International Blog Highlights – May 2018

Hello everyone! I’m really excited to be sharing with you today’s project. This card was created for the CEO of Stampin’ Up!® Sara Douglass for Kylie Bertucci’s International Blog Highlight. WOW, that’s a mouth full. It is my first time participating in the International Blog Highlights so for those who do not know what this is I shall explain. Kylie is a fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and she organises a monthly event for other demonstrators to participate in. Each month there is a new theme and demonstrators create a project based on that theme, share it on their blogs and add it to Kylie’s list where you can VOTE for your top ten. The top ten winners get to participate in a blog hop a few weeks later! Fun Right?

It’s a great way to meet, well virtually at least, other demonstrators and to be challenged in our card making (Or scrapbooking) craft. This months theme is that of Gratitude to Sara Douglass the CEO of Stampin’ Up! as she does so much for all of us in the Stampin’ Up! family as if often forgotten because she’s always encouraging us to make a difference to others.

Having meet Sara only last month, I really wanted to make this card special, but fun as well. I thought the Crafting Forever stamp set would be perfect for this because of the underlying passion we all have – crafting and stamping! So here is my card:

I had quite a lot of fun making it and I hope that it really does show in the photos, and I really hope that Sara gets a wonderful surprise being flooded with lovely cards of appreciation.

I got the inspiration for the card from one of my other, well what shall I call it … passions – chocolate! Hehehe. At the end of last year my family and I travelled to Vanuatu for a holiday and had the most amazing time. I brought back a block of chocolate from Vanuatu that was made from the cocoa beans grown on the island where we stayed. I was attracted to purchase this chocolate because it’s pretty neat to eat chocolate made from cocoa grown on Santo AND because I just loved the packaging. Here is the (empty) chocolate package and my card side by side:

To create my card:

1. Take a sheet of Watercolor Paper and started to layer colour on to it starting with Blueberry Bushel then Lovely Lipstick allowing the colours to blend and create a purple between them.
2. I continued to add more colours in a way so that they blend and become a bit rainbow. I used all five of the 2018-2020 In Colors. I left some of the paper un coloured.
3. Allow first layer to dry a bit and then add some more depth to each of the colours. You can use your Heat Tool to speed the drying process. Then I would pick up some colour onto my Aqua Painter and flick the brush with the lid so that there are splatter of ink.
4. Allow to dry.
5. Prepare card base, I decided on Whisper White Thick as I wanted the colours to be the focus.
6. Cut a piece of Basic Black card stock to 85mm by 128.5mm.
7. Once Watercolor Paper is dry cut it down to be smaller than the Basic Black card stock. Mine is approximately 49mm by 122.5mm.
8. Using Versamark Ink stamp the fun images from the Crafting Forever stamp set, cover in White Stampin’ Emboss Powder and heat set.
9. Repeat again but this time ink up your stamp in Versamark and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink before stamping. Then cover in Clear Stampin’ Embossing Powder to create a black looking heat embossed image. In future I would use Basic Black Stampin’ Emboss Powder which will be available in the 2018-2019 Annual Catalogue!
10. On a small piece of Whisper White cardstock stamp the sentiment of your choice, I used “we are cut out to be friends.” and then cut out using the Pretty Label punch. You can choose to just have a strip of card stock with the sentiment.
11. I punched a second Pretty Label from Basic Black card stock and cut it in half to make a black border behind the Pretty Label Whisper White punch.
12. Glue the Watercolor paper to the Basic Black and adhere the sentiment to the front. Then using Stampin’ Dimensionals attache to the card base.

To add a bit of interest, I used a strip of the Watercolour paper that was cut off and added it to the bottom of the inside of the card. I love to personalise the inside of the card too just because I can! Also don’t forget to stamp the envelope too!

And because I wanted to make this card that tad bit extra special I stamped the Statement of My Heart stamp on the back in Grapefruit Grove and adding some Lovely Lipstick to the cursive words with a Sponge Dauber. It was a fellow demonstrator Jenny Hall who gave me the idea to stamp this on back of cards! How perfect is it for that purpose! The Statement of My Heart stamp is exclusive to the Gotta Have It All Bundle currently available during May for customers and demonstrators. It is an early release of the Share What You Love Suit. This stamp set will not be available to purchase in the 2018-2019 Annual Catalogue, this is the only way to get it (and it’s FREE when you purchase the Gotta Have It All Bundle).

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Remember to vote for your favourite cards in Kylie’s International Blog Highlights. Top ten winners will do a blog hop in a few weeks time. Hops are so much fun and I would love to participate. You can check out all of the talented entries here: Kylie’s International Blog Highlights.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope that I’ve inspired you to be creative.

Bye for now!
Tatiana

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Supplies:

You can purchase the of the supplies I used in this project. Please click on the image below to purchase. Thank you for your support.