Saturday, April 30, 2016

April Leading Lady Rubeena Naz | Take Five

April will soon be ending with sadly means it is our last Saturday with our awe-inspiring and awesome April Leading Lady, Rubeena Naz.  The last five weeks with Ruby have been tremendously inspiring, fun and astonishing.  Ruby's ability to create with such passion, skill and scope is something we can all aspire to and made each post a joy to read.  I feel so blessed for Ruby sharing her talents and self this month!

If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or her sensational second performance of bright and bold watercolor wonders CLICK HERE or her triumphant third performance of dazzling My Precious projects CLICK HERE or her fashionably fabulous fourth performance CLICK HERE.  

Lucky for us all we have her final command performance today.  


Good morning! I am back with my fifth and last post as Leading Lady for Winnie & Walter! Thanks so much for all your comments on my last four posts. If you missed them, you can find them here.

  Rubeena_Naz_april2016 

As usual, I'm excited to continue and share my creative process with you! Shay is offering my blog followers a $30 Winnie & Walter gift card as a giveaway. You can see the details of the giveaway at the end of this post.

I have shared four posts full of ideas for finding inspiration for cardmaking. To be honest, I have struggled with figuring out what things to share with you. I am sure many of you can relate to the feeling of creating whatever you're in the mood to create. Often times, the inspiration just doesn't come when you need it. Guest designing is a great challenge for me because I set out to do something different. I really wanted to come up with masculine cards, but I'll just have to admit that I am still struggling there! Ha. So today I am sharing cards that focus on BACKGROUNDS! It's one of the easiest ways to come up with beautiful cards -- create your own backgrounds.

Once I knew I wanted to focus on this theme, I ended up with a hot mess in my room. Seriously, I even ended up spilling water all over my desk while I was trying to watercolor. The end result was eight cards! They're pretty basic but pretty!

Cards 1 and 2: Distress Inks

I love creating backgrounds using distress inks and the blending tools. You can create some great combinations for scenes like a sunset, sunrise, night sky, or galaxy look. For the first card, I used black and a few different shades of blue that I blended into an ombré night sky onto watercolor card stock piece. I prepped the base with powder to prevent stray embossing powder. I stamped the stars from Wishing You with Evelin T Designs with VersaMark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I glued the panel to my white card base. Separately, I die-cut the word 'happy' from In a Word: Happy Cutaway from white card stock. I stamped 'everything" from The Big, the Bold, and the Happy using a dark blue ink and second generation stamping. Finally, I added the 'happy' with foam tape above the words.

ww 05 01ww 05 02

For the second card, I used different shades of red, orange, and yellow and Scenery: Pattern of the Rings Creative Screenings. Once the colors were blended, I die-cut the panel using the large scallop frame die from Essentials: Audrey Cutaways. I die-cut the word 'hugs' from In a Word: Hugs Cutaway from the center of the colored panel as well as from a separate white card stock piece. I removed the color version and inserted the white 'hugs' and glued the panel onto a white card base.

ww 05 03ww 05 04

Cards 3 and 4: Shapes

Another way to create your own background is using solid or outline shades. For the next two cards, I used images from Scenery: Rectangled & Triangled. I stamped the small solid triangle in different Distress Ink shades and created a colorful background. I die-cut to a small panel and added some black watercolor splatters. I attached the panel to the center of a white card base. I die-cut the word 'thanks' from In a Word: Thanks Cutaway from black card stock and attached to center with foam tape.

ww 05 05ww 05 06

For the next card, I stamped the long rectangle stamp a few times to create a brick-like pattern on a white watercolor panel in a waterproof black ink. I added some watercolor in the bottom corner. I die-cut the word 'always' from The Big, the Bold and Comfort Cutaways from black cardstock and attached it with foam tape. I stamped 'with love' from The Big, the Bold, and the Happy with VersaMark on black card stock and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I trimmed it down to small label size and glued it above 'always' with foam tape.

ww 05 07ww 05 08

Card 5: Words

One interesting way to create your own background is to stamp sentiments repeatedly. I stamped 'hello' from The Big, the Bold, and the Happy in a light gray ink on my card base. I rounded off the bottom corners. On watercolor cardstock, I stamped a flower and some ferns from In Bloom: Addie's Garden and colored them. I attached them to the center of the panel with foam tape. I stamped 'to my friend' from The Big, the Bold, and the Happy in black ink.

ww 05 09ww 05 10

Cards 6, 7, and 8: Florals

One of the best ways to create gorgeous cards is to stamp a background using flowers or ferns. You can leave them without color or add coloring. I share three different looks. For the first card, I stamped one of the images repeatedly on a watercolor panel using Pine Needles Distress Ink. I used the same color to add a bit of color to the images. When dried, I glued the panel to a white card base. I die-cut the word 'thanks' from In a Word: Thanks Cutaway four times and stacked them together over the center. Such a simple and quick card, but look how pretty it turned out! It would be great to create a set of these in different colors.

ww 05 13ww 05 14

For the next card, I stamped one of the flowers from In Bloom: Addie's Garden repeatedly in black ink on the card base. I left them alone and did not color them. I die-cut the word 'hello' from In a Word: Hello Cutaway from gold glitter cardstock. I glued it to a small rectangle panel of black glitter cardstock and matted it down over some gold thread before sticking it to the stamped panel.

ww 05 11ww 05 12

My last card shows one of my favorite ways to create backgrounds. I stamped another image from In Bloom: Addie's Garden repeatedly as I did in the last card. This time, I colored using my Mission Gold watercolors. Once it dried, I glued it to a white card base. On a strip of black card stock, I stamped the sentiment from Happiest of Holidays with Evelin T Designs with VersaMark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I added the strip to the center with foam tape.

ww 05 15ww 05 16

I hope you have felt inspired by all the tips I've shared in my Leading Lady posts! Thank you so so so much for all the amazing comments you've left me! It's been a great experience to share my work with you. Winnie & Walter is generously offering a $30 gift card to my readers so be sure to visit me at A Rare Ruby to enter to win! :)


w&w-supplies

31 comments:

  1. Seriously your leading lady posts have been outstanding. So many wonderful techniques and ideas. Love love love them all

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow. So talented. All her projects are gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gorgeous cards! I love the backgrounds, especially with the word dies layered on top. I have enjoyed all of your creations this month. You have inspired me!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a lovely cards . All of them is so pretty . Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow! Ruby totally rocked this month!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Awesome cards to wrap up Rubeena's 5th Leading Lady spot!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful ways to make
    your backgrounds.
    Carla from Utah

    ReplyDelete
  8. So much eye candy in one post! I am blown away at the beauty of all of these!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Ruby ~ Shay & Julie ~ WOW!! Once again, Ruby, you've knocked my socks off. There's no way I'd be able to pick a favorite of all your W & W creations but you've given me so very much inspiration, just when I need it most. Good thing CASEing isn't illegal!! LOL ~HUGS~ Ladies!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love all the gorgeous cards you created and the great backgrounds.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, those cards are awesome! I especially love the starry background. The white embossing and those splatters really make that sky look impressive. You have such a great way with stamps that aren't that easy to use in a design.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The blending of the colors is amazing.
    I love that dark night sky.
    thanks for sharing so many great cards
    and for having Rubeena Naz as the guest
    for the month.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ruby, your backgrounds are blended to perfection! All of cards the past week are just beautiful. You've given us all a lot of gorgeous inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just love all the different techniques used to create these gorgeous backgrounds, BRAVO, Ruby!

    ReplyDelete
  15. All fabulous cards, the starry sky is my favourite :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. As always, I totally enjoyed your work here Ruby. Today's cards were no exception. You may not have gotten a masculine card made but you more than made up for that with all of the beautiful cards today! A great Leading Lady!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautiful cards! Fabulous inspiration ♥

    ReplyDelete
  18. Gosh, so many fabulous cards! All gorgeous & very inspirational.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow!! These are fabulous!! Thanks for all the inspiration this month, Rubeena
    -Berina
    Moxie Craftie

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow! Ruby's projects are all absolutely gorgeous!!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. You've been a fabulous leading lady, Ruby! And leave us on a totally fabulous note! thank you!
    =]

    ReplyDelete
  22. What a stunning lineup - gorgeous cards!

    ReplyDelete
  23. So, so beautiful and stunning and uber cool!! You have dazzled and delighted me with all of these cards!! So impressive!!! Wonderful job as leading lady!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. WOW, can't pick one fav, they all are beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wonderful cards...so varied and interesting. Great time looking at your posts Rubeena!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wow...I don't know how Ruby comes up with all these fabulous cards..she and her cards are amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Totally cool cards, Rubeena! It doesn't look like you struggle to find inspiration at any moment. Thank you for sharing a bit of your powerful creativity... it seems to be immense!

    ReplyDelete
  28. W O W
    Your stamping, colouring and designs are AMAZING Rubeena!!!
    LOVE your CREATIVE STYLE!!!
    THANK YOU for sharing your INKY INSPIRATION :)
    PS – please don’t include me in your prize draw, I was the super lucky winner from the previous Leading Lady

    ReplyDelete

Your comments make Winnie's and Walter's tails wag in happiness. If you are commenting for a giveaway it is really helpful if you include your email address or that your Blogger or Google account includes a way to email you. :-)