Mothers Day with Positive Thoughts and Dressed to Impress
Thanks for dropping in to the Valley Inspirations Blog and particularly this post as part of the April's Art with Heart Team Creative Showcase. I hope you are surviving isolation at this difficult time and that this Creative Showcase not only is a distraction but that it gives you joy.
Welcome to the Art With Heart Stampin’ Up! Team Monthly Creative Showcase. The theme for this month’s showcase is Mother’s Day. Under the current conditions, Mother’s Day this year is going to be completely different to any other Mother’s Day celebrations. Our mothers give of themselves for us and it is important to recognise not only what they do but often their sacrifice for us.
The Art With Heart Team are hoping to share a little Mother’s Day love and inspiration with you tonight.
My mother is no longer alive, but I remember her with so much love and appreciation. My father died when I was young and so my mother dedicated herself to bringing up her two young children by herself. She was such an inspiration and I do miss her. While I can't give her a Mother's Day card, I did think of her as I created this card. I think she would have liked it.
The design for the card has been based on an Artistic Trading Card that I created recently. You may be saying "what is an Artistic Trading Card (ATC)?". It is a card that is the same size as Sporting Trading Cards but it is focused on artistic pursuits. A number of fellow Art with Heart Team members take up a challenge each month to create ATCs based around a technique or a theme and then we share our ATCs with each other. This recent ATC Challenge was to use a stencilling technique that included outlining. This technique was demonstrated by the amazing Jackie Aitkin, a Western Australian Demonstrator, as she was finishing her time as a member of the world-wide Stampin' Up! Artisan Team on the 1st of January 2020. It was uploaded by Stampin' Up! to Instagram.
A card base and the card front were cut from Very Vanilla card-stock. Soft Sea ink was applied to the leaf-like stencil from the Basic Pattern Decorative Masks with a Sponge Brayer. The depth of applied colour varied from lighter at the top RHS to darker in the lower LHS of the card front. Once the ink dries a marker or gel pen is used to outline the inked design - I only outlined the lower edge of the darker stencilled areas of the design with a gold gel pen. Where the stencilling is lighter only a dash or dot of gold was added - this is an adaption of the technique.
Using a Stamparatus, leaves and flowers from the Positive Thoughts stamp set were inked with markers to give a variegated colour effect. Soft Sea Foam and Pear Pizzazz was used for the leaves and Petal Pink with touches of Flirty Flamingo for the flowers. The flower centre used Petal Pink and Whisper White Craft ink. During Salebration Stampin" Up! released Natures Thoughts dies that coordinated with this stamp set. These dies were used to cut the leaves, flowers, Gold Foil accents and Vellum feathers. The die cut elements were either adhered with Tombow Liquid Glue or popped up with Dimensionals. A small bow was tied in Metallic Edge Petal Pink Ribbon and tucked under one of the flowers with a Glue Dot. The sentiment, from the same stamp set, was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Gold Emboss Powder. The sentiment was fussy cut and adhered with Mini Dimensionals over the flowers. A Gold Foil butterfly was added as a final touch.
Fine Gold Foil strips were adhered to either side of the card front and then the card front was adhered to the card base with Dimensionals.
Here is a close up of the focal floral arrangement and sentiment.
I love to decorate the inside of the card in a way that links with the card front. I added 2 thin strips of gold foil on each side of the card centre and also added a flower, some leaves and a little gold butterfly.
Card 2
I love my pets and have found that dogs I meet, whether when visiting friends or when I walk my dog, quickly pick up that I am a dog tragic. I say that by way of introduction - a friend's dog "asked" me to create a Mother's Day card from him to his Mum (my friend). I will post the card so that it arrives in time for Mother's Day on Charlie's behalf. Charlie's Mum loves, loves, loves shoes so the Dressed to Impress bundle was perfect as the inspiration for this Mother's Day card. I CASEd a card displayed on page 54 in Stampin' Up!'s Mini Catalogue, but translated it as a fancy fold and also changed various components. Oh no ... I have just realised that when taking these photographs I forgot to take one or two showing the side view. I may not have a chance to take and add sideview photos by the time this blog goes live but will add extra photos tomorrow. My apologies. It has been a strange day with a number of unplanned things occurring and I just didn't think about taking side views until now.
Two pieces of Petal Pink card-stock were cut and scored for the card base. The gorgeous Best Dressed Designer Series Paper (DSP) was chosen and two different designs were mounted on the card base pieces. One of the floral designs covered sections of the background and extra flowers were fussy cut from that DSP. A more subtle design of DSP was used for the card front to show off the focal fussy cut handbags and shoes. The box used to help the card stand, was formed at the bottom by folding along the scoring on the larger piece of card-stock and then adhering the flap back onto the cardbase. The smaller piece of card-stock was also folded along the score-lines and then adhered in place. Two strips of Whisper White card-stock were die cut with a stitched die from the All Dressed Up dies. The white strips and the fussy cut shoes, handbags (from another piece of DSP) and flowers were arranged and either adhered flat or popped up on Dimensionals. The sentiment was white heat embossed using White Emboss powder and cut out with one of the stitched dies from the same die set. To finish the card, a little Wink of Stella was flicked to give a gentle sprinkle of glitter. (This was not picked up by the camera.)
Here is a close up of part of the card front.
Given the design of this fancy fold card, there is not a card inner but the panel at the back of the card will be used to write Charlie's greeting to his mother. A piece of DSP, matching one of the Best Dressed Designer Series paper designs used on the card front was cut a little smaller than the back panel of the card and adhered in place. A smaller piece of Whisper White card-stock was adhered. The "Happy Mother's Day" sentiment was stamped in coordinating Lovely Lipstick ink. In recognition that the card is from Charlie, a dog from the Happy Tails stamp set was stamped in Smoky Slate ink and punched out using the Dog Builder punch. This dog doesn't look like Charlie - I don't have a greyhound stamp. I had hoped to colour the dog on the card in Charlie-like colours, but I ran out of time in my topsy turvy day. A couple of tiny flowers were fussy cut and adhered to further tie the card back to the card front.
I hope these cards have given you some ideas, and some smiles.
To all the Mothers, I hope you have a special Mother's Day, even in the midst of this strange time. Thank you for all you do for your families. You are amazing.
I'm blessed to be apart of such a talented team. Knowing each of my colleagues in this blog hop, I am sure that they will have delightful Mother's Day projects. Don't miss checking out each of their blogs. If you have a broken link or have come to this blog hop midway, you can view all the participants below. Click on their names to be taken to their respective blogs:
Take care everyone. Stay home, stay safe and stay well. If you are struggling then please reach out to trusted friends and talk about what is happening and how you feel. Social media is available to help you stay connected and there is always a phone call. You are important.
Thank you for calling in. I so appreciate you spending time with me.
Andrea 💕🐾
