Gitana, the Design Team Diva

(Click on an image for a larger view.)



You may recall that in an earlier post I mentioned that I had been invited to become a design team member for About Art Accents, a rubber stamp company and one of the sponsors for the Oriental Stamp Art (OSA) Yahoo group. AAA provides me with rubber stamps and I, in turn, use them to create art that is then featured in its online gallery. During my recent flurry of activity (see my previous posts), I had received the first delivery of stamps and was anxiously awaiting a free moment in which to "play" with them. Here you see my first attempts with some of the many stamps I received. In both cases I chose to use a dark navy blue base card for a dramatic backdrop.

The card with the flowering branch in a vase was made with AAA Plate #244B - Covered Teacup. The image was stamped with gold pigment ink onto navy blue card stock and embossed with gold ultrafine embossing powder. The flowers were punched from white glitter paper with a six petal flower punch. The tip of each petal was then carefully notched with a 1/16" hole punch to mimic the flowers in the background washi paper. The petals were lightly sponged with a light pink, being careful to leave the very center of the flower untouched. The petal points were sponged with a darker shade of pink for depth. A light fuschia marker was lightly traced over the edges of the petals to make the flowers pop from the background. A pink rhinestone in the center completes each flower. The branches are thin slivers of brown card stock that are glued together along 1/4 of the length. I just randomly placed it on the card front and bent the free ends to mimic the growth habit of a branch. It was glued into place with Zip Dry glue and the flowers were adhered with pop dots for height. The vase was adhered using two layers of foam tape for sufficient height to clear the branch stem. The background washi papers are from Hanko Designs, another one of OSA's wonderful sponsors.

The next card was created using AAA Plate 246 - Paired Koi Pond (Light), a wonderfully detailed stamp depicting two koi swimming playfully amid swirling waves. I used sketch layout (sk071710) from Paper Craft Planet's weekly sketch challenge. Since I haven't been able to participate in any challenges or swaps lately, I decided to take this time to make my card do double duty. I chose a monochromatic blue color scheme for the water and surrounding decorative elements. To avoid losing the fish among the highly ornate waves, I colored them in shades of orange to make them stand out. The dark blue waves are highlighted with blue microbeads to give them a little depth and add some textural interest.(See close up photo for bead detail.) Nestabilities Fleur de Lis pendant die set provided the ornate mat behind the fish panel as well as the individual die cuts used to create the decorative edge below. Sentiment by Heidi Grace "Beyond the Sea" acrylic stamp set.


PLEASE NOTE: About Art Accents recently acquired Art Neko Stamps. As of this writing, AAA was in the process of merging the two websites. The above link to AAA will take you to the Art Neko website (www.artneko.com). If you encounter problems connecting to that site, please try www.aboutartaccents.com.


Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Tri-Shutter Card

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

One of the crafts groups I belong to offers a weekly layout challenge where its members are invited to create a card according to a featured layout. This week's challenge is called a tri-shutter card, an interesting bit of paper engineering that offers myriad possibilities for decorating. Splitcoast Stampers has a great tutorial for this card and you can see it here.

For my first attempt I created a card for my daughter's friend who has been like family to her during their first summer as camp counselors. I was told the young miss prefers "red and green, like Christmas" as her colors of choice so, armed with that information, I began to create. After staring blankly at the paper for an eternity this is what I came up. After all was said and done, I liked it.

The embossed textures and large flowers were done with Cuttlebug folders and dies. The ovals on the front were cut with Nestabilities dies. It is difficult to see from the photo but the red scalloped oval is flocked, giving it a velvety texture. That was achieved with Fun Flock. It is embellished with self-adhesive rhinestones that I picked up at a local 99 cent store. My thanks to Annette Warkentin at About Art Accents for the sentiment stamp which I received as a generous freebie from her. (She's got beautiful stamps and other goodies at her site. Definitely check it out.)

The smaller flowers and leaves were cut with the Empunchlar hand punch system (I don't recommend this particular punch as it has limited functionality). The swirls and flourishes were hand-drawn with gel pens.

Now that I have cut my teeth on this particular layout, I think I will create another one and submit it to the weekly challenge. That one has to have an Asian theme so this red/green card doesn't qualify. No matter, I'll just have to start crafting again. Yippee!

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva