My Year of Wonder Card 

My Year of Wonder Card - a New years card with a wintery scene
My Year of Wonder Card

Hello Crafty Friends! Laurie here again! I am sharing My Year of Wonder Card using the Light & Wonder Bundle from the Lights of Aurora Suite Collection by Stampin’ Up! I loved this suite and decided to create a New Years card for friends. So far, I have made three cards using this Suite including this one. At the end of this post, I have included the other two cards with further details about them. This beautiful Suite is on the Last Chance List! So, get it while you can!

The Details of My Year of Wonder Card

For my card, I decided to create a mini slimline wintery scene card. I used both the large and small tree dies to frame my scene with that gorgeous DSP. I was inspired by a card that Stampin’ Up! had in their catty to use DSP for the snow. It gives it a snowy blue glow that you see sometimes in the winter.

Next, I embossed the sentiments in white on the Basic Black piece and die cut it with the “hilly” die. I made this piece the same width as my card front so that it fit the sentiment leaving enough space on either side of it without overcrowding it.

All this was adhered to a Blackberry Bliss mat with a Night of Navy card base.

As a finishing touch, I placed a scattering of the Frosted Iridescent Dots on my card.

Supplies:

Stamps/Bundles/Dies: Light & Wonder Bundle (165763)

Inks: VersaMark Ink (102283)

Paper: Night of Navy (100867), Blackberry Bliss (133675), Basic Black (121045), Lights of Aurora 6” x 6” Designer Series Paper (165755)

Accessories: Frosted Iridescent Dots (165766), Basics Embossing Powder (165679), Heat Tool (129053), Embossing Additions Tool Kit (159971), Stampin’ Paper Trimmer (152392), Bone Folder (102300), Black Stampin’ Dimensionals (150893), Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals (144108), Stampin’ Seal (152813), Multipurpose Liquid Glue (110755)

Close Up of Wintery Scene
Close Up of Wintery Scene

Measurements: 

  • Night of Navy:
    • 6 ¼” x 7” scored at 3 ½”
  • Blackberry Bliss:
    • 6-1/8” x 3-3/8”
  • Basic Black:
    • 2” x 3 ½” (Sentiment)
    • 3 ¼” x 3 ¼” (Large Trees)
    • 2” x 3 ¼” (Small Trees)
  • Lights of Aurora Designer Series Paper:
    • 6” x 3 ¼” (Sky)
    • 3” x 3 ¼” (Snow)

More Information on My Year of Wonder Card

Here are my other cards using the Lights of Aurora Suite Collection by Stampin’ Up! 

For more information on my first card, please click here or the photo.

Embrace the Magic Card - a card with the Aurora borealis
Embrace the Magic Card

My other card was a Mystery Challenge from a Stampin’ Up! Play Date this past Fall. Here are the details.

Mystery Card

Using your primary choice of card stock cut the following:
Base: 5 ½” x 8 ½” scored at 4 ¼”
Layer: 3 ¾” x 5”

2nd card stock colour choice:
Layer: 3 7/8” x 5 1/8”
Strip: ¾” x 5 ¼”

3rd card stock colour choice:
Cut 3 pieces @ ½” x 3 ¼”

DSP of your choice:
Layer: 4 ¼”” x 5 ½”
Strips: 3 pieces @ 1” x 3 ½”

HINT: this is a horizontal card 

Add greeting of your choice a die cut item and embellishment.

You Inspire Me Card
You Inspire Me Card

For more of my Stampin’ Up! cards, please click here.

You will find the items listed above in my online store.

My Summer Sailing Card

My Summer Sailing Card - a card with Lighthouse and Sailboat on it
My Summer Sailing Card

Hello Crafty Friends! Laurie here again! For the First Day of Summer, I am sharing My Summer Sailing Card using the Framed Scenes Bundle and the Sunrise Sailing Bundle by Stampin’ Up!

I was honoured to be asked to present my colouring techniques using Stampin’ Blends to 24 demonstrators at a Stampin’ Up! Play Date that was organized this past weekend by my team leaders. They asked me to demonstrate colouring a scene with Stampin’ Blends that could be used as a Father’s Day card and the Framed Scenes Bundle was perfect for this! I taught things like underpainting, tip-to-tip, colouring die cuts and so much more!

My card was used as my swap for the event, but not everyone participated in the swap. So, I created some simple bookmarks for the others so that they could explore using the Blends.

Bookmark
Bookmark

The Details of My Summer Sailing Card

For my card, I thought it would be fun to use a z-fold so that I could show off the gorgeous sailboat on the Sunrise Sailing Hybrid Embossing Folder.

I knew that I wanted the full sailboat to be on the inside of my card. So, I cut the Balmy Blue card stock and embossed it twice. Once so that the sailboat was centred on one piece of card stock. The second piece of card stock was embossed on the left side of the embossing folder parallel to where the first one was embossed…this allowed for a continuation of the waves from front to back of the card. There was a small amount of boat showing on the front piece, but the focal point covered it.

Top of Card
Top of Z-Fold Card

For my focal point, I placed it off centre to the left of the card so that the embossed boat can be seen peeking out from the inside layer. The Country Woods DSP created a perfect wooden frame around my colouring.

The sentiment was embossed in white and then the end was snipped at an angle.

The small sailboat and the trio of birds were added to the card to create interest and lead the eye inside the card. The finishing touch was three Riverside Irregular Pearls with one on the front and two on the inside panel.

My Colouring Techniques/Tips for My Summer Sailing Card

Underpainting

Underpainting is where a third colour is added to create extra depth especially in the shadows. For my colouring, I used Light Smoky Slate along the edges of the lighthouse where the shadows would be the darkest. Once I laid that colour down, I used the Dark Real Red to go over the Smoky Slate and extend it a little bit further into the highlight. Then, I added the Light Real Red and blended it into the dark. If your highlight is too dark, you can use the Color Lifter to lighten the highlight colour.

Tip-To-Tip

Tip-to-tip is where you take two colours that are different and apply one tip of the marker to the other one to transfer some colour.

For the reflection in the water, I used the Colour Lifter and rubbed it against the Dark Real Red marker to pick up a small amount of red. When I first applied the Color Lifter with the red to my image, it was the darkest. So, I used that for the shadows along the water edge and the edges of the lighthouse reflection. As I coloured, the red was used up until it was colourless. This created a highlight in the water to mirror the highlight in the lighthouse. Once, that was done, I just scribbled off on a piece of scrap paper to remove any red from the Color Lifter.

Close Up of Lighthouse
Close Up of Colouring on Bookmark

Colouring Die Cuts

One thing that most people don’t think about is colouring your die cuts with Stampin’ Blends to create dimension. For the sail of the boat, I used Light Smoky Slate and my Color Lifter. I coloured Light Smoky Slate triangles at the bottom of the sails to make them look like they are full. Then, I extended a line up the mast from the bottom to the top. Once that was done, I used my Color Lifter to soften the edges along the centre of the sail pushing the ink towards the lines (shadows) that I added.

Adding Texture to Leaves

For my trees, I decided to add texture with dots. First, I coloured the leaves in Light Old Olive and let it dry. It needed it to dry so that the dark would not bleed when added. Then, I used my Dark Old Olive and added random dots to the leaves making sure that where there were shadows, I concentrated my dots. At this point, the dots may look strange, like a polka dotted tree lol, but by going over them with the Light Old Olive next, it blended the edges of the Dark creating texture and dimension.

Blending from Colour to White

The final technique that I taught was how to blend from colour to white such as for the sky. I used Light Balmy Blue and edged my scene where the sky was on the image. Then, I used a flicking motion of my Light Balmy Blue marker from this line out to the white. This flicking allowed the marker to blend easier than if there was a solid line. Once that was done, I used my Colour Lifter and used circular motions along the edge where the blue ended, and the white began. This softened that edge creating a transition from colour to white.

Both Card and Bookmark
Both Card and Bookmark

Supplies for My Summer Sailing Card:

Stamps/Bundles/Dies: Framed Scenes Bundle (165397), Sunrise Sailing Bundle (165497)

Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (132708), VersaMark Ink (102283)

Paper: Thick Basic White (159229), Basic White (159276), Balmy Blue (146982), Real Red (102482), Country Woods 12” x 12” Designer Series Paper (163393)

Accessories: Riverside Irregular Pearls (164937), Basics Embossing Powder (165679), Embossing Additions Tool Kit (159971), Real Red Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack (154899), Old Olive Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack (154892), Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack (154882), Balmy Blue Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack (154830), Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends Combo (154904), Stampin’ Blends Color Lifter (144608), Paper Trimmer (152392), Paper Snips (103579), Bone Folder (102300), Stampin’ Dimensionals (104430), Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals (144108), Stampin’ Seal (152813), Mini Glue Dots (103683), Multipurpose Liquid Glue (110755)

Close Up of Lighthouse on Card
Close Up of Lighthouse on Card

Measurements for My Summer Sailing Card

  • Thick Basic White:
    • 11” x 4 ¼” scored at 2 ¾” and 5 ½”
  • Balmy Blue:
    • 4” x 2 ½” (2 pieces)
    • ½” x 3” (sentiment)
  • Basic White:
    • 3 ¼” x 2 ½”
    • Scraps for Birds and Sail
    • 6” x 2 ½” for Bookmark
  • Real Red:
    • Scrap for Boat
  • Country Woods Designer Series Paper:
    • 3 ½” x 2 ¾”

More Information on My Summer Sailing Card

For more information on my colouring, here are some videos of my colouring techniques from a few years ago:

1 – PartWhiskey Business Card using Blending Different Colours Technique
Video Tutorial: Blending Different Colours Together

2 – PartCountry Harvest Card using Light to Dark Technique
Video Tutorial: Light to Dark/Dark to Light Colouring

3 – PartBeautiful Poppy Birthday Card using Smooth Colouring Technique
Video Tutorial: Smooth Colouring

4 – PartLet’s Gather Together Card using Tip to Tip Blending Technique
Video Tutorial: Tip to Tip Colouring

5 – PartSo Grateful Cardinal Card using Flicking Colouring Technique
Video Tutorial: Flicking Colouring

6 – PartLet’s Celebrate You Card using Flicking of Different Colours Technique
Video Tutorial: Flicking of Different Colours Technique

To learn how to colour a scene from scratch: https://youtu.be/6w4fkxgA9rg?si=wDBFSRaqzREeGEVs

My Colouring Notes:

https://stampwithlaurie.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Stampin-Up-Blends-2020.pdf

For more of my cards using Stampin’ Blends, please click here.

For more of my Stampin’ Up! cards, please click here.

You will find the items listed above in my online store