by Joanne James27. July 2014 08:00Good morning everyone - it's Sunday and time for my Design Team card over at The Paper Players where Ann has a great sketch challenge for us this week:
Now I love a sketch challenge and often I follow a sketch completely to the letter. Today is something of the exception to the rule though - when I saw the 'any shape' piece, I really wanted to use one of the flowers from the Bloom with Hope hostess stamp set that I had coloured with my set of Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. As a consequence though, the layers didn't work for me - so I switched them about and offset them - I hope Ann doesn't mind! Take a look at this week's card to see what I mean:
I wanted my flower to take centre stage so went with a neutral Crumb Cake card base, with a Hardwood stamped mat. I really wanted to use a sentiment alongside my flower - this stamp set has a great selection of really useful ones, but to follow the sketch literally I would have needed to stamp my sentiment on one of the banner flags to be seen, but this didn't work as I wanted them to bring some additional colour to my card. So I decided to tuck my banners behind my central rectangle; this allowed me to both stamp my sentiment onto it and add some leaves, which I stamped in Mossy Meadow and coloured with my Old Olive Blendabilities (they work on coloured cardstock too!). Here's a picture of my fussy cut flower, coloured with Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight Blendabilities, in all its glory:
Isn't it just lovely? I'm still getting used to my alcohol markers and how they differ from water-based colouring. I am no expert (yet!) but I think this flower shows you can get great results without much experience - it looks much more 3D than with ordinary markers and a blender pen. I have a little tip for you too - when you fussy cut a coloured flower like this one, you invariably end up with some white that shows around the cut edge. If you run your marker around the edge of the flower, it takes that away and makes your flower look just a little more finished.
If you would like to know more about Blendabilities, do check back for more hints, tips, techniques and tricks as I learn what works best. Better still, if you live in Northampton and the surrounding area, get in touch about attending my August card class where we will be using Blendabilities, along with the lovely Blended Bloom stamp. Also, if the 'Bloom with Hope' set has caught your eye and you would like your own set, do get in touch to book to host a party or enquire about my new Stampers 6 Club that is beginning next month: for a monthly commitment of £25 a month for 6 months, you get to be the hostess one month and enjoy a minimum of £25 hostess credits to spend free on anything in the catalogue, including hostess sets. Party freebies without needing to actually invite your friends round! There is one space left in this current club - get in touch if you'd like it to be yours!
Do pop on over to The Paper Players blog to see what everyone else did with this sketch - there are some great cards there this week! I'll be back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: