August Leading Lady Tracey McNeely | Take One

It's the first Saturday of the month so that means a new Leading Lady!  This month I have the absolute pleasure of introducing our August Leading Lady, Tracey McNeely.  Not only is she incredibly talented, but truly one of the most down-to-earth and soul-deep sweet, kind and nice people you will ever meet.  She also hosts an annual 25 Days of Christmas Tags event which is always a delight.

I am really excited to see what Tracey will be creating this month as she takes us on an adventure of her own design on Saturdays in August on the w&w blog.

Please give Tracey a big round of applause to welcome her as she steps onto the stage for her first performance as our August Leading Lady! 

 

Hi Friends!

I am super excited to be posting today as the Winnie & Walter Leading Lady for the month of August! I was so thrilled when my friend Shay invited me to be one of her Leading Ladies. Shay is smart, crazy talented and overall just a wonderful person that I have had the pleasure of meeting two times on crafting retreats in Kansas. This past retreat she was my 3:00 am cab ride buddy to the airport to catch our early flights!

When I was trying to decide what to do for my first post for this month, I had so many ideas but when I sat down to play with the stamps and dies the answer of my question became very obvious to me. If you were to ask me what type of designer I am my answer will be 'Clean and Simple'. I love white space, designs that are not cluttered but mostly designs that have breathing room. Not all of my cards are clean and simple, I do love to make a mess sometimes too, but my roots are clean and simple. Creating a CAS card is not always simple, in fact sometimes it can take hours to finish off a design that feels right. I thought for this week I could share with you some ideas of things I do to add interest to my CAS cards that take them from plain to wow.

I used the Dotty About You with Lydia Evans clear stamp set to create a rainbow of dotted circles onto a white panel. I stamped all three sizes overlapping some of them. The panel was trimmed down so that I could mount it on to the card base.The sentiment was stamped on to the panel and the YOU die cut was adhered below it.

To add more interest I popped up the panel with foam tape for dimension. Just doing that one step makes such a difference. Next I added some sparkling clear sequins, just a few to create a visual triangle. Finally I filled the sequin with some silver Stickles for some sparkle. Three small changes that ramp up the card without adding weight to the overall design.

For my second card once again I kept the design CAS. The basic design is the two dogs cuddling and the cute sentiment.To add more interest to the card I cut the scalloped panel from watercolour paper and then created a loose watercolour background using some Distress Oxide inks. I love the way they dry. The sentiment was stamped directly on the panel. The two dogs were Copic coloured and added with foam tape an finally the wee heart was watercoloured die cut was added.

I have a  $30 gift certificate for Winnie & Walter gift certificate to giveaway on my blog, In My Creative Opinion. Visit all four of my Leading Lady posts this month and leave me a comment. At the end of the month I will draw a name from my comments from over the month to win!

I hope you enjoyed today's post and can't wait to show you what I have planned for next week!