Hello to my regulars and welcome to those who are stopping by as part of the Collected Crafty Collab Hop! If you're following the hop, you should have gotten here from the incredibly talented Boryana. At the end of this post, I'll link to the next stop!
If this is your first time checking out this hop, let me share a little background with you. Chatting with Karen, Anna, and Marie, we discovered a few things:
- We all love squirrels, but can also be just as easily distracted as the fuzzy little friends. Hence the squirrel in the logo and our affectionate name for our group, The Squirrel Girls.
- That we wanted to create a hop series to help us use the supplies we've been "squirreling" away.
- We wanted to bring more attention to blogs, still a vital part of the crafting community.
As it turns out, there are other bloggers out there just like us, giving us the chance to create a great monthly hop series! Each month, we will focus on a theme and supply type. We can decide whether we wish to use one or both. This month we could focus on gratitude, using something shiny, or both. Merlin (my inner magpie) would never forgive me if I didn't use something shiny, so of course my card has gratitude AND some glimmer!
BUT!!!! I also wanted my card to achieve one more secret goal! Read on to find out what!
If you guessed I'd try my hand again at a Clean and Simple (CAS) card, you're right! And this time I think I got it right!
First I wanted to create a simple background for my focal element. I decided ink blending would give me texture, color, and interest. So I promptly taped off a section. No measuring, just going for it!
I used Hero Arts Crimson and Spice ink cubes and blended them together in the small rectangle. I should have taken a picture, but essentially, I blended some crimson into the upper left and bottom left corners and then halfway down the right side. I then filled in all the white with the Spice and just blended back and forth until I got a mottled effect.
Now for those of you who are regular readers, you know I like to throw in a special technique with each tutorial and today's focuses on acetate. So look at the picture below:
If you study it, you'll see that there is sort of a shine to the cardstock. That's because there's a piece of acetate over it! You see, I cut a piece of acetate that covers the whole inside of the Misti and it's perfect for things like this gorgeous font from Concord and 9th's Grateful For You Stamp set. It's a lovely handwritten sentiment, but not necessarily something I feel I can get aligned right the first time. By putting a piece of acetate down over the cardstock, I can literally stamp the sentiment down and test run and adjust as much as I want without ever damaging my original card! I can even experiment to see what color ink I would rather use! This has been a lifesaver with layered stamps as well. And the acetate is easy to wipe clean with water, so it will survive many, many stamping sessions and experiments!
As you can see, I confidently stamped my sentiment down onto the cardstock (in black ink). After that, it was time to add my shiny elements! A leaf die cut from gold cardstock using Concord and 9th's layering leaves seemed like the perfect focal point. Then three small flat back pearls from (of all things) a nail art kit to help me dance that line between CAS and More is More.
I am really just so happy with the result and kind of want to make a bunch more of it! But I won't. Probably. Well, never say never....
Don't forget to keep hopping to see how everyone else answered this theme! Next up: Charlotte E. (Lady Joyful)!
And hey, if you like what you're seeing on the hop, please leave a comment for the participants and even consider subscribing! We all put a lot of thought and effort into this hop, so it's nice to know when it's inspiring someone!