Technique Tuesday - Designer Series Paper or DSP

 First of all, I must apologise for no posts yesterday. It was the funeral of our beloved Queen Elizabeth and I love our Monarchy and all it stands for. It was a beautiful service. Back to today. This week, I am going to play with paper. Specifically Dsp or Designer Series Paper. This first card I have used the gorgeous Splendid Day papers. These in Stampin' Up! we call DSP but it also stands for double sided paper. Each sheet has another pattern on the reverse. 

I have shown the reverse of the pattern on this card. Beautifully shiny on the front that has leaves all over in Fresh Freesia. The other side, is also Fresh Freesia but a different pattern and softer shade. Below is a picture of the papers the papers.

 

I have coordinated it with one of our retired, Saleabration stamps called Calming Camellia. I have to say, I am in love with this, well, you decide, front or back. Which would you use?

 

 

Throwback Thursday Sale-A-Bration

 Today I'm revisiting an old favourite... Fussy cutting! I know its a bit of a marmite thing... you either love it or hate it!! But both Gill and I love it 😀. So what will I fussy cut 🤔 well as I'm sharing inspiration with the July and August Sale-A-Bration offering I thought what better way to show how useful pattern paper it!! I chose to use the gorgeous Rings of love paper as my starting point. 

These papers coordinate with items from the July to December mini catalogue and many others from the annual catalogue.  But I feel they are stand alone and can be mixed with so many themes and celebrations. 

The patterns I chose were the mandala and the houses one. I was inspired by a card created by one of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design team and just love the gentle colour palette. 

Are the colours just beautiful?  Gentle and subtle blues and greens. They make for an elegant colour palette. 

To start my card I fussy cut one of the mandala that was printed along the edge of the paper, wast not want not after all!! Next I decided which house to ise and cut some of the trees and a small bush as well.

I wanted the edges of the mandala to not stand out too much on my white mat so took a blending brush and the same shade of green ink, mint macaroon is it's name, and added a gentle blended patch. The blended patch extended beyond the area where the fussy cut paper was going and gently faded outwards . 

To add a little extra to the mat I took an alcohol marker in the same colour and spattered all around.

Next I adhered the mandala flat and added the house and trees with 3d foam. I created the sentiment for the card by stamping and cutting up various phrases to create my own from the Amazing Phrasing stamp set that is also an exclusive Sale-A-Bration offering. 

Once I'd stamped and cut my sentiment I took my blending brush that I'd used to create the background and gently applied a little colour arounf the edges. This ensures that the cut edges aren't quite so harsh against the background. 

I think this card would work well for a leaving card or a moving away card. 

The dimension that placing the house and trees on 3d foam give helps to make sure they don't just meld into the background. 

All in all this card came together quickly and easily. The fussy cutting wasn't hard as there weren't any intricate bits 😉

So my top tip is sometimes let the paper do the talking!!!

Technique Tuesday - Wild Cats

I was a little puzzled as to how I would sort a card technique for today but then it clicked. Today's card using the Wild Cats stamp set, I have used paper as the technique. These lovely papers are amazing. Lots of animals are printed over some of the sheets so I had to use them as my technique. I cut 3 different tigers or big cats from the DSP called In The Wild and a small piece of the timber paper from In Good Taste to make the logs. By overlapping the timber I wanted a log or a rock but don't have one so this is the next best thing. I have coordinated it with pieces of deep dark red (Merry Merlot) and the white card base. I am rather pleased with the result and hope that you are able to see  what my intention was.