up! uk independent demonstrator

Blooms & Bliss dsp

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge – A Little Expression Of Love

Roses and Dragonfly Thank You For A Smile Card for GDP#075

For this technique, you first want to die-cut the image you want to have in the foreground of your card and you work your way backwards. Everything you die-cut later will appear to be ‘behind’ this first image.

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge #15 – Follow Your Dreams