{Spotlight Project} Shirley's Loving the Calories!

I've got a non-Christmas card for you today featuring the latest stamp club set, Sugar Rush. So far, I've used the ice cream sundae and this waffle-cone sundae, and I can't wait to get my hands on the doughnuts and macarons! It's true, I've never met a calorie I didn't like, even when they're virtual calories :)

The technique for this card has been under the spotlight before, but it's such a good technique, it's worth showing more than once. I first tried this technique back in the last millennium.... Back then, it was known as Joseph's Coat.

I started off by just messing around with no finished card in mind, inking up two pieces of card with Distress Inks, and splattering with water. Then I stencilled a distressed doily on the left-hand piece and a leaf stencil on the right-hand piece, using clear stencilling paste. If you look really hard you can just about make out the patterns in the photo above.

I sponged deeper colours over the stencilling, really heavily. The stencilled area resists the sponged colour and protects the first layer of colour (and water splats). It was at this point that I decided I would use the doily background with the Sugar Rush stamps. I turned the doily piece around so that the sentiment wouldn't be fighting with the stencilling. (And by making two backgrounds at once, I also have another ready-made background panel waiting to be made into another card.)

I smudged some inks onto my craft mat then inked up the block stamp, spritzed, and stamped a border down the right-hand side of a white card, and added my panel. Because the panel is so strong, I kept the image black and white for contrast, adding just a touch of colour to the cherry on the top.

Here's a little tip that may work for you:

When I trim white card down to size to layer onto a cardbase, I keep the strips and use them to stamp sentiments on. Somehow it works better for me than stamping a sentiment and trimming it down into a strip.

Here's another look at the finished calories card. Enjoy!

Stamps Shirley used in today's project:

      

Sugar Rush is the December 2014/January 2015 set in the STAMPlorations stamp club! Join the club and get this set shipped to you for free wherever you are in the world! Read more about our stamp club here. We've got lots of perks, including a free 4" by 6" stamp set like Trendy Butterflies sent every 3rd shipment (or immediately after signing up for the semi-annual subscription). 

Prize alert! Leave a comment in this post for an entry to our Spotlight Projects random drawing for December. We'll pick a commenter to win $10 worth of a new product we're introducing in January. (Hint: it's flat, light, and you can do all sorts of fun things with it!) We'll announce the winner on January 1!