So in my last post, I was struggling with and overthinking a design I was working on for my Craft retreat on the weekend. You can see that card here. One of the solutions for overthinking is to pinpoint the design element that is just not working for you, no matter what you do, and change that! In my case, it was Designer Series Paper that was very richly coloured and a busy floral. It took the focus off of everything else in my design. So I decided to keep the Joy Fold card format, but to change both the DSP and the focal image.
I have been seeing awesome images on Pinterest using the flower from the Sale-A-Bration stamp set, Amazing You, embossed in white and then watercoloured, including samples from Laurin Alarid, Kylie Page, and Charlet Mallet, whose design I didn't realize until posting, is one of the GDP Design Team's samples. The results are really like true water colour paintings. And the detail in that particular flower adds a lot of highlights to the watercoloured image. As soon as I decided to change the Designer Series Paper, I also decided that I would use that same technique for my central image. By doing that, I made myself eligible for the Global Design Project's latest theme challenge: Sale-A-Bration!
Here's a close up view of my card:
- The Designer Series Paper I used is from the Myths & Magic Specialty Series. It has rich colour but small patterns so it's not so overpowering.
- The focal image is heat embossed on Glossy White cardstock using White Stampin' Emboss Powder and then an Aqua Painter to add layers of different blue ink to wet areas of the image. It's a "wet-to-wet" watercolour technique and results in those glassy tones and layers of colour. To get the layers, allow one colour to dry, then add more water and a darker colour and dry that layer.
- You'll notice that the flowers overlap. To do that you need to mask the middle flower after it has been stamped and embossed. I stamped the same image on Post It Note paper (the kind that has adhesive all over it) and fussy cut it out, minus the foliage, just on the inside of the outer lines. Then I stuck it to the middle flower, adjusting it to fit exactly and stamped the right and left flower in Versamark Ink. I added the White Stampin' Emboss Powder to each of them and heat set it. It makes it look as though they are in behind the middle flower. I made sure the foliage was always to the outside when stamped.
- Then I brought in the Celebrate You Thinlits, which are Level 2 Sale-A-Bration rewards this year and die cut the sentiments. The "amazing" is just adhered to the center, while the "YOU" helps to form the 'button' that holds the Joy Fold card together.
- Here's how it looks on the inside:
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.
Product List