Playful Backgrounds & Sunshine Wishes for CTS#195

Before I share today’s card, I want to say “THANK YOU” to the incredible design team at CAS(E) This Sketch.  What an honor to be selected as a favorite from the amazing collection of cards submitted to the challenges at CAS(E) This Sketch – it’s even more amazing to be selected as the winner.  My sweet-and-simple Merry Christmas card from last week was selected as the winner for that challenge – woo hoo!  You can see that project here.  Thanks to the team at CTS – it’s always fun to play along!

This week’s sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch gave me a perfect opportunity to FINALLY use one of the new stamps sets I’ve owned from the moment I could order from Stampin’ Up!’s 2016   Catalog.  I love the set and have so many ideas for how to use it, but [until yesterday] I have yet to ink it up.  Chrissy Larson’s sketch allows me to perfectly showcase this fun set, which I paired with Sunshine Wishes for a bright a cheery congrats card.  Here’s my card:

And here’s the banner for the challenge that inspired my card:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• Sweet Confetti.  The splotches at the top of Chrissy’s sketch are an artistic, fun accent for any card.  Fun flowers, blue skies, a beautiful wash of color – the options to mimic the splotches are endless.  I turned the sketch on its side and chose to create a bright deluge of party confetti.  The open circles from Playful Backgrounds gave me just what I needed to create this party favor – using Flirty Flamingo as a cheery complement to the Tempting Turquoise piece of Festive Birthday Designer Series Paper in the background of this card.  How fun!  These four photopolymer stamps (you can see right through them) are so easy to precisely line up for the look of randomly placed shapes.  🙂
  

  Playful Backgrounds, Stampin’ Up!

  To fill in a few of the large circles from this burst of confetti, I used the circle stamp from Jar of Love – stamping some with Flirty Flamingo (stamped off once) and stamping some with Tempting Turquoise (stamped off once).  The dot fit right inside these open circles – love!

• Tips for the Placement of Random Objects.  When stamping a single image on a card over and over, you don’t always want the objects to overlap.  Sometimes you want the small, single image to appear like one big image.  Make sense?  The perfect placement of random objects on a card can be tricky, so I want to share a few tips that might help.  While this might seem old-hat to some of you, others will [fingers crossed] have an “aha!” moment with this suggestion.  When stamping a small image in repetition (when you want it to look like one big image):
  • Rotate the stamp so that the pattern of the single stamp isn’t easily distinguished.
  • Start by stamping in the middle of the card and working your way out – it’s easier to stamp off the card than to fit in another image between images in the center of the card.
  • Be careful with changing colors if you are looking for a uniform look (different colors will ID the shape of the small image).

• Bright-and-Sweet Color Combination.  This is a pretty basic color combination – offshoots of blue and red.  Flirty Flamingo is a pinkish color with bright tones, and Tempting Turquoise is a bright, cheery blue.  The Basic Black border and sentiment help to tone down all the brightness that come from Flirty Flamingo and Tempting Turquoise.  If you like this combination, too, feel free to save this:

Stamp Sets:  Playful Backgrounds, Cottage Greetings, Jar of Love  Papers:  Festive Birthday Designer Series Paper,  Basic Black, Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White  Inks:  Flirty Flamingo, Tempting Turquoise, Archival Basic Black  Accessories:  Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Playful Backgrounds Photopolymer Stamp Set – 141920

Price: $16.00

Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies – 141489

Price: $27.00

Cottage Greetings Clear-Mount Stamp Set – 139962

Price: $19.00

Jar Of Love Photopolymer Stamp Set – 141587

Price: $27.00

Festive Birthday Designer Series Paper – 141630

Price: $11.00

Flirty Flamingo 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 141416

Price: $8.00

Tempting Turquoise 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 102067

Price: $8.00

Basic Black 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 121045

Price: $8.00

Jar Of Love Photopolymer Bundle – 142342

Price: $54.00

Sunshine Sayings Clear-Mount Bundle – 142339

Price: $45.00

Supply List

I hope you’ll pop over to the CAS(E) This Sketch site to see the cards by the design team members and to play along with this week’s challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian