Thursday 2 November 2017

Creating Kindness Design Team Guest Designer. Support For Family or Friend



Hello and welcome. I'm so excited and honoured to have been invited by the lovely Jenny Hall to be a guest designer for her Creating Kindness team blog hop today. The theme is support for family or friend, nothing can compare to a handmade card that is made with love to help brighten someone's day and showing how much you care and offering support. 

I started off with making one card and the creative flow just took over and made four cards in the end! The main set I have used is the appropriately named 'Lift me Up' stamp and dies and have paired it with the new 'Hometown Greetings Edgelits' dies. I was so thrilled to see this new die as it has so much potential to create scene building which I love to do and to compliment existing sets as well. 

The snowman has been covered up with another tree, which helps to extend the use of these dies for any occasion throughout the year.


The scene created with the first card is with the hot air balloons flying over the houses, and the new dies allows to do this very well. The edgelit die from Detailed Floral Thinlits is surprisingly versatile due to it's organic shape, it doubles up as a cloud and tree line just by flipping it over. To further add dimension and a 3D effect, I have made a window sheet panel allowing you to see inside of the card. 


Ink blending has become my specialty and especially rainbows, happy bright colours are sure to brighten and put a smile on any one's face. All inks used are Stampin' Up! and have used nearly every colour of the rainbow literally lol. Lemon Lime Twist is just gorgeous and love  this shade of green. 

Using Ranger's mini round ink blending tool is invaluable to achieving this seamless finish as well as a light hand and starting off light and slowly building the colours. 

Sponge daubers are also great use to on the stamped images and help creates a similar ink blended ombre look.

I have also incorporated a water and bleach solution that adds the splatter distressed ink effects. Only use in moderation and small droplets when using normal cardstock such as Whisper White.



The light rays have been done using strips of Eclipse masking paper and White craft pigment ink applied with sponge daubers. I have used a heat tool in between each process to help speed up the drying and complete the rays background. I love the soft almost transparent effect when it's fully dried. 


This is inside of the card with a closer look of the ink blending. The sentiment is from 'Weather Together' and love the  font style. 


This is the reverse side of the front. When making this kind of card, it's import to cover up the back to hide all the adhesives and helps to reinforce the front panel. The dies really help with this technique.


Here are the rest of the cards that I came up with using the one set and incorporating similar techniques from the first card.

This is a shaker card.

Sets used are: 
• Layering Squares Framelits to cut the window panel and the frame.
• Feather Together set for the sentiment, love the contrast of the fonts and is perfect.
• Swirly Bird for the ink splatters. To create the two tone ombre effect, I have used sponge daubers on the stamped image as you get more control of where to place the colour rather than the large ink pads and can blend better
• Colour Theory dsp in the daffodil gradient used as  the backing for the hot air balloon. This is an awesome paper stack, as all the ink blending gradient effects are all done for you.
• The enamel dots are also from the same Colour Theory suite.



For my last two cards, I have created an interactive sliding cards, where the hot air balloon can go up and down and side to side.

The hot air balloon on this card goes up and down and perfectly compliments the sentiment. 
The 'Post Script' stamp image has been used and have white heat embossed it over the ink blended background. Bermuda Bay and Pool Party inks used to create the ombre effect. Masking paper used once again to create the panel and the ink colour separation on the sentiment.




The last card is quite similar in design to the up and down sliding card, but this time it's going side to side and plays along with the sentiment. It actually spins in circles which is hilarious sight to see as I've used a round slider piece rather than and oval shape to make it slide straight from side to side as intended, but it adds a fun element hehe. 

The same 'Post Script' image used again but this time, ink stamped and shows the details a lot better. The masked rays have been applied with White pigment craft ink.

Sponge daubers used to apply  the ombre effect on the larger hot air balloon and sentiment.

The dotted edge border is from 'Swirly Snowflakes' thinlits dies and adds that visual interest on the side. 




Phew, that was long... but so worth making as these cards will be going to dear friends and family members who are far away, so had to be extra special. Thank you for taking the time to have a look. I hope it's given you some inspiration to get more out of your stamp sets both new and old. The Lift Me Up set is a favourite and have used complimentary sets to truly help bring the images to life and adding so much more creativity. Thank you Jenny and the Creating Kindness team for having me as your special guest, it means so much and it's greatly appreciated. Next up on the hop is the wonderful Danielle Bennenk and please be sure to check out all the amazing and heartfelt creations from the rest of the team from the list below for more creative inspirations. Until next time - Happy Crafting! :) 

Supplies used:

Stamps:
• Lift Me Up • Weather Together • Feather Together • Swirly Bird • Post Script
Dies:
• Up & Away Thinlits • Hometown Greetings Edgelits • Layering Squares Framelits
• Swirly Snowflakes thinlits • Detailed Floral thinlits
DSP:
• Color Theory paper stack
Inks:
• Pacfic Point, Perfect Plum, Real Red, Pumpkin Orange, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Emerald Envy, Bermuda Bay and Pool Party  • Memento Tuxedo black ink • White Craft pigment ink

12 comments:

  1. Wow Juana, what a fabulous line up of cards! But I knew your projects would be absolutely fantastic as always! :) xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. These cards are stunning! Love them! xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Juana, wow, wow, wow... you’re cards are amazing!! You’re such a rock star with the ink blending. Thank you so much for hopping with us.
    Greetings from the Netherlands,
    Danielle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Danielle. I greatly appreciate your lovely praises. The practice makes perfect and love playing with colours. It's a pleasure! :) xx

      Delete
  4. Oh, WOW! Juan, your cards are unbelievable as always. For some reason I have not had any desire to use the Lift Me Up set (weird, right?) but you've seriously just blown my mind. Thanks for all the creativity and inspiration, and, of course for the pleasure of hopping with us this month!
    -Maria

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Maria. Oh no yes it is hehe, hopefully you'll give it a go as it's surprisingly a fun set! You're most welcome and the pleasure is mine too. It's been so much fun to hop with you all. :)

      Delete
  5. Wow Juan, Such beautiful designs! I'm absolutely loving all the different techniques you've used! Beautiful!
    Thanks for sharing with us.

    Lisa @ Papercraft Business
    XO Lisa @ Papercraft Business

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are all stunning, Juan. You are very talented! Thank you for sharing these beauties.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These cards are gorgeous, Juana! You always make such lovely scenes xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Amazing projects as always. Love them all and thank you for hoping with us

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for making the time to write a comment - It is very much appreciated. Have a fabulous day! :)