Celebrating Sunflowers – Tic Tac Toe Challenge #78

Hello there my stamping friends, I have missed you! I am sorry to have been away for so long! I have been very busy moving to and setting up my new home in Missoula, Montana and have had all of my goodies packed away for sooooo long! But I’m back and sharing the new board this week at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge!

I thought I would go straight across the middle this week with Stencil, Celebration and Any Shape Die:

Details:

• I received the ‘Celebrate Sunflowers’ bundle as part of my most recent Stampin’ Up! order – it was a must have for me out of the new annual catalog, BUT I have seen tons of samples with it used in traditional colors (yellow and brown) and while there is nothing wrong with that, I was not inspired. I did however have some Swedish Fish at hand and they seem to have influenced my color choice with this card 🙂
• I pulled out all of my pink Stampin’ Blends and decided to pair Flirty Flamingo with Poppy Parade and then turned myself loose on this poor unsuspecting stamped sunflower! I chose Crumb Cake and Soft Suede to color the flower center and the leaves – they all look SO pretty together!

• I pulled out the new Polka Dot Stampin’ Up! Basic Pattern Decorative Masks to create my background. I taped a piece of white card stock down and then taped the mask down over top of it and then inked it up well with my Versamark ink pad – at least that was my INTENTION, lol, I actually inked it up with my Black Onyx Versafine ink pad (whoops) and so now had a black inky MESS all over the top of my stencil!! While cleaning it up I noticed that the black ink did not actually make it into any of the holes in the stencil (eek), thwarting my plan to have a polka dot heat embossed background! So I pulled out a new piece of white cardstock and repeated the process (this time with Versamark ink!) and added a step – after the stencil was liberally smeared with Versamark ink, I took a micro fiber cloth and smeared the ink INTO the holes, lifted off the stencil, applied white embossing powder and set the whole mess with my heat tool and … IT WORKED! I was SO excited! in the end however, I chose to use just a 3/4″section of the embossed background and snipped each end into a lovely banner using the new ‘Banner Pick A Punch’ – quick, easy and precise!
• I then stamped one of the sentiments from the ‘Celebrate Sunflowers’ bundle (leaving off the ‘Let’s’ at the beginning) onto a retangluar die cut, and mounted both the banner strip and the flower dies as well.

• I applied Wink of Stella to the flower petals, applied Crystal Effects to the flower center, added a pretty bow with an Elegant Faceted Gem in in center as the jewelry for my lovely flower 🙂
• I ran the envelope flap through my Big Shot with one of the dies from the new ‘Ornamental Envelopes’ bundle and backed it with pretty Flirty Flamingo DSP from the new basic DSP stacks – what a lovely way to dress up an envelope, don’t you agree??

• Finally, I stamped the inside card panel with another sunflower stamp from the ‘Celebrate Sunflowers’ bundle and colored it in to coordinate with the flower on the card front and added a sentiment from the new ‘Happiest of Birthdays’ stamp set. I stamped the sentiment in Black Onyx Versafine ink and masked off the second line with a post it while inking up the stamp. I then used my Poppy Parade Stamps’ Write marker to ink up the second line and stamped it as well. It didn’t come out as perfectly as I would have liked so I inked it up again and stamped it a second time – that’s the beauty of the Stamparatus (and other) stampin tool. You can do that easily! I think I will be using my Stampin’ Write markers more now that I know I have a second chance to get the colors just right!

This card was for a very special someone and so was a true labor of love. I so enjoyed playing along with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge board and encourage you to get your stamping toys out and play along as well! All the guidelines are posted on the blog, making it very easy to play along – hope to see you in the gallery! And please don’t forget to enjoy all of the fine inspiration from the rest of the design team!

Blessings to you and thank you SO very much for stopping by today!

Supplies (all Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise noted):

Card Stock:  Neenah Classic Crest Cover Solar White, both 80 lb (layers) and 110 lb (card base)

DSP: Brights 6″ x 6″ DSP Assortments

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Versafine Onyx Black

Stamps: Celebrate Sunflowers and Happiest of Birthdays

Coloring Tools: Light & Dark Stampin Blends in Flirty Flamingo, Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede. Flirty Flamingo Stampin’ Write Marker

Dies: Sunflowers Dies; Envelopes Dies and Stitched Rectangles Dies 

Tools: Banners Pick A Punch; White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool; Basic Pattern Decorative Masks

Embellishments: Elegant Faceted Gems; 1/4″ Whisper White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon

Other: Whisper White Envelope