I found the coolest card recently, with the coolest background, so I just had to CASE it and use it for one of my May Stamp Club projects! The card I saw was created by another demonstrator, Joanne French, and I found it on Stampin' Connection (that's an exclusive, demo-only website with 1000s of project ideas—another great benefit when you join my team).
Here's my version…
I can't tell you how much I love, love, LOVE the look of this card! The richness. The depth. The shimmer. Absolutely Too Cool! Plus, to top it off, it uses the new Strength & Hope set, which is part of a Too Cool promotion! Let's talk about that first, then I'll show you how I created the Pastel Mother of Pearl background.
Strength & Hope Stamp Set Promotion
From May 1-August 31, 2011, Stampin' Up! will donate $2* from the sale of each Strength & Hope Set (above left) and Strength & Hope Digital Kit (above right) to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® (BCRF). *You can see all the promotion details here.
As many of you know, My Mommy had breast cancer, so this promotion, this Foundation, is near and dear to my heart. How awesome that we can help out such a worthwhile cause by buying a beautiful stamp set that is all about Hope!
On a similar note, I hope everyone in the Fort Wayne area will help Turn the Town Pink on Friday, May 13th! Find out how at the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer.
Pastel Mother of Pearl Background How-To
This background may remind you of the Shimmer Resist technique that I featured a while back. It is very similar, but we are kind of doing the same process in reverse.
Here are the steps I took to create this specific background color combination:
1. Start with a piece of White Glossy Card Stock. Mine was 3-1/4 x 4-1/2".
2. Randomly sponge on several complementary colors, beginning with the lightest colors first. I used More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, and Bravo Burgundy. Here's what each step looked like…
For the last color, I sponged around the edges and dabbed, rather than rubbed, the color to get more of a speckled look.
3. Using a crumpled up baggie or plastic wrap, I dabbed Frost White Shimmer Paint all over the entire sheet. I poured some Vanilla Shimmer Mist onto a styrofoam plate, dipped my scrunched plastic in it, then blotted several times before applying. You don't want to get too thick of an application…just lightly sponged.
It should end up looking like the above photo on the right. If you want, you can stop right here…it's a pretty background as is! This Mother of Pearl effect essentially gives you the same results as the Shimmer Resist technique that I mentioned.
But, for even more colorful texture, you can now turn the Frost White Shimmer into any color you desire!
4. Allow the Shimmer Paint to dry completely. You may hurry the process along by drying it with a Heat Tool or blow dryer.
5. Once it's completely dry, you can use a cotton ball or sponge to apply the Stampin' Pastel colors of your choice! I know it is so difficult to see, but I've used More Mustard pastels in my first picture above (yellow splotches), and Rose Red pastels in my second (red splotches).
You'll just have to try it to see the beautiful dimension that results by layering the shimmering colors this way…it's very subtle, but truly stunning! Wow! It almost looks like marble in real life!
On my cards, I stamped the flourish image from the Elements of Style set and the words from the Strength & Hope set. Classic Ink will work over this background, but it may resist the Shimmer Paint a bit, and it will take a little longer to dry.
I also used Stampin' Pastels on the Butterfly focal point. Sorry, no photos of the Poppin' Pastels technique this time, but it's as easy as 1-2-3!
- Brayer So Saffron Ink onto a scrap of Glossy White Card Stock.
- Stamp the butterfly image onto that piece with VersaMark
- Dab Stampin' Pastels onto the ink very carefully so as not to smear the image. Do not rub when you do this Poppin' Pastels technique on Glossy card stock, it will smear!
With the background so shimmery, I couldn't leave the butterfly plain, so I sprayed him with some Vanilla Smooch Spritz and added a couple of Pearl Jewels.
Complete Supplies List:
- Stamps—Strength & Hope, Elements of Style
- Ink—VersaMark, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy, Early Espresso Classic Ink.
- Paper—Glossy White card stock, Bravo Burgundy, So Saffron, Early Espresso card stock
- Accessories—Frost White Shimmer Paint, Vanilla Smooch Spritz, Stampin' Pastels, 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Pearl Jewels
- Tools—Sponges, cotton balls, Brayer, plastic wrap, Dimensionals, SNAIL
Order the supplies to make this project at my Too Cool Online Store!
Where In The Heck Have I Been All Week?
Laying around sick as a dog, that's where! I've had some horrible reactions to all of the lovely pollens floating around the air. Apparently, this Spring is one of the worst allergy seasons ever with record high pollen counts. Great! I'm not even "technically" allergic to anything, according to my allergist, my body just likes to react like it is. Whatever. All I know is that I've been miserable. (I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm mowing two yards, at the old house and at the new, every two days because of this wacky rainy weather. Ugh!)
I even had to cancel my Demo Meeting on Monday, which was totally disappointing. Hopefully, we can make it up next week. I certainly don't want to miss out on seeing all of the cool projects everyone has been working on.
More soon…if I don't cough up a lung first! 🙂
Angie