Saturday, June 22, 2013

a Rainbow Colour-Blocked card - A Day for Daisies magazine article. :)

When the lovely Tammy, of A Day for Daisies fame, asked me to 
make a card that would be included in her feature article for  
Complete Cardmaking Magazine I jumped  for joy! Then I made this...

A Day For Daisies 'i love my two girls' card by mel stampz


Here's a little peek at the article:

Complete Cardmaking magazine article - A Day for Daisies

It was such a thrill to hold a real magazine in my hands, for a change! :)

The cards that the team at A Day for Daisies made for the article are so gorgeous!

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The image is called "I Love my Two Girls"
I printed it at 70% for this card:

A Day For Daisies 'i love my two girls'


This sweet little portrait digi reminded me of my best friend Kim & her twins girls. (They're a bunch of gorgeous, angelic people just like these gals).

The image was heat embossed by printing on Paris Bleedproof paper for Pens (Borden & Riley) and then quickly covering with fine/detail clear embossing powder & melting it with a heat gun. You can read more about heat-embossing digital images, here.

I scratched lines for the hair into the cardstock in with a paper piercer (to add texture).

It's coloured with these copic markers... skin: shaded with E00 Skin white &  C1 cool gray no.1. blush on cheeks: E50 pinkish white hair: W1 Warm Gray No.1; W3 Warm Gray No.3; touches of Y02 Canary Yellow (on a clear blender pen); YG91 Putty; W7 Warm Gray No.7; E44 Clay; E49 Dark Bark; 100 Black background: BG10 Cool Shadow.


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The embossed background was made using white cardstock embossed with Sizzix Tropical Paisley folder that was slathered in Gesso. Here's how:

 apply a little gesso or paint to a piece of card (or an old plastic gift card)

Step 1) Pressure emboss a piece of cardstock in an embossing folder.

Step 2) Apply gesso or paint to an old plastic gift card.

swipe embossed cardstock with gesso or paint

Step 3) Swipe the paint on the cardstock, over the raised areas of the embossing.

use the weight of a die cutting machine to flatten buckled painted paper

Step 4) Allow it to dry to the touch (don't worry about buckling). Tip: You can speed up drying time with a blow dryer (the kind you use for your hair) but heat guns may cause paint to bubble. :-)


Step 5) You can straighten it out easily: Once it's dry to the touch, set your painted embossed piece under something flat & heavy (like a stack of books).

I like to use my embossing machine. With a plate under it. It has just the right weight and is always within reach.

You can also ink your piece & sand it for more texture, if you like:

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Here's a close-up photo of the textured paper:

Tiny punched flower paper

 It was made by punching out tiny flowers from Fiskar's 'Scalloped Daisy' 
border punch then  piercing a hole in the middle of each:

 tiny paper orange blossoms made with punch outs from fiskars flower scallop punch

And gluing them on paper...

You could do this with any punched shape, really.  It's a bit time consuming, but it's quite easy and in the end you have something that's a little out of the ordinary. And I'm probably stating the obvious here, but you can save time by only adding flowers to the areas that show on your card.


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The 3D flowers were paper pieced by filling with digital paper colours and fussy cutting. The flower stamens were made by stitching on white thread & silver seed beads:

3D flowers & silver beads for stamens

Tammy gave her permission for me to share the rainbow-filled flowers as a free image 
in case anyone would like to do their own paper piecing: 
i love my two girls - a day for daisies - paper piecing flowers
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To make two-layered flowers, you could try this in Photoshop:

1) Open the "I love my two girls" image.
2) Open the rainbow flowers & copy them.
3) Paste the flowers & arrange them over the image.
4) Print the image & an extra set of flowers to layer.

Don't have Photoshop

You could simply print & cut them and stick them on the image.

Need a quick card?
You could just lay the rainbow flowers over the image & print
if you need a quick card & don't want to be fussy cutting.


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Here's the rainbow frame, in case you'd like to use it:
RAINBOW - A2 card MAT example
To make the frame, I just made a grid in Photoshop & then filled
 each square with some of my patterned papers (at a really small scale):
rainbow frame PNG in PHOTOSHOP 2
And here is the blank Overlay version, in case you'd like to 
make your own custom frame or square quilt paper:

Overlay - square grid A2 size 5.5 x 4.25 inch - free digital element SAMPLE ONLY

or you can find the blank overlay here on flickr.

New to making papers?

You might want to check out this tutorial for filling with pattern in Photoshop
or this one using Gimp (which is a free program).


And here's the inside of the card:

Inside - A Day For Daisies 'i love my two girls' card by mel stampz

Just some tiny graph paper in light turquoise,
with a simple little strip of rainbow and a row of more punched flowers.

Here's the strip, in case you might like to use it:

inside card rainbow strip

. 

 
How to save these single papers directly from my blog:

PC users in Firefox/Chrome: right click on the image & choose "save link as"
PC users in Explorer: right click on the image & choose "save target as".
Mac users: Visit flickr, here, click on the paper you want, then right click and 
select 'all sizes' & click on "download the original size of this photo" 


This digital work is offered up for free, but mainly for personal use only.


If something isn't working for you, or you would
like some tips on printing, please just let me know
  melstampz@gmail.com


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And they have challenges often - with free images. Here's a look at the latest release:
 It's a set of interactive paper doll images that dance & move!


Hope you're enjoying your day, ox





P.S. You might like to know that all of the images in the 'I Love...' collection come on a free CD with the magazine. It's such a great bargain. (You can also find them individually here and as a collection here.)

22 comments:

Kavitha Vadhri said...

beautiful card, thanks for sharing the free digi paper. would like to use it on my card.will share the link with you too. image is absolutely super. I loved the punched flowers idea.

Chriss Blagrave said...

Stunning and gorgeous! I love all of the exquisite details you selected for this card. Thanks so much for all of the photos of the detailed elements and the time that you take to share all of this with us!

Dawn said...

first off.... CONGRATS!!! a totally, awesome, beautiful card! so you! I love the hint of skin color. And...of course I LOVE your texture technique...which reminds me, I need to do that more often!!

thank you thank you for all your freebies...I love the way your brain works!!

hugz, kiddo!!

Mari said...

You. Rock. (that is all.) :D

Margaret McDonald said...

Congrats on the magazine article. Do you have a copy?
I could get you one I have connections!! Lent me know.
Miss you like crazy.
Auntie in Ontario ari ari Oh!

Sherry Eckblad said...

Absolutely love your card and was so happy to also be in that article showcasing Tammy's wonderful images.

Esther Asbury said...

Neat! Your rainbow edging reminds me of paint samples -- I may have to use some of mine to make something similar.

Erum Tasneem said...

&#^&^%#@@@(#(*# THAT my friend is me swearing with my jaw dropped! You craaaazayy woman you! Only you can do such wonders! Looks at all those tiny MINUSCULE flowers that you glued on SO perfectly (and that to $^&#& white! SO neatly!)
Gorgeous gorgeous texture on top of texture! brilliant really. I love the paper pieced bit, how you think out of the box to completely change the digi image (which is absolutely lovely).
I love the addition of all the colours and their shades, make the details pop out even more, and of course your stitching is to die for! Love that cute bow too!
You must be getting tired of hearing this again and again, but YOU my friend are and always will be the Crafting Queen.
xo,
Erum

Unknown said...

Mel, you are such a wizard when it comes to paper crafts...an artist with all of the techniques you used. My goodness, girl! This really is magazine-worthy work. How cool is that to see your work in print?! Congratulations...and thanks for sharing your artistry with us here.

Warmly,
Lauren
The Thinking Closet

Tine said...

Fabulous & how wonderful to be asked to create for the magazine too. Congrats!
Tine :)

Beth Norman-Roberts said...

Congratulations Mel! So deserving to be published. Your card is absolutely delightful. So well done and embellished.

Jennifer Scull said...

oh my gosh, I am sitting here in shock that my cards were actually published in the same article as YOU!!! you are so gosh darned FAMOUS and talented!!!! and when I got my mag I was so loving your gorgey card!! those little baby flowers are adorable!!! way to go!!!!

thanks for always inspiring! :)

Teresa said...

You are so amazing and I just love your card.. Congrats on getting in the mag and did I say how amazing you are!! Have a really good week...

Craftychris said...

Wonderful card - its so cool it was used in an article! Thank you for all the techniques and the downloads too xx

Carol W said...

This is awesome...thanks so much for sharing and or sharing the how to it takes to create this masterpiece....

Molly Smith said...

Wow, WOW ... I love the design of this card, it has everything. Your cheap trick is brilliant. I make those little flowers a lot, with a hand punch. Duh, never thought to use a border punch. Thanks for sharing the downloads - I love-love the colorful border. Excellent step-outs and photos .. congrats on being published with this amazing card.

Unknown said...

This card is gorgeous! The amazing details and colours! You are very talented and I appreciate you sharing your talent and the wonderful downloads. Thanks!

alexandra s.m. said...

so so beautiful Mel!
TFS~

katemade designs said...

Your talents are truly overwhelming. The care you take the in making these cards is mind blowing. The details are phenomenal. Thanks for sharing your process and downloads with us.

Elena said...

Every card you make is a little piece of art, Mel! I love every detail and element you added here. Really like the dimension to the flowers. And wow! Your coloring is just stunning!

Hetty said...

Beautiful card, with lovely elements. Thanks for sharing how to make it.

Holly Young said...

You are amazing! Congratulations on the magazine article!