Card Swap Time

Ok, so I finally finished my entries for a demo swap that my upline is hosting. The idea was to use the same stamp set and make 3 different cards with it. Two cards should be demonstrate-able and the third can be as complicated as we want. We'll then swap with each other and we all get a fresh set of samples to show our customers.  My stamp set was One of A Kind.

Card #1

 

The background is Taken with Teal, and the designer paper is from the Bali Breeze collection. I layered Whisper White on Pumpkin Pie and then stamped the flower in Old Olive. You can't see it very well but I also used Taken with Teal marker to put dots in the flower. Next a piece of Old Olive Poly-Twill ribbon (love this stuff) and a ribbon slide from the new Hodgepodge hardware, and finally the sentiment stamped in Pumpkin Pie and layered on Taken with Teal. I rounded off opposite corners using the Corner Rounder punch.  And of course coloured in the tiny flower with the Taken with Teal marker.

Card #2

For this card I used the Purely Pomegranate as the background, and stamped it in the same ink with the small flower stamp. Then I took 2 co-ordinating pieces of designer paper from the Berry Bliss collection and cut those diagonally and made a rectangle. Then I have Shimmer White cardstock stamped with the Purely Pomegranate layered on Chocolate Chip. The flowers on this piece were off-stamped 2x on scrap paper before stamping on the cardstock. The sentiment is in Chocolate Chip on White and layered on top of Pretty in Pink. Then I whipped out the markers again ( I LOVE my markers) and coloured in the tiny flower. Then a piece of Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon was added with a loop at the top.

Card #3

Now here is the more complicated card, but I think it is my favourite....and of course it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that there is purple on it! (nudge nudge, wink wink). The base is Whisper White with a Basic Black mat on top and then a Gable Green mat on top of that. I took a piece of Lovely Lilac and ripped the edges (gasp! shock!) to give it a distressed look. 

Now comes the fun part!  Using the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique, I sponged the ink all over pieces of Glossy White cardstock in Lovely Lilac, Gable Green and Bashful Blue. This took a while until I got my latest delivery with my Stampin' Sponges. They are huge and were just the ticket to cover such a large surface. Then I stamped the flower in Basic Black. Then I applied Versamark all over the surface and sprinkled everything with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. Then out came my trusty heatgun (my version of the "power tool") and voila! This technique gives the most amazing, shiny, sparkly finish, I just love it!  Plus it 'texturizes' the cardstock, if that makes any sense, which adds dimension. 

I then sat in front of the TV watching CSI New York on Wednesday night and cut out the flowers. I used the Boho Blossoms punch to punch out the small flowers and added a silver brad to each; these were glued in the middle of each large flower.  The sentiment is in Lovely Lilac on White and then Layered on Bashful Blue, also with distressed edges.

Surprisingly, what took the longest with this card was designing the darn thing. But it's done and I think it's really lovely.  I hope you do too!