Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase - # 7 Cajun Craze

Cajun Craze with Beautiful World and Sending Sunshine

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. So delighted you have called in. This week we are focussing on "Cajun Craze", a rich rusty orange colour that sits within Stampin' Up!s Regals range.

As you know, one of the great points of Stampin" Up products is the way Stampin' Up! coordinates colours and take a colour through a range of products. In my project I have used Cajun Craze in card-stock, Classic Stampin' ink pad and Stampin' Write Marker. There are also Cajun Craze products in:

• Card stock (A4, Regal A4 assortment, Regal 12x12 assortment)
• Classic Stampin' Ink Refill
• Regal collection Classic Stampin' Pads and Stampin' Ink Refills
• Stampin' Write Marker Regal collection and Many Marvellous markers,
• Regal 6x6 DSP 
• Cajun Craze Combo Pack Stampin' Blends 
• Watercolour pencils assortment 2
• Magic in the Night DSP (Aug - Dec 2020 Mini catalogue )
• Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP (Aug - Dec 2020 Mini catalogue )

Cajun Craze is a gorgeous colour, but when I think of it, its not a colour I reach for often. It is a great colour for Autumn, being just right for Autumn leaves. Wanting to stretch my creativity beyond the obvious, I thought about other themes I could use. It is brilliant for cards/projects for fellas. The colour made me think of tanned leather and also brilliant sunsets. My two projects pick up these two concepts.

Project 1:

I really enjoy making boxes and thought Cajun Craze would be great for a project reminiscent of a leather look case and so created a box as my first project. To give a crinkled leather look, card-stock panels were embossed with the Old World Paper 3D Embossing Folder. These panels were adhered to the top and sides of the box and a Classic Crumb Cake ink pad was lightly swiped over the raised crinkled 'bits'. Antiqued Corners were added to the four corners of the top panel.

A thin piece of World of Good Speciality Designer Series Paper (SDSP) was adhered across the top panel with a very thin additional strip popped up on dimensionals. A Whisper White card-stock label, cut with the Tasteful Labels dies, was stamped with a sentiment from the Beautiful World stamp set. The compass from the same stamp set was stamped in Classic Crumb Cake ink, though was stamped off first. The world globe and stand from the World Map dies were die cut from Brass Foil. A piece of Shimmery White card-stock was water-coloured and die cut to place under the world globe. A few Gilded Gems were also added. For decorative purposes and to hold the box closed, 2 pieces of the Early Expresso Faux Suede Trim were adhered around the box apart from the area of the box that opens. Two Antiqued Sliders were slipped on the ends of the trim - they can be tucked under the thin strip of SDSP to hold the box closed.

A thin piece of Cajun Craze card-stock was embossed and then folded in half length-wise, and the two ends were rounded before being adhered to the non-opening side of the box to form a faux handle for the case. Two Gilded Gems were added to replicate rivets on the handle.

Now to the box construction: a slightly trimmed down piece of Cajun Craze A4 card-stock was scored and then burnished along the folds. This box only has a little scissor work and no gluing, so would be a great box to prepare ahead of time and stored flat. The photo below give a sense of the folds and you can see that nothing has been glued in place. The photo above shows the flap that is to be tucked under the box top between the folded back sides to close the box.

Project 2:

I love seeing a sunset with vibrant colours, and had fun creating a card featuring a sun set with the sun setting over the sea. It brought back so many memories. Sending Sunshine is a new stamp set in Stampin' Up!s Annual Catalogue 2020-2021. The photopolymer stamps can be used to create great scenes with a sun setting or rising over the water's horizon line.

The scene was developed on Whisper White card-stock. The water was stamped first in Night of Navy Classic ink. The sky was coloured with sponges using Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie and Cajun Craze Classic inks. I using sponges instead of the Sponge Rollers as I wanted flexibility to not necessarily gradate the colours strait across the skyline. The clouds were stamped in Sahara Sand Classic ink; distant mountains in Crumb Cake Classic ink; the sun in Crushed Curry Classic ink (I love the way the sun stamp created the varying strengths of the sun colour in the reflection.) Foreground leaves were stamped in Mossy Meadow Classic ink and sand texture in Sahara Sand Classic ink. The sea gulls are from the Sailing Home stamp set and were stamped in Night of Navy Classic ink.

How was the scene to be shown on the card? I thought I would show it through a circular frame and create a square card measuring 3.75" x #.75". The base card and the card front was cut from Cajun Craze card-stock. Both pieces had a circle die cut using the second largest Layered Circles die. A circle frame was also cut using the two largest circle dies. The card front was embossed using one of the Greenery Embossing Folders. The circle frame was adhered in place to give some definition to the circles edge. Rather than mount the scene as part of the card front, the scene was mounted on a piece of Whisper White card-stock that was folded in half, with the back section adhered to the back half of the card. This way the card can be opened to see the full scene.

The panel with the scene can be opened to find the section where the greeting is to be written. This was stamped with the leaves to tie it in with the scene and card front.

To finish of the card front some Braided Linen Trim was tied in a knot around the card front along the line where the embossing finished. The Linen Trim was frayed to blend with the fussy-cut leaves which had been stamped in Mossy Meadows Classic ink and fussy cut (it was fiddly cutting and I almost lost a leaf or two 😁.) The leaves were positioned almost over the leaves in the scene below, still allowing some of the scene's leaves to show. A sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped in Cajun Craze with the 3rd word masked so only the first two words stamped on a scrap piece of Whisper White card-stock. The sentiment was stamped again and only the third word fussy cut out. The first part of the sentiment was popped up on dimensionals. Two extra dots were added with a Cajun Craze Stampin' Write Marker to indicate the last part of the sentiment was coming. The third word "Enjoy" was added to the scene panel. The card front was finalised with three In Good Taste Elements.

This card took form during the creative process. As the card is a non-standard size I custom made an envelope using the World of Good SDSP (as seen in the first photo above). I'm pleased with the outcome. I hope you like it too.

I really enjoyed playing with Cajun Craze and love its rich colouring. It was fun creating a no-glue box reminiscent of a crinkled leather case and I really stamping a sunset. It was so easy with the Sending Sunshine stamp set.

Yes, the card is inside the custom-made envelope.

Thank you for visiting the Valley Inspirations blog. I do appreciate you spending time with me. Please contact me if you would like any further information about the projects; or if you live in Australia and would like either a new Annual Catalogue and or the August - December Mini Catalogue posted to you; or if I can help you with any purchases.

I hope you are enjoying this week's Colour Creations Showcase that has focused on the colour - Cajun Craze. 

The amazing Catherine Proctor is hosting the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase each week. If you haven't finished checking out all of the team's colour creations, you can visit/revisit Catherine's page at What Cathy Made, where she hosts all the links to the other Showcase participants. I'm certainly looking forward to being inspired by everyone's creations.

Members of the Art with Heart team will be back tomorrow night (Thursday) with our monthly Creative Showcase, where we are focussing on Colouring Techniques. I am sure there will be wonderful projects to inspire, so do drop by. Also, I hope to see you again next week when members of the Team will share projects that hero the gorgeous "Calypso Coral".

Look after yourself and your loved ones. For those of you that live in Victoria and New South Wales, my prayers for protection are with you and for speedy control of the COVID-19 outbreaks.

Have a great day tomorrow and a wonderful week.

Andrea 😘 

List of Products used to create these projects:

Stamps, Dies & Punches

• Beautiful World stamp set - #152994
• World Map dies - #152712
• Sending Sunshine Stamp set - #152592
• Layering Circles dies - #151770

Inks & Applicators

• Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147085
• Night of Navy Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147110
• Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147117
• Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147116
• Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147087
• Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147086
• Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' ink pad - #147111
• Balmy Blue, Soft Sea Foam Stampin' Write Markers - #147156 - Subtles pack

Paper

• Whisper White card-stock - #106549
• Thick Whisper White card-stock - #140490
• Cajun Craze card-stock - #147093
• Shimmery White card-stock - #121717
• World of Good Speciality Designer Series Paper - #152491

Embellishments

• Braided Linen Trim - #147808
• Early Expresso Faux Suede Trim - #152472
• Antiqued Corners & Slides - #152471
• Gilded Gems - #152478
• In Good Taste Elements - #152476

Adhesives

• Multipurpose Liquid Glue - #110755
• Mini Glue Dots - #103683
• Tear & Tape Adhesive - #138995
• Mini Stampin' Dimensionals - #144108
• Stampin' Dimensionals - #104430

Tools

• Old World Paper 3D Embossing Folder - #153200
• Take Your Pick Tool - #144107
• Bone Folder - #102300
• Paper Snips - #103579
• Paper Trimmer - #152392
• Stamparatus - #148187
• Block D - #118485
• Block E - #118484
• Block H - #118490
• Grid Paper - #130148
• Silicone Craft Mat - #127857
• Stamping Sponge - #141337
• Simple Shammy - #147042
• Heat Tool - #129056
• Stampin Cut & Emboss Machine - #149653
• Magnetic Cutting Plate - #149656