by Joanne James25. May 2023 16:00
It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and the lovely Vicky is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with:
I went across the bottom row with diecut, ombre and shapes to create a masculine card for this week's TGIF Challenge that gave me the opportunity to use some existing product in a whole new way - take a look:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
I was captivated by the fabulous blues of the Just Us Girls mood board this week and I was excited to see the geode in the top right photo, as I've wanted to try and create one of these for a while. I saw a card by fellow demonstrator Carrie Button that used the Tree Rings Dies and co-ordinating embossing folder to create a geode and wanted to have a go (here's a link to her helpful video tutorial if you'd like to take a look at how she did it). I made my geode slightly differently so I've included step by step instructions in case you'd like to recreate:
- Take a piece of Tahitian Tide cardstock and run through the Tree Rings Hybrid Embossing Folder, having inked the upper side of the EF with Versamark.
- Heat emboss the embossed tree ring with metallic silver embossing powder and cut out with co-ordinating die.
- Colour the geode: use a Basic Grey Stampin' Write marker for the outside, then use a combination of Tahitian tide, Azure Afternoon and Blueberry Bushel Blends to colour the inner rings.
- Add fine line detail with Stampin' Write markers in the same colours.
- Brush the ombre blue section with clear Wink of Stella, then add some loose (retired) Dazzling Diamonds Glitter to the centre.
- Finish the centre by adhering a combination of blue and clear rhinestone basic jewels (colour them with your Stampin' Blends).
That's it! Check out the sparkly detail - I can't tell you just how awesome this is in real life:
I wanted my geode to take centre stage, so the only other decoration was a strip of (retired) Mercury Glass Acetate that I added to my Blueberry Bushel card base. I used a sentiment from the 'Waves of Inspiration' stamp set as I though this worked well - this geode is most definitely a thing of beauty as far as I'm concerned!
Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:
You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge.
Enjoy your day; today is the last exam day for the James Juniors this side of half-term; we are looking forward to a brief, if revision-filled, respite for the next week, before we start again. The youngest of the James Juniors proudly announced this morning that he has passed the halfway point - ever the optimist, bless him! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
