Colourful Striped Background For Global Design Project – I am Guest Designer

Image ~ 1 May 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 8 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Colourful Striped Background For Global Design Project – I am Guest Designer

Hello, my friends! I am so excited as today I am a Guest Designer for Global Design Project. How amazing is that?! I’m so humbled and honoured that GDP team has chosen me to join them for this week’s Colour Challenge. And boy, what a great colours we have to play with!

Choose your fav three wasn’t an option for me because I love all of these and wouldn’t know which to choose, to be honest. So I decided to be a rebel and for my project today I’ve used all five. Let’s say this post is a farewell to these beautiful In Colours.

Colourful Striped Background card dimensions:

Mint Macaron 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)
Very Vanilla cardstock: two panels, one for the card front, one for the inside of the card 5-7/8″ x 4″ (14.8 cm x 10.2 cm) each
cardstock for building the background: 5-7/8″ x 3-1/2″ (14.8 cm x 8.9 cm)
scraps of cardstock in colours: Mint Macaron, Delightful Dijon, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush and Tip Top Taupe
White Vellum for stamping and die-cutting

I started my card by creating this fun and colourful striped background. I took my scraps of cardstock of 2015-2017 In Colours and I cut it into strips of different widths. Next, I took a piece of cardstock (random colour as it won’t be seen anyway), covered it in glue, using snail adhesive, and adhered my strips diagonally, mixing colours and widths, making sure there’s no space left in-between the strips. When the whole panel was covered, I trimmed any overhanging stripes.

Can you see the shimmer on this panel? I took empty spritzer bottle and fill it with water. Next, I took Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush and squeezed pretty few drops of it into the spritzer. I shake it really well, spritz my entire panel with this glittery mist and let it dry.

I took the Very Vanilla panel and die-cut this intricate butterfly from Butterflies Framelits Dies in the middle of it. I also die-cut solid butterfly from vellum using Bold Butterfly Framelit Dies.

Using t-ruler, I draw two diagonal (and parallel) lines at the back of my panel. Using these lines as guides, I cut my panel into three and discarded the middle piece. Next, I stamped this lovely chicken wire (kinda) pattern from Butterfly Basics Stamp Set all over the other two pieces. I stamped it in Mint Macaron and to create this faded look I stamp off twice before I stamped on the cardstock.

I adhered my Very Vanilla pieces to the background panel, with butterflies inlaid between them: vellum butterfly at the bottom and vanilla one on the top, and added the whole panel to the card base with liquid adhesive.

For the sentiment, I chose “Sending Wishes Your Way”, also from Butterfly Basics Stamp Set. I prepared vellum with embossing buddy, dabbed my stamp in Versamark and straight away in Basic Black Archival ink, and stamped it onto vellum. Sprinkled it with clear embossing powder and heat set it. Adhered it to the card with few tiny drops of Fine-Tip Glue Pen. All that’s left was to add second Very Vanilla panel inside of the card. Done!

Once again I wanted to thank amazing GDP team for this opportunity and privilege, that I could showcase my project alongside such wonderful artists. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

As always, I really want to encourage you to visit the Global Design Project challenge and play along. You too have a chance to be the next Guest Designer

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Global Design Project #081 Colour Challenge – Watercolour Birthday Blooms

Image ~ 7 April 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 16 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Global Design Project #081 Colour Challenge – Watercolour Birthday Blooms

Hello and welcome! Today I decided to play along with Global Design Project and their Colour Challenge. I love that one of the colours can be our own choice.

I had couple of ideas which colour to use, but because I couldn’t decide which one to choose I created two cards instead of one 🙂

Basic Grey/Night of Navy ‘Friend To Friend’ card dimensions:

Basic Grey cardstock: 8-1/4″ x 5-7/8″ scored in half at 4-1/8″ (21cm x 14.8 cm scored in half at 10.5 cm)
Watercolour Paper: 3-6/8″ x 3″ (9.5 cm x 7.6 cm)
Regals Designer Series Paper Paper Stack: 3-5/8″ x 3/8″ (9.2 cm x 1 cm) strip of diagonal stripes design paper in Night of Navy
Night of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine: approx 33″ (84 cm) + strip of Basic Grey cardstock to secure/hide the twine ends inside the card

For this first card, I decided to use rather classic Night of Navy with Basic Grey colour combination.

I heat embossed beautiful floral image from Birthday Blooms Stamp Set on a piece of Watercolour Paper in Whisper White Embossing Powder. Next, I watercolour the image using my ink pads as palettes. For the flower, I’ve used Night of Navy ink pad. For the leaves, I’ve used Basic Grey Archival ink pad, which was a little bit tricky but doable. Just had to work really fast once I squished some ink onto my ink pad cover flap. When finished my leaves, I’ve added more water to the ink that left on the cover and I’ve done a quick wash of light grey around the flower.

For the sentiment, I chose sweet ‘friend to friend’ from Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set and stamped it in Basic Grey Archival Ink in the bottom right corner of my watercolour panel.

Tip: If using clear mount or wood mount stamp sets, always use Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to align your sentiment. It’s best tool ever!

To prepare my base I stamped the same floral image all over the card front with Versamark ink. Next, I wrapped Night Of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine around the front of the card and secured it at the back with a piece of cardstock.

I adhered a strip of DSP underneath the watercolour piece and added it to the card base, slightly offsetting my piece. The final touch was to add Clear Wink Of Stella to my floral.

For my next card colour combination, I took an idea from Stampin’ Up!’s Annual Catalogue, page 76. I love how Night of Navy and Delightful Dijon complement each other creating distinguished look.

Delightful Dijon/Night of Navy ‘Friend To Friend’ card dimensions:

Delightful Dijon cardstock: 8-1/4″ x 5-7/8″ scored in half at 4-1/8″ (21cm x 14.8 cm scored in half at 10.5 cm)
Regals Designer Series Paper Paper Stack, Night of Navy diagonal stripes design: 4-2/8″ x 3-5/8″ (10.8 cm x 9.2 cm)
Watercolour Paper: 3-6/8″ x 3″ (9.5 cm x 7.6 cm)
Night of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine: approx 12″ (30 cm)

Same as with my first card, I stamped the whole card front with a floral image from Birthday Blooms Stamp Set in Versamark Ink and adhered the piece of DSP in the middle of my card base.

Next, I stamped and heat embossed the same image on the watercolour panel in Whisper White. Flowers, as before, are watercoloured with Night of Navy ink, just this time I decided for darker, deeper shade. For the leaves, however, I’ve used Delightful Dijon ink, with a very light wash of DD in the background.

A sentiment, same again, is stamped in Night of Navy ink in the top right corner of the panel. I took a piece Night of Navy Solid Baker’s Twine, wrapped it at the bottom of my watercolour piece and tied a little bow. I adhered my panel to the card base, offsetting again. Clear Wink of Stella finishes off the look.

And here are both of my cards together:

I love how they turned out! Same stamp set, same technique, and same design but two completely different looks. Which one do you like the most? Please let me know in comments below.

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

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

The Creative Flow Blog Hop – No Red Romance With Large Letters Framelits Dies

Image ~ 11 February 201721 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 8 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – The Creative Flow Blog Hop – No Red Romance With Large Letters Framelits Dies

Thank you for joining us on our Creative Flow Blog Hop. Each month we are set a challenge to creatively stretch our imaginations. The products we have used are all available in the current Annual and/or seasonal Stampin’ Up!® catalogues. To hop along, please use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping.

Today’s challenge was to create no-red Valentines Day card, and for some time I wasn’t sure what colour scheme to use. But Global Design Project came to the rescue with their #073 Colour Challenge. I really love this unusual, bright and oh-so-not-valentine’s colour mash-up, so I decided to combine these two together 🙂

I know it supposed to be no-red, but Watermelon Wonder is rather orangy red right lol And here’s what I came up with: a perfect card to give to my hubby on that special day.

No-Red Romance 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)
Whisper White panel: 5-7/8″x 3″
Emerald Envy cardstock: 2 strips 5-7/8 long and briefly 2/8″wide
a piece of Whisper White for die-cutting

The first step was to die-cut word ‘LOVE’ using Large Letters Framelits Dies. I’ve used regular Whisper White cardstock for this. I’ve sponged the letters with my inks as follows: Watermelon Wonder first, Daffodil Delight next, and Emerald Envy as the last one creating ‘rainbow’ effect. I’ve paid special attention there’s smooth transition from one colour to another.

When I was done and happy with blending, I took a small paintbrush and flicked some water droplets all over the letters. I love how the water reactivates the ink. Such a simple step but add so much interest and texture to the (otherwise) flat surface.

Next, I took Whisper White panel and using the same small brush and my ink pads as a palette, I speckled some inks over the whole panel. I tried to keep my speckles somehow under control colour-wise, so the speckles match the letters that go over them.

Remember: The smaller is the brush, the smaller are the speckles.

When speckles dried, I adhered two strips of Emerald Envy cardstock underneath, one on top and one on the bottom of the panel.

Now to assemble the card. I adhered the panel to the card base using Fast Fuse adhesive. And I have to say I’m happy to say it seems I finally made friends with this adhesive haha.

I wanted to pop-out my letters so I’ve used Foam Adhesive Strips to adhere them to the panel. You could use any regular foam adhesive, but these strips are perfect for adhering die-cuts that are quite narrow in shape. They are long but you can easily cut them to the length you want/need.

I was really happy how nicely this card was coming together, but I was desperate to add some embellishments to it. Yes I know, a card for a hubby and embellishments?! I must have lost my mind, haha. But why not?

So I scattered black sequins from Metallics Sequin Assortment pack all over my card and tried to figure out the placing and how many I will use. Once I was happy I adhered them with Fine-Tip Glue Pen. For the final touch, I coloured some rhinestones with black Sharpie and added them to the card too.

That’s it from me for today. I really hope you enjoyed my step by step directions.

For those of you who asked about stretching your stitched dies using partial die-cutting – I will have a short how-to post for you soon. So watch this space.

Now be sure to hop along our tiny blog hop to see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is lovely and talented Helen.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Large Letters Framelits Dies

[141712]

£89.00

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

£8.25

Emerald Envy A4 Cardstock

[141420]

£7.25

Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin’ Pad

[138323]

£6.00

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin’ Pad

[126944]

£6.00

Emerald Envy Classic Stampin’ Pad

[141396]

£6.00

Stamping Sponges

[141337]

£3.25

Metallics Sequin Assortment

[138390]

£4.50

Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments

[119246]

£4.50

Fast Fuse Adhesive

[129026]

£9.00

Foam Adhesive Strips

[141825]

£7.25

Fine-Tip Glue Pen

[138309]

£6.25

Stampin’ Trimmer

[129722]

£27.00

Big Shot

[143263]

£99.00

Dragonfly Dreams Clean & Simple For GDP#069 Colour Challenge

Image ~ 12 January 201721 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 10 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – Dragonfly Dreams Clean & Simple For GDP#069 Colour Challenge

Hello and welcome everyone! Something new from me today as it’s the first time when I bite the bullet and decided to take a part in Colour Challenge over at Global Design Project.

I’ve been following this blog for some time now, just never felt confident enough to join in the fun. But hey! It’s just for fun, right?! And when I saw Delightful Dijon (I really, really love this colour) amongst other colours in this week’s challenge, I just knew: now or never. It’s a great colour combination and as my free choice, I simply used Whisper White.

I didn’t craft much lately due to health issues, but I was eager to use a new stamp set from Stampin’ Up! Spring Summer 2017 Catalogue, called Dragonfly Dreams. It comes with coordinating Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies, as a bundle, and is just beautiful. It seemed perfect for the idea I had in my head.

Just forgive me poor photos. I don’t have any fancy equipment and take my photos in the daylight. But the weather is so miserable since few days down here in Midlands, UK, that it was just impossible to take any decent picture.

‘Nearly Inlay’ Dragonfly Dreams card dimensions:

Delightful Dijon 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: 2 panels 4″x 5-5/8″(10,2 x 14,3 cm)

First, I stamped the card base with the polka dot (kinda) background stamp from Dragonfly Dreams Stamp Set until it was all covered. I’ve used Delightful Dijon ink for a tone on tone effect.

Next, I die-cut the largest detailed dragonfly, using Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies, from one of the Whisper White panels and adhered that panel (without dragonfly) to the card base. Of course, I forgot to stamp my sentiment before adhering the panel to the card front. Typical, right?! LOL But nothing was lost yet. I picked the beautiful ‘You sure know how to make someone happy’ sentiment from Dragonfly Dreams Stamp Set (I love sentiments and the fonts in in this set) and heat embossed it on my card base with silver embossing powder. Seemed easy, but while heat embossing it, the base ‘curled up’ a bit. So I run it through my Big Shot to straighten it up. Bear in mind if you’ve got worn out plates they will leave an impression on your cardstock – ask how do I know.

For the inside panel, I stamped few dragonflies in Delightful Dijon in the corners before adhered it with liquid adhesive.

I wanted for my dragonfly to carry some silver detail too, so I stamped tiny splotches/dots from Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set all over the die-cut, using Versamark ink, and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.

My original idea was to inlay the dragonfly die-cut back to the negative on the card base. But I’ve changed my mind along the way as the stamped detail on the card base wouldn’t be really visible through the die cut. So I decided to adhere my dragonfly only on the body length but it didn’t look good either. At the end, I’ve used tiny pieces of dimensionals to pop the dragonfly up.

I’m really pleased how this card turned out and I hope you like it too.

I really want to encourage you to check the Global Design Project challenge blog. They have a new challenge every week with various themes and extremely talented Design Team – they will simply blow your mind with their creativity! Just click on their logo below to visit the website