Petal Palette Split Background 1 For 2

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Petal Palette Split Background 1 For 2 for Kylie Bertucci’s International Project Highlights

Thanks for coming to my blog today! We are being highlighted internationally by Kylie Bertucci and you are able to VOTE  for my project. The top ten winners will get to be part of an international blog hop so please vote for my project. My project is under number 7!  You can do it here or use a button at the end of my post.

Our theme for this highlight is, again, ‘Favourite Sale-a-bration Or Occasions Catalogue Products’ – because they are so amazing!! Last time I’ve used my ever favourite medium: Brusho Crystal Colour – you can check that post HERE.

This time, however, I decided to use a stamp set I seem to be using a lot lately, called Petal Palette. And this is also my second project in ‘Bedazzled‘ series, as I have a thing (or two lol) for a glitter lately too haha

Dimensions for both cards:

  • card base: 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 Thick & Very Vanilla cardstock
  • Shimmery White cardstock: 4-1/4″ x 5-3/4″ (10.8 cm x 14.6 cm)
  • Soft Sky cardstock: 3-2/8″ x 4-1/8″ (8.26 cm x 10.5 cm)
  • Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper: narrow, long strip – 4-1/2″ x 1/2″ (11.4 cm x 1.3 cm) approx

First I created the background. I didn’t have a plan for my cards yet, I just played – but this is how many of projects start.

I stamped the cluster of roses from Petal Palettes Stamp Set all over the piece of Shimmery White cardstock using Basic Black Archival ink pad. Next, I watercoloured them. I’ve used my ink pads as palettes: Powder Pink with Blushing Bride for roses and Pear Pizzazz with Old Olive for leaves.

When my piece dried, I decided I want to add some colour to the background. I’ve used a sponge dauber to add Versamark ink to my flowers and let it dry. Next, I sponged Soft Sky ink over my piece. Versamark helped my roses not to be stained with blue ink, but it also allowed the blueish hue to make it’s ‘mark’ (hope you know what I mean).

Once happy with the background, I flicked some water droplets on and picked them up with a paper towel. I truly love subtle texture that those droplets create.

Now the ‘bedazzled’ part: I flicked some more water on my background, sprinkled with clear embossing powder and heat set it. Next, I re-heat it once again, added Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter and heat set it again so the glitter stays put. And I cut my piece diagonally to create two cards.

Because of the bold design, I decided to keep the rest of my cards clean & simple.

For first card, I decided to mount my diagonal piece at the very bottom of the card. But first, I stamped the sentiment, with help of Stamp-a-ma-jig, in Basic Black Archival ink.

I stamped it diagonally, just above where the diagonal piece will go and I  added a strip of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper just below my sentiment. Next, using Foam Adhesive Strips I adhered my background to the card base

For the second card’s card base I’ve used Very Vanilla thick cardstock and I tweaked the layout slightly.

This time background landed on top of my card and I also cut off the end of my diagonal panel.

I backed it with a piece of Soft Sky cardstock and adhered it to the card base flat with snail adhesive.

I stamped the sentiment at the bottom Right corner of the card base, in Basic Black Archival ink.

I really had fun creating these cards and I hope you like them too. And can you spot soft, blueish shiny speckles of Dazzling Diamond Stampin’ Glitter on my backgrounds? Just yummy!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! Make sure you head over to Kylie’s blog to check all lovely projects and vote for your favourites. Hope my project will be among them. My project is under number 7!

If you wish to purchase any of products I have used, simply click the images below to go directly to my online store and don’t forget to enter the hostess code RRMR76JH to receive a gift from me.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day

Hostess Code for February: RRMR76JH – Use this code in the month of February and receive a gift from me. Spend £50 or more and use the code, and you will receive a Whisper White 1/4″ (6.4mm) Organza Ribbon + a handmade gift from me

Special Notes: 1) Make sure you select Anna Krol as your demonstrator;
2) If you select “No Contact” box I do not have access to your name and can’t send you a gift;
3) If your order is £150 or more do not use the code and grab your own Stampin’ Rewards + gift from m

Aqua Painters

£15.50

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Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo. I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest xx

Don’t forget to check:

New Sale-a-bration release is LIVE. Click here for more details –>

Spring Summer Catalogue Paper & Ribbon Shares. Shares are open to Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands & United Kingdom. 102 sheets of DSP & 2 yards of each type of ribbon from Spring/Summer Catalogue. Click here for more details —>

The New Stampin’ Up! Spring/Summer 2017 Catalogue and Sale-A-Bration are LIVE and it’s AMAZING! For every 60 €/£45, you spend either from Spring Summer Catalogue or Annual Catalogue, you will get to choose one FREE  level 1 product from SAB brochure! If you spend 120 €/£90, you get one FREE level 2 product, OR, you can choose two level 1 items. If you spend 180 €/£135, you have the option to choose three level 1 items or one level 1 item and one level 2 item. Click here for more details —>

Ever wondered what it’s like to join Stampin’ Up!’s community? I may have few answers for you. Click here for more details –>

Watercolour Wash Using Colorful Seasons Bundle For #GDP088

Phewww! Finally, some air in the air after a heat wave we experienced lately. Don’t get me wrong: I love summertime. I’m just not a fan of hot weather when you can’t do any activity without gasping for the air. And how funny it may sound, in the UK 26C is hardly bearable. But today I woke up very early to the amazingly fresh breeze. I jumped out of bed (well not literally as I still can hardly walk), fixed some quick breakfast to take my medications, got my Bible study done (book of Judges – loveee) and off I go to my ‘cave’ before the ‘house’ woke up.

Since over a week, I’ve been ‘dying’ to crack open the Colorful Seasons Photopolymer Stamp Set and coordinating Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies. And what a better excuse (not that I need one haha) than taking a part in Global Design Project. Especially that this week we are CASE’ing extremely talented, Shawn De Oliveira.

Rose Wonder Stamp Set and Rose Garden Thinlits Dies are one of my favourites from 2016-17 catalogue and I’m really happy that they are staying with us for another year (at least). But for my project today I really wanted to ‘play’ with new products.

What I ‘borrowed from Shawn’s card is the colour combination of soft pink and green with a touch of gold. And because I had all my supplies out I’ve made not one but six cards. Since a couple of months, I belong to amazing facebook group Random Act Of Kindness, where each month we are sending cards to random recipients. ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35)

Colorful Seasons card dimensions:

  • Whisper White Thick cardstock card base: 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)
  • Shimmery White cardstock: 3-1/2″ x 4-1/8″ (8.9 cm x 10.5 cm)
  • Old Olive cardstock two stripes: 4-1/8″ x 7/16″(briefly) and 4-1/8″ x 1″ (10.5 cm x 1.2 cm and 10.5 cm x 2.6 cm)
  • white cardboard from the back of DSP: 4-1/16″ x 2-1/2″ (10.4 cm x 6.3 cm)

I started with creating a scalloped edge to my card base. On the front of the card base, I measured 1″ from the bottom, centred the scallop edge die and secured it with a piece of washi tape (so it won’t shift) and run it through the big shot. Next, using the same die I created a scalloped edge on the wider strip of Old Olive cardstock.

For the watercolour wash, instead of watercolour paper, I’ve used Shimmery White cardstock. It’s beautiful on its own but great for light watercolouring too; plus gives your work delicate shimmery look (hence the name).

Watercolour tip: While your ink pad is closed give the lid a gentle squeeze. It will transfer a little pool of ink from the ink pad into the lid.  Open your ink pad. Now you can pick up the ink with your aqua painter or with the tip of your blender pen.

I took aqua painter and I wet the surface of my panel slightly. I didn’t add the water to the entire piece, just to the centre. I picked some Blushing Bride ink with my aqua painter and I’ve done a quick wash of colour over the panel. Dried it with my heat tool.

When the panel was completely dry I rubbed it with embossing buddy to make sure embossing powder won’t stick where it shouldn’t. I stamped the sentiment and maple leaves with Versamark ink, covered them with gold embossing powder and heat set it.

I adhered Old Olive stripes behind the watercoloured panel with liquid adhesive. And now the #facepalm moment: paper + water = warping! …what was I thinking?! To rescue my watercolour pieces: strengthen and straighten them up, I cut rectangles from the white cardboard (I always save backings from DSP) and adhered them behind the panels, between two Old Olive pieces, with a fast fuse.

I assembled my cards with liquid glue. For a final touch, I decided to add few rhinestones. And that’s my cards done.

As always, I really want to encourage you to visit the Global Design Project challenge blog to see other beautiful projects from all around the world. Just click on their logo below to visit the website

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Have a blessed day

You Are Amazing – Kylie Bertucci’s International Stampin’ Up! Blog Highlights

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – You Are Amazing – Kylie Bertucci’s International Stampin’ Up! Blog Highlights

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Thanks for coming to my blog today! We are being highlighted internationally by Kylie Bertucci and you are able to VOTE on my project. The top ten winners will get to be part of an international blog hop so please vote for my project. You can do it here or use button at the end of my post.

Anna' Stampin' Cave - Stampin' Up! All Things Thanks Stamp Set CAS Card You Are Amazing

Our theme for this highlight is using the stamp set All Things Thanks! This is a Wonderful stamp set with so many gorgeous sentiments. We wanted to highlight how versatile it really is.

This is my first time taking part in Kylie Bertucci’s International Stampin’ Up! Blog Highlight so I’m a little bit nervous. For my card, I went with monochromatic clean and simple design.

Anna' Stampin' Cave - Stampin' Up! All Things Thanks Stamp Set Monochromatic CAS Card You Are Amazing.JPG

You Are Amazing Card dimensions:

  • Whisper White 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)
  • Basic Grey DSP from Neutrals DSP Stack: two pieces 3″x 3″ each (7.6 cm x 7.6 cm)
  • Basic Grey cardstock: 1/2″ x 3-3/6″ (1.2 cm x 9.5 cm)
  • for sentiment piece of Whisper White cardstock
  • Whisper White Thick Baker’s Twine: 12″

First, I stamped my sentiment in Basic Grey on a piece of Whisper White cardstock and die cut it using 2nd smallest oval from Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. Next, I took my card base and adhered my squares of Designer Series Paper in the middle, offsetting them slightly.

I took Basic Gray strip of cardstock and created a fun banner using a dotted strip die from Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies.

I adhered the banner in in the centre of my card front and popped up the sentiment on top using dimensionals. I wrapped bakers twine around my card and tied a simple knot on the front. For the final touch, I added a rhinestone to the ‘i’ in the sentiment.

Anna' Stampin' Cave - All Things Thanks Stamp Set by Stampin' Up! Monochromatic CAS Card You Are Amazing.JPG

Thanks for visiting my blog today and make sure you head over to Kylie’s blog to check all lovely projects and vote for your favourites. Hope my project will be among them as I would love to be chosen to do an international blog hop.

Vote for me Kylie's Highlights Badge

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Elegant Monochromatic With Pop Of Colour

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Elegant Monochromatic With Pop Of Colour

Wow! It’s hard to believe, but today is last day with My Hero Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up! Yep, 5 weeks have passed!

For my final project, I’ve created this striking yet elegant, almost monochromatic card, in shades of grey but with a pop of colour in form of dainty orange flowers.

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For the base of my card I took an A4 sheet of Smoky Slate cardstock, cut it in half at 4-1/8″ and folded in half at 5-7/8″. I run the front of the base through Big Shot with Festive Embossing Folder. The panel is a piece of Basic Grey cardstock that measures 2″ x 5-7/8″. I adhere it to the base with Multipurpose Liquid Adhesive.

Next, I created my floral composition using Botanical Builder Framelits Dies. I die cut a couple of leaves from vellum and six flowers: three tiny flowers and three small 3D flowers from a scrap of Whisper White cardstock.

Savvy Tip: Don’t know what to do with random off cuts that are to small to use on cards or to punch anything out of them? Don’t throw them away! I save all my off cuts and use them up when need to die cut small elements, flowers, etc using framelits dies

To add a little bit of colour to my flowers I sponged the edges of the tiny flowers with Watermelon Wonder. For 3D flowers, I decided for more ‘dramatic’ look I sponged entire flowers using Pumpkin Pie ink pad and a dab of Watermelon Wonder to the centres. I also added a large rhinestone to each centre. You can’t really tell from the photos (blame the awful English weather) but I’ve added a touch of shimmer using Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush to each flower (tiny ones too).

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Next, I took a strip of vellum ( 1/2″ x 4-1/8″) and stamped a ‘Celebrate’ from My Hero Stamp Set in Versamark. Of course, I’ve used an Embossing Buddy prior to stamping. I heat embossed the sentiment with Silver Stampin’ Emboss Powder.

Tip: For best results with heat embossing always treat your cardstock, dsp, vellum, etc with embossing buddy. I takes off the statick from the surface of your paper, and makes the powder stick only to the areas you stamped.
Tip 2: If you don’t have an embossing buddy or any other antistatic tool you can use cornflour instead. Just sprinkle a little amount of flour over the surface of your cardstock, spread it with fingers or paint brush, and shake off the excess. Now you can stamp and heat emboss.

I assembled my composition using Glue Dots and liquid adhesive. Two tiny flowers on the vellum banner are hiding adhesive that I’ve used to adhere the banner to the card base.

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I really like how this card turned out. I love the monochromatic, cold look of greys with a pop of bright orange. And what do you think about this colour combination? Do you like it? I would love to hear from you in comments below.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Watercolour Wash With Summer Silhouettes Stamp Set

Today I wanted to show you a watercolour wash technique, using Summer Silhouettes Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up! These were SWAPS I created for fellow stampers.

swaps 5

Stampers love to swap! Swapping lets us share our creativity, enjoy the creativity of other stampers, and gather and collect ideas. A swap is usually a card front (unless someone would like to do something extra). It can spotlight a particular technique or stamp set and can be as simple or as complex as you wish. For my swaps, I decided to highlight one of my favourite techniques – watercolour wash.

I had so much fun creating my watercolour panels! At the end of the day my hands were just as colourful hahaha, but it was an easy part.

Next step was really time-consuming: heat embossing and lots and glueing lots of sequins.

After ombre stamping 58 card fronts, heat embossing 58 watercolour panels and 58 strips of vellum, and adding over 350 sequins (!!!) my swaps were finished!

I really hope these swaps will bring some inspiration – not only to those who swapped with me but to you also.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,