Art with Heart Creative Showcase - September 2020

Masculine Theme with World of Good

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the September 2020 Art with Heart Creative Showcase. 

This month we are focusing on projects suitable to give fellas. I have created a card using Stampin' Up!s gorgeous World of Good Suite. I have had an idea floating around my brain ever since I first saw this Suite, so I'm delighted to try it out for this Creative Showcase. As I created this card, I also had a special guy in mind who will be celebrating his birthday soon. He is someone who has spent much of his life helping others.

I've been wanting to create a spinner card, that is to have part of the design spin when the card is opened. In this case it is the "world". I don't know about you, but at times I am feeling that the world is spinning too fast. We are in strange times...

A friend helped me take a video to help you see the card when it opens. I was crafting with friends - one in person and our other friend online; but needed to leave before this card was finished, so you may notice that there were no gems on the card in the video.

The World of Good Suite includes beautiful World of Good Speciality Designer Series Paper (SDSP), with a number of the designs having brass highlights. The sheet I chose has brass consecutive circles on a Misty Moonlight design. I cut the SDSP so that the centre of the circles would be in the middle of the card front ... and then I die cut a circle in the centre! 

How did this card come together ...?

A card base of Misty Moonlight card-stock (normal portrait size card in Australia) was scored in half and then the front was scored in half again. The World of Good SDSP sheet was cut so that one piece would fit the top front. The second piece - the same size as the first, was cut for the inner front. A third piece was to fit the bottom half of the card. Care was taken to ensure the pieces were kept in order so the circles continued on. Two very thin strips of Brass Foil card-stock were adhered to the beginning and end of the SDSP on the card.

A circle was cut from the centre of the front of the card using a circle die from the Stitched Shapes dies.  Two of the circular dies were used to cut two metallic round frames and the small pedestal out of the Brass Metallic card-stock. Half of the pedestal and one side of a round frame were adhered around the circular hole on the top folded section, that is, half was adhered directly, the other half hung over and across the card.

To create the world, a piece of Shimmery White card-stock was water-coloured with Seaside Spray, Pretty Peacock and Highland Heather Classic ink and the mid-size Water Painter. While the water-coloured card-stock was drying, the two world dies from the World Map dies were used to cut two spheres of the world out of Brass Metallic card-stock. I was excited when I first saw this die set - it was great to see Australia represented. Once the water-coloured piece was dry, two circles were die cut. This circle die was included in the World Map dies.

Each metallic world sphere was adhered to a watercolour circle. I wanted to use a fine thread that wouldn't dominate the design as the structural thread to suspend the world in space. I couldn't find a clear sewing thread (used many years ago) but found some retired Stampin' Up! Copper Thread. 

This was centred across the back of one of the world spheres and the other sphere adhered over it so the thread was completely stuck through the centre. The metallic thread was then adhered along the fold at the back of the card front. Another piece of SDSP then was adhered to the back of the card front, to ensure the thread was firmly attached and all card surfaces were decorated. The second metallic frame was adhered at the edge of the hole.

I usually add a sentiment on the card front. I tried numerous approaches, including gold heat embossing on Misty Moonlight card-stock; water-colouring more Shimmery White card-stock and either stamping or heat embossing on it; using a label or fussy cutting the sentiment, different size sentiments, etc. Nothing seemed to work - it just detracted from the SDSP design and that sense of outer space around our world. Yet I kept looking at the front of the card - it needed something. To finish the card a number of Wonderful Gems were scattered over the outer space to represent stars and planets and add a little sparkle. These embellishments are so delightful. A pack includes gems in both red and clear, with little specks of gold floating within the gems. Delicious.

A piece of Whisper White card-stock was stamped with a sentiment from the Beautiful World stamp set and the feather pen was added to the corner - all stamped in Misty Moonlight Classic ink. The feather pen was also stamped on a Whisper White C6 Envelope to tie it in with the card.

I had fun creating this card, even though it didn't just fall into place. There was a bit of nutting out how to create the effect that I wanted to achieve. Must admit, I was excited to see my world spinning around and practiced a number of times - only to find that the thread seemed to pull/stretch and my world started to fall - it was no longer centred in its space. It took a bit of fiddling to return it to its right position. Obviously, I'm no Atlas (ie the Greek god, Atlas).

Thank you for visiting Valley Inspirations. I really appreciate you spending time on my blog.

 

I am so blessed to be apart of such a talented team. Knowing each of my colleagues in this Creative Showcase, I am sure that they have some amazing projects to share with you. Don't miss checking out each of their blogs. Rachel is our wonderful host of the Art with Heart Monthly Creative Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting all of the team's amazing masculine creations, you can visit/revisit Rachel's page at Handstamped by Rachel, where she hosts all the links to the other Showcase participants. I'm certainly looking forward to checking out everyone's creations. I always find inspiration.

I hope you join us again next month for October's Art With Heart Team Creative Showcase. I'm not sure what we will be showcasing but I know it will be fun and inspiring given my colleagues and the Stampin' Up products we love. 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are in Australia and would like a copy of the  Stampin' Up! 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue or the August - December Mini Catalogue; or if you have any queries that I could help with. Also, if you are interested in buying Stampin' Up! products I would delighted to serve you.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Stay safe and stay heathy and sane.

Andrea 😘