We are so excited to welcome a new friend to The Classroom today, the amazing Suzy Plantamura! We think you will flip when you see her amazing projects!!! Suzy does a fabulous series on her blog called "One Stamp, Five Ways" and today she has a bit of a twist on that idea for us with one color palette used three ways. Hold on to your socks people, they are about to be blown off!
And make sure you head over to Suzy's blog, Living My Dream, to check out more of her gorgeous work! While you are visiting her, show Suzy some comment love and leave a comment there before January 23rd for a chance to win a $50 coupon to use in our store!
Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us Suzy! We hope you can come back to The Classroom very soon!
I have had so much fun working on this guest blog post for Ellen Hutson and I can’t wait to share it with you all! I have three cards to show you with several different techniques to demonstrate. The first two cards use the new Strands Die in a different way than background dies are usually used. So let’s get started!
I die-cut two of the Strands Dies from the center of two pieces of 4.25” x 5.5” cardstock. I love that they stayed put after being die-cut as that was important to do this technique!
I started the first card with one of the two die-cut pieces by spraying the back of it with spray adhesive glue – it is removable until it dries, so once applied, you want to work quickly so it is still movable! I pressed the full piece onto the front of a white card base making sure all of the pieces were snuggly attached (by pressing down on each piece).
Next, I carefully removed the outside piece leaving all of the inside pieces in place. Some needed to be re-pressed down to make sure they didn’t move or lift. I used a gummy eraser to remove any unwanted adhesive that attached to the card base.
I used six of my Distress Oxide Inks on the background of this card with a Ranger Blending Tool. These colors were all inspired by the Color Trend Week color palette. I love that it made me think outside my usual color choices!
I rubbed the inks over the background of the card using all of the colors in different areas and letting some blend over others. This picture shows the finished result. I then lifted each of the little pieces from the die-cut.
Here is the finished result! I love how you can get more use out of your background dies by using them as stencils!
After the background was done, I used the new S’Whale stamps and dies. I stamped the two whales with black ink on white cardstock and colored them in with Copic markers. I also used one of the designs in the stamp set inside each whales body. I stamped the group of fish with purple and blue ink. I attached all of these images over the background. I stamped the sentiment from the set with Versamark Ink and embossed with Ranger White Embossing Powder.
I also embossed the waves stamp on the bottom of the card. You can see more of the detail in the whales in this photo. I used some glitter pens and a white Uniball marker to add some details and shading to them.
For my next card, I took out the second Strand die-cut pieces. I’m using it as a stencil again, but this time, I’m going to use the negative space. I sprayed the back of the entire piece with spray glue again and pressed it on to the front of a white card base.
This time I removed just the inside pieces of the die as you can see in this picture. I used Ranger Texture Paste and Distress Ink in Stormy Sky with a palette knife for this technique.
First, I took some Texture Paste out of the bottle and pressed the ink pad on my craft mat. I used the palette knife to mix the ink into the Texture Paste. I didn’t mix it all the way so it had different shades of white and blue throughout it.
I used the palette knife to apply the Texture Paste over the die-cut on the front of my card. I made sure it was smoothed out and then I put the leftover back in my container to use on another project. You can see how it looks once covered in the photo above.
I then carefully lifted up the die-cut piece leaving the Texture Paste in place. Be careful with this step to make sure you don’t touch the Texture Paste as it takes time to dry. Also work fast so you can lift it before the adhesive has dried.
Here is the finished result. Think of all of the possibilities using background dies as stencils with Texture Paste (in any color you want!). I removed any unwanted pieces of adhesive and Texture Paste with my rubber eraser.
To make the card, I used the new Arctic Pals Stamp and Die set. I stamped all of the stamps on white cardstock with black ink. I colored them with Copic Markers using warm shades of gray. I stamped the sentiment on the bottom of the card with black ink.
I arranged all of the Arctic Pals over my Texture Paste background. I love how the background of the card adds a soft texture for the creatures to swim in! My next card uses a different technique with the Celebration Lady Stamp and Die Set.
I started this card with a white card base. I wanted to use Distress Inks rubbed over the background to create a base for the party lady! This photo shows the ink colors I used. I cut a piece of cardstock in the shape I wanted my ground to be to use as a stencil.
I rubbed the inks over the background using a Ranger Blending Tool. I used the negative space from the cardstock piece I cut to cover the top portion while I created the ground with gray ink. I used the same inks to stamp the confetti pieces from the stamp set all over the background.
And now for the fun (and crazy time consuming somewhat difficult) part! I have to say when I started this card, it wasn’t my intention to go this direction. But I messed up coloring my first lady image, so my solution was to layer them so I could cover her face!
I stamped the lady three times in a light color of ink for a no-line coloring look. You can see the one I colored first on the far right with her smeared makeup (haha). For each of the three images, I colored the portions I planned on cutting out to use for my layered lady! I also stamped and colored the bag twice, the hat twice, and the balloon twice. I colored all of the images in with Copic Markers and added details and shading with gel pens.
This photo shows the pieces I cut out from each of the ladies. First, I attached the lady with her face and legs colored as my base. I also attached one of the balloons over her hand. I added the party bag that had the tissue paper colored. I stamped “Celebrate Everything” with gray ink.
Here is my finished card showing how all of the lovely lady parts were layered. I used foam dots behind the pieces I wanted to pop up, like the bottom of her dress.
This photo shows the dimension created with foam tape on parts of the image. The balloon has foam dots behind the top of it and then I glued the bottom of it down. I cut the handle off of my second bag and glued that to the top bag which also has foam tape behind it.
I glued the collar pieces down on the top and then used foam dots under the tips of them so they stand up. I used the last arm piece over the top of the dress with a piece of foam under her hand. You can see that for some pieces (such as her hair and her shoes), I glued them down directly without pop dots.
Whew – that was a crazy card to create, but don’t you think this adorable Celebration Lady deserved all of this attention? The colors from the Color Trend color palette are so pretty together and worked so well together on this card!
I hope you enjoyed my three cards today and that you are inspired to try out some of these techniques. Thank you so much for having me as your guest today Ellen Hutson! -Suzy Plantamura
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