Dandelions Against a Brick Wall--#tgifc305

 

A picture of an ice cream shop is inspiration for this week's TGIF Challenge.  As with any inspiration challenge, you can take anything from the photo to inspire your project: some take the theme, some the sketch, some the colors, some a pattern.  In this photo, I first noticed the pink brick wall and took that idea to create my background:

To create my brick wall, I used a sponge brayer (#141714) to cover the inside of the Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder (#149643) with Magenta Madness ink.  I colored only the side with the Stampin' Up! logo, then placed a piece of Whisper White card stock over the ink, closed the folder and put it through the Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine (#149653). 

My card features some wildflowers (some may say weeds--a little harsh, I think) peeking out from the space between the brick wall of the ice cream shop and the cement parking lot.  These were created with the Dandy Wishes dies (#154315) and Coastal Cabana, So Saffron and Granny Apple Green card stock.  I pulled these colors from the inspiration piece.  

The greeting is from the Garden Wishes stamp set (#154408; #156220 when bundled with the Dandy Wishes dies for a 10% savings).  It was stamped in Magenta Madness on Whisper White card stock and die cut using a Stitched Rectangles die (#151820). 

Three Magenta Madness enamel dots (#152480, 2020-2022 In Color enamel dots), a layer of Coastal Cabana and a Magenta Madness card base complete the card.

Go see the wonderful variety of projects created with this inspiration piece over at the TGIF Challenges Blog here.

I hope you have a wonderful day full of sunshine!

--Sara Nell

 

Merry & Bright--#tgifc243

The TGIF Challenges challenge this week is to create with our favorite products from the Holiday Catalog.  Tough challenge!  I have lots of favorites from the Holiday Catalog. However, as I wrote my Christmas cards this year, I saw lots of cardinals and "Christmas Greetings" from the Toile Christmas stamp set (#150469). So I pulled out that stamp set and coordinating die set, Christmas Cardinal dies  (#150640), and decided to make a card without a cardinal or wreath made with the leaf dies  and without the "Christmas Greetings" stamp.

Most of my Toile Tidings designer series paper (#150436) is gone, too. Instead, I used a fun technique for my background.  I saw this technique on a card created by one of the Stampin' Up! concept artists and featured in a video that came out shortly after the Holiday Catalog went live.  It took me three tries and a now sorry looking Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder (#149643) to get the background right on the first card I made with this technique, but I think it was worth it.

To create the German Schmear look on the background, I dotted the inside of the Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder with drops of Snowfall Accents Puff paint (#150691) before placing the Real Red card stock inside and running it through the die cutting machine.  Then I hit the card stock with the Heat Tool as soon as it came out of the embossing folder to bring out the puff paint.  The first card I made with this technique was with Crumb Cake card stock and it looked great, but I wanted something different this time around.  I tried it on Cherry Cobbler and it looked good but was just too dark for this card. Learn from my trial and errors:  Do not try and spread the puff paint around on the folder--it will turn out ugly.  Just dot the paint on and dot it on more of the surface of the embossing folder than you think you need--when I first tried to be conservative with my puff paint, I ended up with glaringly blank spaces around the edges. Don't try to fix anything once it's out of the folder.  Be happy with an imperfect look (I know I have a problem with this one myself!)

WARNING:  Either have a tub of warm soapy water next to your die cutting machine to immediately drop the embossing folder into or be resigned to a cruddy looking embossing folder.  That puff paint does not come off after it dries--I found that out the hard way.  It still works, though.  The puff paint sometimes leaks out onto your cutting platform and plate--so wash those quickly, too.

I arranged two of the berry branches over the background.  They were stamped in Soft Suede and colored with the Cherry Cobbler combo, Old Olive combo and Soft Suede combo Stampin' Blends, then die cut.  The greeting was stamped in VersaMark on Old Olive card stock and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder. It was die cut and adhered to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

You are going to see lots of great projects over on the TGIF Challenges Blog this week.  Everyone is working with their favorites!

Wishing you a very Merry & Bright Holiday Season!

--Sara Nell