Art With Heart Creative Showcase - March 2021

Card Sketch with Butterfly Brilliance and Pierced Blooms

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the Art with Heart Creative Showcase for March 2021.

This month we are basing our projects on a card sketch. We can interpret the sketch "literally" or go wherever the sketch may take us.

I have created two cards using the sketch - both similar to each other though different dies sets and colours were used.

CARD 1: The design for the first card had been fluttering around in my heard for a little while. The Butterfly Brilliance suite has been released early by Stampin' Up! to whet our appetites for the coming release of the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue. It is such a gorgeous suite - I couldn't resist, especially as I love butterflies. This is the suite used for this card.

The Butterfly Bijou Designer Series Paper is stunning. One of the beautiful butterfly sheets was cut to provide the lower section of the card design. The background of this piece of DSP has a watercolour effect using Magenta Madness, Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay, so I decided to water-colour a background piece that would extend from the DSP to the top of the card. I used the same colours of Classic Stampin' ink on a piece of Fluid 100 Water-colour paper. When almost dry, it was embossed using the Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder. 

The embossed water-coloured piece and the DSP were adhered to a Calypso Coral card-stock mount - leaving a very fine border. Some white twine from the Snail Mail Twine Combo was wrapped around the card front twice and tied in a bow. I had a bowl of sentiments on my table and one seemed perfect for this card and it stretched all the way across the card front. The Many Messages stamp set was stamped using Versamark ink on Basic Black card-stock and heat embossed with White Emboss Powder. I just love the way a range of sentiments can be stamped and cut out with this amazing bundle. The sentiment strip was popped up on Dimensionals covering the join between DSP and water-coloured paper.

Delightful filagree butterflies from the Butterfly Wings die set were cut from the beautiful Pearlescent Speciality paper. The butterflies represented the ink splotches on the sketch however, positioning is a bit different given the size of the butterflies. Two were adhered to the card front and 1 was popped up on a Mini Dimensional. White Elegant Faceted Gems were added to the card front for a little glimmer.

The card front was adhered to a Thick Basic White card-stock card base with Dimensionals. The card inner was decorated with a strip of the same DSP and 3 fussy cut butterflies. A C6 Basic White envelope is to be stamped with butterflies from the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set. (Not pictured.)

CARD 2: I created a couple of cards for last night's AWHT Colour Creations Showcase featuring Purple Posy. One of the cards wasn't ready for 'go live' and still needs to be finished. That card used stitched flowers from the Pierced Blooms dies.  As there were left over die cut pieces sitting on my table, I designed this card around them, with the flowers replacing the ink splotches on the sketch.

A card front of Basic White card-stock was passed through the Cut & Emboss machine twice using the leafy Greenery embossing folder. The embossed card front was adhered directly to a Purple Posy card base. A piece of Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper was adhered directly at the bottom of the card front. A different pre-stamped and cut sentiment using the Many Messages bundle with Momento ink on Basic White card-stock was popped up on Dimensionals over the edge of the DSP.

Stitched flowers, pre-cut using the Pierced Blooms dies with Basic White, Purple Posy, Highland Heather and Mint Macaron card-stocks were sponged with White Craft ink on the outer edges. Three large to mid sized flowers had different colour centres adhered in place. The 3 flowers were positioned with Dimensionals similar to the sketch's ink splotches. Five little flowers and a number of white Elegant Faceted Gems were scattered around. 

A few remaining pierced blooms were adhered to a Basic White card inner. As the card will be hand delivered to a lovely customer who is grieving the loss of a a special friend, a few pierced blooms will be added to the envelope to give a hint of what may be inside. 

I hope you like the cards. It is a versatile sketch and could be used with a range of Card-stocks, DSP, Stamps and Dies. A sketch is a great starting point if you are looking for inspiration for your project.

I am blessed to be apart of a talented team. Knowing each of my colleagues in this Creative Showcase, I am sure they have amazing projects to share with you that have been inspired by the sketch. Don't miss having a look at each of their blogs. Rachel is our amazing host of the Art with Heart Monthly Creative Showcase, so if you haven't finished visiting all of the team's 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 interpretation of the sketch. 

I hope you join us again on the second Thursday of April for our next Showcase. 

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are in Australia and would like a copy of the coming Stampin' Up! 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue or the continuing January - June 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. I hope you stay safe, stay heathy and stay sane in these strange times.

Have a great month.

Andrea 😘

Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #39 Purple Posy

Purple Posy with Simply Succulents

Hi. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 39th 2020/2021 Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art with Heart Team.

The week we are showcasing a very soft purple, Purple Posy. Purple Posy is part of Stampin' Up! In Colour's collection for 2019-2021. As such, this colour will be retiring soon and once the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue becomes live it will not be available. It is a pretty purple, so if you love it, I recommend not waiting to replenish your supplies because once the retiring list is available In Colours usually sell out quickly. Purple Posy is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin' Blends, a number of Designer Series Papers, including Playing with Patterns & Ice Cream Corner Designer Series Papers; the Gorgeous Posies Card Kit, Playing with Patterns Resin dots and Playing with Patterns Ribbon, etc.

Similar to last week, I have only been able to complete one project in time for the Colour Creations Showcase going live. My second card is still "under construction" and not ready for public consumption. I had numerous interruptions throughout the day so last night's plan of finishing the card quickly this morning, hasn't come to pass. It is almost ready. I need to re-cut and colour some flowers, confirm the arrangement (hmm, that could take me ions as I am NO flower arranger) and then put it together. Hopefully I will be able to add the second card to this blog early in the weekend.

Succulents can be so beautiful with their purple tips and they come in a range of colours. (See some examples below.) I decided to colour the Simply Succulent stamp set with Stampin' Blends including the Purple Posy Combo. I also used Light and Dark Gorgeous Grape, Seaside Spray, So Saffron, Soft Sea Foam, Mint Macaron, Pool Party, a little Balmy Blue and the Colour Lifter. The succulents  were stamped in Basic Grey Classic Stampin' ink on Basic White card-stock. The succulents were fussy cut. While I could have used the coordinating dies, I decided that I didn't want the white boarder around the single succulents so I fussy cut them all for consistency.

To create the card front, the large die from the coordinating Potted Succulents dies was used to cut a background from Basic White card-stock for the filagree layer. This was adhered directly to a piece of Basic White card-stock. I love the subtlety of white on white. A scolloped rectangle from the Stitched So Sweetly dies cut a rectangular hole through both layers near the centre. This card front was positioned over the Purple Posy card-stock base and the hole  was penciled in so a hole could be cut in the base card in an aligned position. To frame the hole, the same scalloped die and the next largest die were used to cut 3 frames from Purple Posy card-stock. The 3 frames were adhered together to gain some depth and then adhered to frame the rectangular hole. A sentiment from the Simply Succulent stamp set was stamped in Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' ink on Basic White card-stock and with Versamark ink on Highland Heather card-stock and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss powder. The top line of the sentiment was die cut with a label from the coordinating Potted Succulents dies, while the scripty word was fussy cut. 

A slightly smaller Basic White card base was adhered to the inner back of the Purple Posy card base, leaving a small boarder of the purple. The white card opens from the centre out (see a photo below of the opened card and the card inner.

A second card front size background die from the Potted Succulents dies was cut in Basic White card-stock and adhered directly to the top of the closed white section of the card-base. The pot from the same stamp set was also stamped in Basic Grey Classic Stampin' ink on a scrap of Basic White card-stock and coloured with the lIght Blackberry Bliss Stampin' Blend together with the light and dark Gorgeous Grape Blends and the light Purple Posy Blend. The Colour Lifter Blend was used to soften the edges of the highlighted area. For consistency, this was fussy cut rather than using the coordinating dies.

An edge was cut from one of the Purple Posy rectangles remaining from cutting the frames for the front. This was adhered under a strip of In Good Taste DSP which had been flagged at each end. White twine from the Snail Mail Twine Combo was wrapped around the banner twice and tied in a bow. This banner was adhered directly to the inner white card over the Potted Succulent die cut. 

The pot and the succulent arrangement were added with Dimensionals. Two of the smaller succulents were added - one on a Dimensional. The positioning of the 2 small succulents needed to appear through the frame when the card was closed and well as look pleasing with the card front open. Glistening opal rounds were added to both the card front and the inner design.

Here is a picture of the fully opened card. A sentiment from the stamp set was stamped in Gorgeous Grape ink and one of the single succulents stamped in stamped off Highland Heather Classic Stampin' ink.

A C6 Basic White envelope was similarly stamped a few times with a single succulent and stamped off Highland Heather ink.

Thank you so much for spending time with me. I do appreciate you calling by. 😘

Catherine Proctor is the lovely 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 every link to the participating blogs so you can find everyone's Purple Posy creations. Checking out everyone's creations and their interpretation of the amazing Stampin' Up! colours is always a treat. 

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team share projects that hero Real Red, which is a pillar box red (yes, next week we are commencing the colours beginning with "R"). 

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others as these strange times continue. Hopefully life with settle to an improved normality in a little while (it is taking longer than I was expecting).

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase