Avant-Garden

Dream

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Blending colors can be just too much fun.  What a great set of vibrant colors here, right? I started with four and ended up with eight.  I literally had to tell myself to stop, before the colors went too far, leaving me with a brown mud card.  This project is so alive, I love it!

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The ink was applied to a lightly wet surface.  I wanted the color to flow, but not all over the place.  I left intentional gaps in between colors to allow for blending, trying not to make too specific a pattern.  My projects often lean toward stripes, and why not, they are great!

The vision for the die cut was different to begin with, but it did not work out as planned.  No problem, I love it in black as well.  It makes the card look a bit more elegant.  My original thought was to die cut a wide section of adhesive tape and brush it with black glitter. The release paper cut fine, but the adhesive did not want to work with all the detail pieces.  I ended up having to totally clean the die of sticky adhesive before I could use it again.  Live and learn I guess.  But I still want to to make that happen somehow.  Maybe just glitter paper next time?

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I wanted a bit of interest on the colors, so I opted to add a light flower stamp.  The color is a light neutral, sahara sand.  I thought that would not distract too much from the colors and keep the tone well.  It worked nicely.  I added some droplets of water to distress the background somewhat and called it done.  Such a fun card.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Flourish Wishes

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Such a perfect combination here. Nearly all of my favorite things combined into one project. The only thing missing would be some water coloring, but with paper this beautiful I don’t feel like there is anything lacking here. Even better, this took almost no time at all.

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I just received an order that had this glimmer paper in it, one of the new free items during Sale-a-bration right now, and I couldn’t wait to enjoy it.  It comes in three colors, but the bermuda bay tone was on top so it was literally that simple. I knew there was the same color included in the cupcakes and carousel dsp stack and that became step two, pick a pattern. I probably spent the longest just deciding which one to choose.

The die cut was not as easy to decide because there are so many wonderful ones to choose from.  I kept it simple though and went for a favorite. The glimmer paper was cut to size and then I did the die cutting from the center, knowing it wouldn’t show, and I could make that paper last longer.  Glimmer paper is such a weakness for me, especially in colors like this. The flourish was glued down with tombo and then the designer paper adhered to the glimmer paper with fast fuse.  Regular adhesive and glimmer paper aren’t friends, it needs something stronger.

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The sentiment was stamped in the same ink color, die cut, layered zippity quick and raised up on dimensionals.  How easy is that? I had a bit of room for another little die cut before I adhered it down, so that had to happen, hence the need for a matching gift box to use that piece. No problem, just get another piece of the same paper and happiness was achieved. What a great way to launch National Craft Month!

Have a creative day!

Moana

Avant Garden

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

My daughter has this cute little app that allows her to ‘grow’ flowers and then ‘send’ them to someone.  I had a lovely bouquet this morning and I thought I would make a card like it. Her flowers actually had orange and yellow together, almost striped like an orchid.  This is what I came up with.  What a fun kind of game, right?

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I used a piece of water color paper to stamp these little flowers.  The set I used is actually a free one with a $50 order during Stampin’Up! Sale-a-bration event.  The flowers went in first, tangerine tango then on to the crushed curry.  The stems were added in next followed by a smattering of leaves.  The stamen were added last using cherry cobbler on the tangerine tango flowers and cajun craze on the crushed curry ones.  I decided to soften the look with a healthy spritzing of water.  It was a slow process because I didn’t want the images to go all wobbly, just soften.  When the paper started to get pretty wet the edges started to blur a bit and I stopped.  This particular paper can hold a lot of water.  So, I had to use my heat tool for a while to get it all dry.  There was a bit of warping, but I liked it.

2-15-1The background, and a bit on the inside, was stamped with the spotted stamp from the same set.  It is random, but has a defined shape to allow filling in the entire space without looking repetitive.  Very nice, very nice indeed.  The front piece was wrapped in some very vanilla satin ribbon and layered up on dimensionals.  The sentiment was left off completely allowing this to be an all occasion card ready to go.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Thanks For Being You

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

What a perfect way to say thank you, for just being you.  A great compliment anyone would love to receive, I know I would.  Mixing a project with butterflies and flowers are one of my favorites.  Interesting how even when creating my moods show through.

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I have dipped into the falling in love designer series paper pack so many times since I got it. It really is a lot of fun.  I had put off using this pattern, feeling like I use too many butterflies in my work. When I was a bit fussy though, I went right for it.  The flower stamp and these tiny butterflies and a perfect pairing.

The flower and sentiment come from the Avant-Garden stamp set which is another free one available during this springs Sale-a-bration.  If you are going to buy fun product to work with, you might as well get something free too, right?

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There isn’t anything too complicated here today.  Just a little extra layering.  I even refrained from sponging, but looking at it again I think I would have liked it sponged up. I might have to try it again.

Have a creative day!

Moana