Watercolour Wings a la Monet for As You See It Challenges

I struggled a little with the direction in which to take this week's As You See It Challenge. I decided to use Watercolour Wings again and I was thinking of using the Boho Chic Embossing Folder as a stamp for the background (see below for the how-to). When I was finished, the whole thing reminded me of the style of Claude Monet, one of the French Impressionists. Of course, I'm not comparing myself to a famous painter. I can only wish that I had that talent, but the colours and the impressionist style with this technique remind me of those paintings.

Here are some famous paintings by Claude Monet:

 Here's the As You See It Challenge sketch:

And here is my design for As You See It Challenges this week:

• With the Watercolour Wings Photopolymer Stamp set, the possibilities are endless, depending on which colours you choose. This time I went bright, using Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo. This is three step stamping, so for the first step, I stamped off the Daffodil Delight to make it lighter. The outside edge of the wings was full strength Daffodil Delight and then the inside details were stamped in Melon Mambo.  I even used the little butterfly stamp that I didn't even notice until today!
• The butterfly is die cut with the coordinating framelit from the Bold Butterfly Framelits, and the little butterfly matches the Elegant Butterfly Punch.
• The background is made using the Boho Chic Embossing Folder as a stamp. I sponged areas of Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo on the side of the folder that I wanted the image to look like. In this case, I wanted to have a larger area coloured so I used the debossed side. I spritzed it with water and inserted my Whisper White cardstock and closed the folder, just rubbing it with my fingers in the area of the colour. I removed the cardstock and used the Heat Tool to dry it.
• The Silver Metallic Thread creates a great accent under the butterfly.  The sentiment is from Watercolour Wings as well and is die cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits.

I hope you have a great weekend! I'm excited because I'm going antiquing with my hubby. We're especially looking for some old oars for decor in our new beach cottage themed house, and maybe some old floats or buoys. We'll see what we can find! Back on Monday!

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

Watercolor Wings Photopolymer Stamp Set [139424]	Boho Chic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138286]	Silver Foil Sheets [132178]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131197]
Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171]	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad [126944]	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad [126948]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]	Silver Metallic Thread [138402]
Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim [137910]	Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies [138135]	Bitty Banners Big Shot Die Framelits [129267]	Elegant Butterfly Punch [127526]	Big Shot [113439]
Heat Tool [129053]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Glue Dots [103683]

Happy Birthday Everyone for The Paper Players

When you think of it, birthdays are a strange thing to celebrate! Really! You've done nothing to merit celebration except stay alive, like everyone else who celebrates a birthday. And birthdays bring you one year closer to not celebrating another birthday ever! Right? So what, exactly are we celebrating? I guess it's just a good time to focus on the uniqueness that is each person and our love for them. It's a chance to make them feel special and cared for. I took the opportunity to create a birthday card using the challenge at The Paper Players this week and I used the stamp set Happy Birthday Everyone. I love the combination of print and script in this bold greeting and the colour swatch from the Paper Players worked well:

This is a very pastel and subdued palette, but it gives the opportunity to let the bold sentiment be the star of the show! I have to apologize for the photography. It was almost impossible to get the White Balance right because of the mix of warm and cool colours here. It must be the Smoky Slate vs the Sahara Sand, because I've never struggled with it like that before.

• I didn't notice the crooked sentiment until I was editing the photographs. Has that ever happened to you? Also the background Sahara Sand Lace Trim looks askew! The top of the ribbon is straight, but due to the placement of the front panel, I caught each side at the end of a scallop along the bottom edge, and because you can't see the start of the next scallop coming down again, it looks like it's hitched up in the middle! Some days, you just can't win! I've been hard at work on my swaps, so I just didn't have it in me to start again. I hope you can enjoy the concept and overlook a few of the oopsies!
• With this layout and the little bow of Mint Macaron Dotted Lace Trim, the sentiment panel kind of looks like a present! The panel of striped Mint Macaron Envelope Paper and, behind that, some Sahara Sand DSP from the Timeless Elegance collection, give the impression of other gifts just waiting to be opened.
• I used my new Boho Chic Embossing Folder on the Smoky Slate panel and I am a convert! I wasn't sure I wanted it at first, until I saw some great cards using it, but it took just one use to convince me that it was a good investment.

Thanks for checking out my blog today! I'll be back tomorrow with something for As You See It Challenges!

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

Happy Birthday, Everyone Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139958]	Happy Birthday, Everyone Wood-Mount Stamp Set [139171]	2015-2017 In Color Envelope Paper [138312]	Timeless Elegance Designer Series Paper [138444]	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043]
Smoky Slate 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131202]	Mint Macaron 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138337]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [138326]	Sahara Sand 7/8" (2.2 Cm) Lace Trim [137866]
Mint Macaron 1" Dotted Lace Trim [138424]	Boho Chic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138286]	Big Shot [113439]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]