Create Without Limits Card ~ DCWV March Stackaholic Challenge

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know I have a love affair with paper. All kinds of paper; handmade, printed, metallic, the new glitter paper, every kind you can think of.  I have bought many papers sold in the coordinating packets but I have to say that Die Cuts With a View (DCWV) is one of my very favorite brands of paper.  Their paper stacks contain some of the best quality paper I have ever seen sold in sets.  So this month I decided to enter the DCWV March Stackaholic Challenge for Cards (they have one for scrapbook pages, too, and I plan on entering that one, too, as soon as I can print off some photos!).  The rules are simple – as long as you use some paper from DCWV, and follow one or both of the sketches you can enter.  Here is the sketch I followed:

For those of you who aren’t familiar with DCWV papers I urge you to go to their website and take a look - just click here. 

What I did was I took 3 different 12" x 12" Stacks that I had and made three different cards using only the papers in the Stack.  I followed the same principal with each card; I chose a coordinating paper as a background mounted onto a plain card. Then I cut the strips out of matching paper, played with the strips until I was happy with the composition and glued them onto the card.  Each card is using different Stacks and has different embellishments on it so for simplicity’s sake I am only going to list what is special about each card. 

The first card I made using the Tie Die Stack.  Bright colors are not my typical style and this stack has some bright colors!  For me, the perfect time to enter a challenge is when you are literally challenging yourself, so here I am, challenged!

To make my “Create Without Limits” card you need the following:

• Card base of white cardstock
• The Tie Die Stack
• Corner rounder punch
• Colorbox Petal Point Ink in Pinwheel (red, yellow & orange inks)
• Sentiment (the one I used is from Quietfire Designs)
• Pop Dots
• Scrap of white cardstock for the sentiment

I chose one paper to use as a background, cut it, and attached that to my white cardstock base.  When cutting the strips, I chose to use both plain and glittered parts of the paper. I originally made my strips ¾” wide, then rounded the corners, and when I started to design the card, I realized the strips were a bit too wide, so I cut them down to ½”. Since the corners were already rounded this gave the strips an interesting shape. 

I stamped my sentiment, trimmed it and attached some small scrap pieces I had to the bottom.  I used pop dots to attach the sentient and I was done.

 

This shows the dimension of the pop dotted sentiment

 

And one last view of the card

Challenges I am entering for my Create Without Limits card:

Keep It Simple - #35, Stripes 

Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes in March 

Sister Act Card Challenge - #47 Anything Goes  

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope to see you tomorrow!  You don’t want to miss my “Don’t Look Back” card ~ Blessings! Christi

A 3D Spring Scene. . .

I am longing for spring, and I thought if I made a spring scene, it might help me forget the fact that winter is still here in my part of Colorado - in fact, as I write this post it is snowing right now!  So, I offer this tiny scene as homage to spring, knowing it is right around the corner. 

 

I wouldn't mind being there right now!

I made this using one of Globecraft & Piccolo’s NEW French Oval Classic Bubble Frame kits – they are awesome size, bigger than the Bubble Ornaments, and can fit a 4” x 6” photograph inside.  Everything marked NEW can be seen HERE and is part of the Spring Release.

To make this cute little wall hanging, I used:

• NEW F100KIT French Oval Classic Bubble Frame kit
• NEW A153 Butterfly & Flowers Accents  (flowers)
• NEW A147 Spring Accents (1/2 sun)
• NEW Rose Pearl 3D Enamel Gel
• A140 Cats Love Birds (birds & heart)
• The following Embossing Enamels: Vintage Gold, Cranberry Wine, Ruby Red Slippers and Girls Night Out.
• Embossing Fluid
• Kraft cardstock (for the branch, which was cut with my Silhouette Cameo)
• Green cardstock (for the leaves, which I punched out using an EK Success leaf punch and trimmed)
• Distress Paints in Chipped Sapphire & Stormy Sky
• Distress Markers in Broken China, Dusty Concord, Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac & Tumbled Glass
• White Gesso
• Craft Sheet
• Kaleidoscope embossing powder (iridescent)
• White cardstock

Here is the French Oval kit - you even get a wall hanger!

The first thing I did was make the background for the piece.  I used white cardstock and the Distress Paints, as well as all the blue Distress Markers (Broken China, Salty Ocean & Tumbled Glass).  I used the paints first, daubing them on my craft sheet and spritzing them with water.  I used a whole 8 ½” x 11” sheet of white cardstock to soak up the color as I never know what part of the paper is going to work for what I want, and I can always use the leftover paper.  Once the paints had dried, I scribbled the blue markers on the sheet, using the brush tip, and used them just like the paint (I don’t have these colors in the paint, yet, and found that the markers work almost as well).  Once I felt I had a good background, I set the paper aside to dry thoroughly.

Knowing that the 3D Enamel Gel needs to set, I used the Rose Pearl 3D Enamel Gel straight from the bottle to “paint” my two flowers.  I wish I could show you how shimmery the gel is, the pictures do not do it justice! Sorry, I thought I took a picture of the flowers! I put one of the bubbles from a Bubble Ornament I have over the flowers so no cat hair (or curious cats) could get in the gel.  I let them set overnight.

Then I set about embossing my pieces.  First, I cut the sun in half, after measuring it to fit where I wanted it to in the scene.  I wanted the sun to be brilliant, so I used the Vintage Gold Embossing Enamel and I mixed in a no-name iridescent-like powder I had in a small baggie (I have had this powder for years and I have no idea who makes it).  I think it came out wonderful! 

I use a small scoop when mixing my powder because that way I have more control over the amount of powder and I don’t end up wasting it by mixing up a lot that I can’t reuse. I mix my powders on a coffee filter because the powder barely sticks.  I embossed the sun 2 or 3 times, using the Embossing Fluid between each coat of powder.  Here is the scoop I used in case you want to copy my recipes.

I then set about the birds.  I had wanted them to really stick out and be colorful so I mixed Ruby Red Slippers with Girls Night Out Embossing Enamel,  one scoop of each.  Again, I am very pleased with my results, they certainly are pretty!  I embossed the birds 2 or 3 times as well, following each coat of powder with more Embossing Fluid.  

 

The heart is straight up Cranberry Wine and was embossed a few times as well.

Here are all the accents embossed and ready to go!

The branch was cut from a file I found in the Silhouette Store, called Branch 

& Flowers, and I cut it out of kraft cardstock.  I used a leaf punch, with a light green cardstock, to punch out my leaves and I trimmed most of the leaves off and only used the top one.

The leaf punch I used

Once all the prep work was done, I got to put my scene together.  I first traced the back piece of the kit over the portion of the paper that I made earlier, picking out what part I wanted to use for my sky. You don’t have to be perfect cutting it out because the frame will cover the paper. Then I placed everything were I wanted it, left it for a bit, came back, rearranged it, asked opinions, rearranged it again and ended up moving the sun from one side to the other, and then glued everything down.  While I waited for the glue to dry, I painted the two parts of the frame with very light coat of white gesso and let them dry.  While they were drying, I got ready to paint the wider frame with my craft sheet and the Distress Paints.

The frames, painted.

I used the same water spritz/smoosh technique on the wide frame, and the gesso made the paint creamier looking.  For the decorative frame, I used Distress Markers in Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac to give it a very faint tinge of purple.  The photos didn’t pick up the subtle color variations but it is there.  I glued the frame and the bubble together, and then glued that to the scene, finishing with the decorative frame.  

Almost done!
 

Showing the dimension

 

And another view of the final result

I had a blast using this kit and you will be seeing more of these in my art! 

Thank you for stopping by & I certainly hope spring has visited you! 

Christi

I would like to enter my spring scene in the following challenges:

Left of Center Anniversary Challenge (Happy First Anniversary!!) - Anything Goes (ends March 31, 2014) 

The Kraft Journal - Birds

Rhedd & Rosie Challenge - #27, Anything But a Card

That Craft Place - Anything Goes

Artful Times Challenge Blog - Anything Goes