March Leading Lady Maria Fischer | Take Four

Today is the last performance from our marvelous March Leading Lady, Maria Fischer.  March has been all the more magnificent because of Maria!  The last four weeks with Maria have been incredible.  Maria's strong sense of style, amazing talent, skill and keen ability to inspire brought week after week of joy.  Thank you, thank you Maria!

If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or sensational second performance focusing on the illustrated trend CLICK HERE or her triumphant third performance showcasing bold and stunning stripes CLICK HERE!

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

Time flies when you're having fun! And boy did I have fun playing with my w&w goodies. I appreciate your stopping by on this holiday weekend for Take Four of my Leading Lady stint at w&w. Thanks again to Shay for having me, and to all of you for your lovely comments. 

I'm wrapping up my gig with trendy METALLICS.

Gold. I don't think you could have missed this trend, thank you iPhone. Just when you thought gold might be going out of style in the cardmaking world, gold foiling hit the market and now metallics of all colors are all over the place. A touch of metallic sure gives a card pep. Let's take a look at some metallic options.

I sneaked a couple cards using gold foiled PP into Take Three. Did you see them? Well, I personally like metallics in stripe form, so I went about creating my own rose gold (thank you iPhone) stripes using recycled packaging to make this banner for my daughter's room. I missed her while she was on a ski trip :)

I die cut the circles using the solid and faceted dies from True Multifaceted Circle Cutaways. I left some of the facets in and backed the faceted circles with a circle of pink watercolor washed CS. Added punched circles of vellum and die cut woodgrain letters to the circles too. Stop by my blog to see how I assembled the banner.

Moving on. What better way to get a touch of metallic onto a project than with those shiny little pieces of plastic we've come to know and love? Sequins. And why not use lots of them from Lucy's Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection mix. And pair them up with shimmer cardstock, gold washi and gold ink spray?

Meet Card #1

The Flawless Diamond Cutaways lends itself perfectly to shaker making. I cut it from aqua shimmer CS, cut the solid out of a Neenah white panel and added a smooshed-with-Distress-Inks-and-splattered-with-gold-spray-ink background piece behind it. My sentiment is from My Precious which complements the faceted dies perfectly. Just look at all that metallic goodness trapped in that gem! Even tiny little clear stars - how lovely!

Card #2

Another oldie, but goodie for adding a metallic touch to a project is Perfect Pearls. With this faux metal technique (a la Jennifer M.) you brush them onto a Distress Inked area while it is still damp. I inked the masked area with Evergreen Bough and Cracked Pistachio. TIP: Use a water/Perfect Pearls mixture in a mini mister to lightly spray the finished area and set the Perfect Pearls.

When the panel was nearly dry I dry embossed it using Cover Model: Multifaceted Cutaway which I had cut from a cereal box. Isn't this geometric design perfect for the faux metal look? To finish off my card I added an offset layered "wishes" cut from shimmer CS using The Big, The Bold and Party Cutaways. and a heat embossed sentiment from The Big, The Bold and Party.

Remember how I said I like a little touch of metallic on cards? Well get ready for metallic overload.

Meet Card #3

Yep. That was white CS. Applied metallic embossing paste through the Scenery:Pattern of the Rings stencil. Punched a circle out of scrap paper and used the negative as a stencil to sprinkle silver embossing powder onto the lower portion of the circles only while the paste was still wet. Let it dry and then hit it with the heat gun. Voila! How's that for sparkle and shine?

Couldn't cover up all that gorgeousness, so I added a heat embossed on vellum tree from Kindness with Evelin T Designs over one stamped onto PP and fussy cut. The "hugs" is from The Big, The Bold and Friends. The secondary sentiment is one of the many wonderful options in Kindness.

Well, that brings us to the end of this month of my Leading Lady gig! It sure was a pleasure to be here and share my takes on WATERCOLOR, ILLUSTRATED, STRIPES and METALLICS with you. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves. Remember to leave a comment on all four of my Leading Lady posts over on my blog to be in the running for this giveaway. And if you're celebrating, have a beautiful Easter!

Kindness with Evelin T Designs	My Precious	The Big, the Bold and Party	Cover Model: Multifaceted Cutaway	Flawless Diamond Cutaways	True Multifaceted Circle Cutaways
The Big, the Bold and Friends Cutaways	The Big, the Bold and Party Cutaways	Scenery: Pattern of the Rings Creative Screenings	Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection

InLinkz.com

March Leading Lady Maria Fischer | Take Three

Our March Leading Lady, Maria Fischer is back for her triumphant third performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE or sensational second performance focusing on the illustrated trend CLICK HERE.  Maria takes on another bold and preppy trend today with an array of delightfully creative cards!

Without further ado, Maria....

Hello again w&w fans! I'm so happy to be back for Take Three as Leading Lady and I must thank you all for your kind comments. Here's a big, squishy virtual hug. You've really made my day!

Today let's talk STRIPES.

I must admit I love 'em. And I must admit, they're not new. Stripes are classic actually. Maybe it's the three different variations of daughter's Breton shirts that I've been seeing every week in the laundry... but methinks stripes are "in" again. Just google "stripes fashion trend 2016". Wow. Big, bold, loud, flashy. Any way you like 'em apparently. Best of all mixed with something else!

Did you see Take Two where my theme was the ILLUSTRATED trend? Well these first two cards use a little of that, in the totally trendy "uncolored" style, but mixed with some big and bold stripes.

Card #1 and #2

 

So where did those stripes come from? I've stretched my dies by making stamps out of them. I die cut the solid True Multifaceted Border from craft foam and inked it up with Distress Inks, spritzing it with water before stamping. After scrubbing the leftover Chipped Sapphire off the foam before re-inking it, it dawned on me to spritz the leftover ink and stamp off on another piece of CS. And that's how Card #2 was born! TIP: Attach your die cut foam to an acrylic block with temporary adhesive. Distress Inks work well for a watercolor effect. Pigment inks work best for more thorough coverage.

Card #1 was finished off with a layered Ina Word: Hello Cutaway and a fussy cut tweetie bird and sentiment from LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs. I die cut the panel for Card #2 using Essentials: Audrey Cutaways and washi taped and stitched it onto my cardbase. Using LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs, I gave this birdie a fussy cut, heat embossed sentiment cloud over his head and some whimsical leaves from In Bloom: Maggie's Roses Cutaways, a fabulous set of dies thanks to its positives and negatives.

Care to venture a guess on how I created this next background panel?

Card #3

On a whim I cut the faceted border from True Multifaceted Border Cutaways from foam too. TIP: Add adhesive to your block and use it to pick up the die cut from cutting plate keeping all the pieces intact.

Thinking this geometric pattern might be good for a masculine card, I inked it up with olive dye ink and stamped it five times onto Neenah white cardstock. Trimmed the sides, stapled it to a kraft cardbase and added a layered Ina Word: Hello Cutaway. which I cut from an olive-inked CS scrap. Heat embossed a "happy" from The Big, The Bold and the Party onto it to add a touch of color. 

Continuing with the "stripes are good for masculine cards" line of thinking...

Card #4

... trimmed some strips of white CS, swiped yellow and rust ink pads over them and stamped secondary sentiments from Wishing You onto them. I heat embossed the main sentiment and three stars from the set in gold and adhered the strips with dimensional adhesive. Easy. And easy to change up the colors for a girly card too.

A design that always catches my eye is stripes paired with florals. Think Kate Spade. I decided to take some elegant gold foil striped PP and pair it with illustrated florals.

Card #5 and #6

Stamped floral images from In Bloom: Addie's Garden, Elsa's Flora and Anna's Flora in navy and coral pigment inks on white CS for Card #5. Cut Ina Word: Hi Cutaway and adhered it on a layer cut from foam. Card #6 was made by stamping the second generation images from Card #5 onto cream CS. The striped die cut was offset on a coral one. Do you make multiples when creating cards? I'm a slow crafter so it really helps me reduce the average time I need to make a card!

Whew! Stamping. Using patterned paper. I didn't even talk about painting watercolor stripes to create a background! So many ways to incorporate stripes into your cards. Hope I've inspired you to hit your craft room this weekend. And please stop by my blog if you'd like a chance at the gift card Shay has generously given me to give away.

And be sure to come back next Saturday. We'll be exploring METALLICS in Take Four...

In Bloom: Addie's Garden	In Bloom: Anna's Flora	In Bloom: Elsa's Flora	LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs	The Big, the Bold and Party	Essentials: Audrey Cutaways
In a Word: Hello Cutaway	In a Word: Hi Cutaway	In Bloom: Maggie's Roses Cutaways	True Multifaceted Border Cutaways

InLinkz.com

March Leading Lady Maria Fischer | Take Two

Our March Leading Lady, Maria Fischer is back for her sensational second performance!  If you missed her smashing debut you must see it...CLICK HERE.  Maria takes on another fun trend today with an array of fabulous cards!

Ladies and gentlemen, Maria....

Guten Tag Winnie & Walter fans! I'm excited to bring you Take Two as Leading Lady.  Today it's all about the ILLUSTRATED trend. Just think handwritten fonts. Or children's books. The latest W&W release is perfect for this trend!

Card #1 

Simple. The large handwritten sentiment from Kindness with Evelin T Designs is the focal point of my card.. Then I chose an image from the set that looks hand-drawn and gave it an imperfect look by coloring it outside the lines. Achieved this by using the "wrong side" of the stamp, inking it up with two green Distress Inks and a brown and spritzing it before stamping. TIP: For this technique of stamping with the reverse side, symmetrical images work best.

The tiny red heart dotting the "i" adds a pop of color, a bit of texture and underscores the message.

Card #2

It's a four-fer (a la Yana S). Not so simple, perhaps, but definitely worth it cuz you get four whimsical cards from stamping one piece of cardstock. The sweet birdies and their accessories from the adorable set LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs lend themselves perfectly to this style. And to baby cards. I've a tutorial on random stamping here if you're interested.

  

I stamped with gray ink and kept my Copic coloring to a minimum using sweet baby colors. Varied the design a bit and added some sequins from Lucy's Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection mix. Those precious little inlaid hearts on the circle sentiment panel are from Essentials: Audrey Cutaways.

There are cowboy hats and ties and spectacles in So Tweet too... just imagine a version in little boy colors!

Card #3

Source: Shannon Kirsten

I ran across this card perfectly reflecting the trend of handwritten-font-nestled-in-a-wreath-of-illustrated-images at Print and Pattern and figured I could create my own version of it using the incredibly versatile In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers stamp set. Of course I had to nest two of those adorable tweeties from So Tweet in my pattern too! TIP: Use pigment inks to get opaque images; dye inks soak into cardstock and the colors will mix.

I used cream cardstock, heat embossed my sentiment in gold and added a strip of washi along the bottom to add some shine to this one-layer card. You could achieve a completely different, just as fun look by using bold, bright colors and a black sentiment on white cardstock.

That's all for Take Two. Maybe it's cuz I collect children's books (ones with great illustrations, of course), but I really love this trend with its whimsical, carefree and imperfect nature. Do you? Thanks for coming by today. Next Saturday we'll be talking STRIPES...

Remember, Winnie & Walter have given me a $30 gift card to give away on rieslingmama. Visit me and comment on my four Leading Lady posts to be eligible for the giveaway.  (Or if you have any questions about supplies I've used.) I'll announce a lucky winner on April 6th.

In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers

Kindness with Evelin T Designs

LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs

Essentials: Audrey Cutaways

Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection

InLinkz.com