Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #16 Flirty Flamingo

Flirty Flamingo with Christmas Gleaming

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Colour Creations Showcase by members of Stampin' Up!'s Art with Heart Team.

This week we are focussing on Flirty Flamingo, a pretty bright pink. It sits within Stampin' Up!'s Brights colour family. Flirty Flamingo can be found in Stampin' Up!s cardstock, Classic inks, Stampin' Write Markers, Watercolour Pencils, Stampin' Blends, some Designer Series Papers and sparkly Whale of a Time sequins. 

I had hoped to present two cards to you in this blog, but at the time of going live there will be only one card. The other is in pieces on my desk. It needs something else and inspiration hadn't arrived at the time of writing the blog. I'm hoping that I will be able to upload the 2nd card tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

I've seen a couple of lovely sponged backgrounds of late and was reminded how beautiful this technique can be, so I decided to use the technique for one of my cards. I've also been reminded of how water reactive Stampin' Up!s Classic inks are - more of this in a later blog, but for this background splatters of water were added to give the background more character. Check out the various size splatters on this close-up.

To create by background, I used sponges to apply Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss and a touch of Night of Navy Classic ink on Whisper White card-stock to create this graded colour play. It is important when blending from one colour to the another to overlap the two colours so that there is an area where the colours mix. I usually apply one colour, then the second colour with an overlapped area and then go over the mixed area again with the first colour. This seems to soften the blending. We all apply techniques with our own twist - this is my approach.

After finishing my colour blending, I spritzed water over the background and then left the water to interact with the ink. Once dry, I sprinkled some Wink of Stella over the card background. In real life the background looks shimmery - but it isn't picked up in my photos. I mounted this card front with a very fine boarder of Whisper White card-stock. 

The baubles from the Christmas Gleaming stamp set were stamped in Versamark ink on Whisper White card-stock and then heat embossed using Gold Emboss powder. They were coloured using the same range of inks as the background (apart from Blackberry Bliss and Night of Navy). A sentiment from the same set was similarly heat embossed. The embossing itself resisted the application of colour, and so the gold embossing shines through.

The baubles and sentiment were arranged. That sounds so simple, but ... I spent ages on the arrangement. Initially, I thought three baubles; hmm was it a bit sparse? So added another two - was it too crowded???? Took two off; hmm still not right. They were moved up and down; spread over the card base and then grouped together; the order was changed and then changed again; plus all sorts of combinations of the above. Must admit I'm still not 100% happy and am wondering whether it would have been better with White embossing and or lighter colouring on the baubles. What do you think?

The Whisper White card inner and a Whisper White C6 Envelope were stamped with baubles in Flirty Flamingo Classic ink.

To finish off the card front, Golden Twine from the Forest Greenery Trim Combo pack was laid from the top of each bauble to the top of the card front. All the threads were then adhered to the back with Tear n' Tape. Little bows were adhered in place with Glue Dots. The card front  was then adhered onto the Flirty Flamingo card-stock base. Three Wonderful Gems were added to complete the card. The gems are wonderful - they have bits of gold within.

Catherine Proctor is our wonderful host of the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting 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 checking out everyone's Flirty Flamingo creations. It is always inspiring to see the amazing projects created by others and their interpretations of showcasing the specified colour.

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team will share projects that hero Garden Green. 

Do look after yourself and your loved ones. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. 

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase

AWHT Heart of Christmas 2019 - Week 10

Thanks for dropping by. This week my Christmas card for the Heart of Christmas 2019 Blog Hop uses one of the designs in Stampin' Up's beautiful Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper.

This year's Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper (DSP) is just delightful. The seasonal images and geometric designs (which could be used for a range of purposes) have copper foil accents on one side of the paper. Stampin' Up's colours - Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Pretty Peacock and Very Vanilla are so gorgeous when combined with copper foil. I just love, love, love this DSP, and so couldn't resist featuring it in this week's card.

Before I further introduce my card, I need to apologise for the quality of the photos in this week's blog. I have tried to improve them, but disappointedly, my efforts have had the reverse effect. I will seek advice during the week on how I can improve.  I sincerely ask for your patience this week.

One of the DSP designs is made up of many, many gorgeous Christmas baubles and stars. I fussy cut many of the baubles and stars and then formed some of the baubles into a larger bauble that was framed by circles cut out of very vanilla and copper foil cardstock using the larger of the Layering Circles dies. The fussy cut stars were sprinkled around. The card front, that is both the very vanilla and copper foil cardstocks were embossed with a Subtle Embossing folder and the very vanilla cardstock was lightly sprayed with Frost White Shimmer Paint mixed with rubbing alcohol.  Star Designer Elements have been added inside the bauble and on either side of the greeting and a bow and string was made from Copper Trim. The greeting was stamped in the luscious Celestial Copper Metallic ink and came from the Shine Bright stamp set.

Here is a close up of the card's bauble.

I so love adding some matching design elements in the card centre. I included a fussy cut bauble and some stars, plus a thin strip of copper foil. The inside greeting came from the Light & Peace stamp set.

The wonderful Claire Daly is hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week – to check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Claire’s page by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers where you will find a heap of inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by and taking time to check out my blog. I've loved sharing with you 💕🐾

AWHT_HOCWk9

So glad you are visiting Valley Inspirations on this, the second time I've been a part of the Art with Heart Team "Heart of Christmas 2019" blog hop. I appreciate you taking the time to check out my blog.

Heart of Christmas 2019

Tidings All Around

Christmas is such a special time of year. When I think of Christmas, one of the things that comes to mind is a beautiful Wreath hanging on the front door.  As I was designing tonight's card using Stampin' Up's Tidings All Around bundle, which focusses on a Christmas wreath, I pondered its symbolism.  After a little Googling, I believe that the wreath symbolises eternity because its circular shape has no beginning and no end. From a Christian perspective it represents an unending circle of life, and the evergreen aspect, most frequently used in making wreathes, symbolises growth and everlasting life. I'm someone who likes to understand the background of something - so I find this interesting.  Enough musing, now to the Chrissy card.

This week's card combines a number of styles and products that I warm my heart.  One of the styles I love to play with is a clean, uncluttered look.  I also enjoy using embossing folders to give interest with a tone on tone subtle effect; as well as add touches of sparkle and perhaps some ribbon. And this year, Stampin' Up's Brightly Gleaming Speciality Designer Series Paper (DSP) for Christmas is so sumptuous - a strip of one of the designs has been included. Here is my card:

The Tidings All Around stamp set and the matching All-Around Wreath dies provide a delightful wreath and a range of greetings.   The wreath (stamped in Pretty Peacock) provides a gorgeous base which can be decorated. I've added gorgeous little sprigs and twigs from the set of dies that have been cut from copper foil card stock and tied together with copper trim. Rhinestones, coloured with a bronze Blends to give them a copper tinge, were placed around the wreath in a number of groupings of 3 to add a little Christmas sparkle.  The Blends are Stampin' Up's alcohol markers.  (Its a pity that my photos don't pick up the sparkle that shimmer when light catches them. Bye the way, I hope you will see an improvement in my photos over time - I'm quite a novice in photography and am on a steep learning curve. Please be patient.)

I also used the copper trim to blend the upper piece of whisper white card stock (that was embossed with the Subtle embossing folder) and the decadent Brightly Gleaming Speciality DSP.  I so love the combination of copper and Pretty Peacock (a rich deep blue/green - the more I use this colour, the more I love it).  Carrying the copper theme across the card, the greeting was stamped in the new Delicata metallic ink, Celestial Copper - its such a gorgeous ink (yes, I love it too).

I like to add some design elements from the front of the card to the card inner and the envelope. This week a thin strip of matching DSP and a coordinating spray of leaves and twigs from the stamp set decorate the inner and this same spray also has been stamped on the envelope in Pretty Peacock ink. A snippet of the envelope can be seen in the first photo, above.  This card inner is reminiscent of my early years, (yes it was a loooong time ago) when the special and expensive cards usually had a seperate and finer paper as the inner. I've used a good quality printer paper (sometimes I use vellum, depending on the style I am wanting to communicate).

The special Claire Daly is back hosting the Heart of Christmas 2019 blog hop this week – to check out the team’s festive creations you can visit Claire’s page by clicking here. She has the links to all this week's blog hoppers where you will find lots of inspiration.

Thanks for dropping by. I've loved sharing with you. 💕🐾