Spotlight On...Cris G!

We are proud to bring you our next Spotlight On...Cris G!  Cris instantly caught our attention with her thoughtful and delightful deftness with design and composition.  For instance THIS CARD she created for The Gossip Column which is just gorgeous. 

Wait until you see what she's made today...you will see Cris shine!       

Hello creative and talented crafters!

My name is Cristina and I live and love with my husband in the sunny and peaceful Portugal. For the ones who already know me Cris G. is my usual signature, and for those who don’t have a clue of who I am, you can find my work in this Flickr gallery - https://www.flickr.com/photos/95118517@N03/. I would love if you stop by when you have some time, though I understand if you don’t, we all have busy periods in life... sometimes it is difficult for me to stop by my own Flickr home :).

I’ve been a crafty girl and an avid learner in different areas, mostly related to arts and crafts, for all my life. I started my paper crafting adventure two and a half years ago, after watching hundreds an undefined number of videos and tutorials. When I felt prepared I made my first card, and then many others... and hated all of them :). Now I feel more comfortable with my work, but I’m still not so pleased with some of my projects.

It was with surprise and a whole lot of happiness that I received the invitation from Shay and Julie, to be in the Spotlight for the month of October. Thank you so much for the privilege!

THE PROJECTS

October is the month of black and white at W&W, and so I went all b&w with little pops of color. Just a few spots of color will enhance the neutrals, causing a higher visual impact.

I chose the stretch your stash topic because I believe we can get so much more from our supplies than we usually do, myself included... and it can be so much fun as you discover new uses.

I found this quote the other day: “think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram” :). That’s it!

IN HALVES

1.  I started by drawing a sketch with the die cut flower shapes from Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Maggie’s Roses Cutaways into some scrap paper, for a coherent composition.
2. With two pieces of cardstock, black and white, slightly bigger than the usual 4.25” x 5.50”, die cut flowers using the solid flower dies and the previous sketch as a guide.*
3. Cut both panels in half and inlay the black positive solid flowers in the white cardstock and vice versa, with the help of a thin piece of paper (like photocopy paper) glued to the back of both pieces. Trim off excess of flowers hanging in the centre of both panels.
4.  Align both pieces of cardstock and adhere to a regular 4.25” x 5.50” white card base. Trim off the excess around.
5. Pick the detailed Maggie’s Roses Cutaways dies, and use the outline flowers dies (positive) as a guide to adhere the negative pieces of each flower and leaf.
6. Adhere two pre-made die cut labels.

* TIP - I could have done those inlaid pieces in a much easier way. Since only the centre where the two colors meet together had to be aligned, I could have aligned the two half pieces first and die cut just the centre and then all the other flowers separately. The truth is, usually, when I start a card, I have a blur image of the finished design... I adjust things all the way through the end.

For this card I started with two pieces of cardstock a little bigger than the size of a card so I could decide what to do after die cutting the flowers in both pieces in the exact same place. What I did was temporarily adhere the white and black cardstock together and run it through my Big Shot, embossing with the flowers dies. I ended up with an indentation that allowed me to know exactly where to die cut each piece afterwards, since the result of cutting through two pieces of heavy weight cardstock is never satisfactory. I hope my explanation won't be too confusing... If you have any questions, I will happily try to help.

ODE TO WINTER WOODLAND

1. First spritz black marble Dylusions ink spray, concentrating in the top left corner of a white piece of cardstock. Then cut the piece at an angle and adhere a thin strip of black cardstock at the bottom.
2. Using the wood growth rings stamp from Winnie & Walter Winter Woodland stamp set, stamp it in a piece of scrap paper and cut out. Do the same with the bird, this time using a craft knife, because you will need the negative image. Use it as a stencil to blend colors in, then cut out the finished bird. Save for later.
3.  Stamp a partial image of the deer in black, from the same stamp set, near the bottom right corner of card base. Using a thin brush and an acrylic block, do just a few controlled spatters around the deer. Add a little piece of washi tape and a black gem.
4. With a craft knife and the previously stamped image as a guide, cut out the wood shape from the spritzed panel. Draw a fine line on the card base with a pencil through that open area, and stamp the top portion of the tree from Winter Woodland with VersaMark ink. Heat emboss with enchanted gold powder. Using foam adhesive, create a zone for a shaker around that area and fill it with dry stickles and tiny gold stars.
5. Stamp the wood growth rings with VersaMark ink onto a piece of heat resistant acetate and heat emboss with white powder. Adhere the acetate to the back of top panel and mount on card base with more foam tape.
6. Stamp the sentiment and berries and fussy cut. Glue sentiment to top piece and adhere the bird from step 2 with foam tape.

TIP - Mix goodies and what they are intended to be; for example, use solid stamps as stencils to get a blended ombre effect.

Heat embossing on acetate is so much fun and gives so many possibilities... and it is very easy. You just have to be sure your acetate is good for photocopy or printing, and let your heat tool reach a high temperature first.

SMALLER, PLEASE

1. Cut a white card base and dry emboss the front using Winnie & Walter Scenery:Persuasion Script Creative Screenings. Glue a circle of black cardstock.
2. Using a solid die flower from Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Maggie’s Roses Cutaways, die cut the bigger flower 7 times from vellum. Give the shape of petals to each die cut flower, making two layers: one with 4 petals and another one with 3. Adhere the resulting 3D flower to a small circle of white cardstock, and this one to the black circle.
3. Stamp the faceted circle from Winnie & Walter True stamp set in a piece of white shrink plastic, using Archival ink or StazOn ink. Allow the ink to dry and then trim around or die cut. Repeat the procedure with the word Treasure. Now this is the fun part!!! I used my heat tool and the results are quite good, but if you prefer you can use your oven.
4. After the two pieces are completely cool, color the circle with nail polish for some transparency, let dry and add a second coat with Glossy Accents. Leave the word Treasure as is. As an alternative, paint with other coloring medium of your preference, then coat with VersaMark ink and heat emboss with clear embossing powder (this option wasn’t experimented yet).
5. To finish off the card, tie a bow in a piece of silk ribbon around the card front and crop the upper right corner.

TIP - Use your not-intended-for-3D-flowers dies to create beautiful 3D flowers.

Use shrink plastic to make unique personalized embellishments.

Explore the versatility of your supplies (I have to remember this one more often!) :).

Most of all have FUN!!!

This is all from me for now.

It was a pleasure working with these fantastic Winnie & Walter products!

See you soon!