Sunday 5 May 2019

The Flower Challenge # 32

Happy May everybody and hope your having a fantastic weekend!! I'm spending the weekend with my Mum so I'm sure I'll be up to my eye balls in new cards by now!



As we've reached yet another new month, its time for a new theme at The Flower Challenge. This month its all about 'Embossing - Dry/Heat'. I absolutely adore heat embossing and still find it magical after all these years. And I've started experimenting with dry embossing a bit more too recently, so will make sure I do that on my reminder card.

We are very excited to have a prize for you this month. Our Sponsor is Altenew and they are giving a stamp set to our winner. All the details are on the blog and if you haven't discovered Altenew's amazing products already, I suggest to run over there straight away!!



I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos recently, I find them quite relaxing while in bed. I watched a lot of people doing the 'fake watercolour' technique where you colour your stamp, spray with water and then stamp. The results are incredible and I wondered if I could capture them with heat embossing:


I'm so excited with how this turned out but you should have seen the mess I made while experimenting.......

I started by cutting a panel of Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS. Using my MISTI I arranged several stamps from Altenew 'Floral Shadow' over the panel. I used mini-cube Distress inks in 'Peacock Feathers', 'Twisted Citron' and 'Mowed Lawn' to dab colour over the stamps. I sprayed lightly with water and then pressed on  the panel. I touched any puddles of water with a tissue and while still in place on the MISTI, I dried it with my heat gun.

Once it was dry I used my static powder bag over the panel, put Versamark ink on the stamps and pressed down the MISTI again. I removed the panel and clear heat embossed. I really wanted a light blue background (like the sky) around my leaves, so I simply blended Distress Ink 'Salty Ocean' over the panel with hardly any ink on the blending tool. And as the leaves were protected by the heat embossing, they weren't affected.

The flower from Altenew 'Wallpaper Art' was clear heat embossed on Strathmore Bristol Smooth CS and watercoloured using Distress Inks 'Picked Raspberry' and 'Mustard Seed'. I fussy cut it out and popped on foam tape. The sentiment (from the same stamp set) was white heat embossed on black CS and put on foam tape, along with sequins from Neat and Tangled.

You have until Saturday 25th May to link your projects to The Flower Challenge and I'll be back on the 15th with another card to give you some more 'embossing' ideas. Look forward to seeing you in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona



9 comments:

  1. Wow, this technique really worked well for you. It's so vibrant and well-designed. LOVE all those gorgeous colors. Beautifully done.

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  2. What an amazing card Shona - love the slightly hazy look to the leaves - it make them look almost ethereal
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  3. Shona! I just returned home from a trip to Canada [4.5 hours is a short jaunt for us!] to meet a sweet IG friend from Denmark! I tell you this because I brought two boxes of goodies to share with Anne-Mette... this is exactly what she did with my Altenew Leaf Canopy set!!! I cannot wait to try it... and yours is a GORGEOUS example of a fabulous technique!
    =]

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  4. The fake watercolor stamping turned out beautiful, Shona! It looks so artistic! Love the gorgeous floral focus too!!!

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  5. Oh my gosh Shona!!! I'm in awe at the results of this new method to use water on stamps after inking them and then, inking them again with Versamark and clear heat emboss the images, what a great idea and one I will most definitely keep in mind for future cards, the results are simply amazing.
    On your card, the leaves appear to be farther away from your beautiful flower, what a fabulous effect.
    Awesome card, teammie.
    Hugs.

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  6. This is gorgeous Shona!I love your pretty flower and how you have coloured it.The clever idea for doing the background is so lovely too ;) hugs Viv xx

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  7. Beautiful card Shona and I love the look of the leaves with this beautiful flower. Great job!

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  8. gorgeous card...so dreamy looking
    x Karen

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  9. I love the variation in the leaf colors you got by doing this technique, Shona. And then embossing them? What a great idea so you could add the background color. And then there's that gorgeous flower. What a wonderful color combination.

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