Lawnscapings Challenge No. 76 - Dust 'em Off

 

Good morning! I am excited to say I'm guest designing for Lawnscapings today. I was thrilled at the opportunity to take the challenge. :) So, the challenge this week is "Dust 'em Off" and I did just that. The challenge is sponsored by Lawn Fawn.

It said to use an unloved stamp/product, so I went with product since I regularly use my Lawn Fawn stamps. I chose to use embossing powder/heat gun as my challenge. I honestly haven't used them in YEARS. Needless to say, they're very neglected. And now I'm wondering what took me so long...I forgot how fun these two items are. On to my card.

I wanted to do something fun with the recent set I finally purchased by Lawn Fawn, Winter Owl. I have a thing for owls. So I went to work creating this fun card to just say hello to someone. 

For the base, I used a simple white card stock, scored and folded like normal. I make all my cards a folded 4.25x5.5 size. Then I grabbed my trusty kraft card stock and cut it to 4x5.25 and rounded the corners. I then laid my Hero Arts Tweed Pattern stencil down on my workspace (I placed a paper towel underneath so it wasn't as messy, but you could use a scrap piece of paper as well) and taped it down. I then took another unloved product-Versamark! I just covered the stencil with the Versamark and when finished, I peeled up the stencil and then sprinkled my clear embossing powder all over it generously. I heat set it with my heat gun and I have this fab background. 

For some fun, I took my new Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Peach and opened up the bottle. I unscrewed the top and dabbed a bit on a piece of paper towel and swirled it on the background in a few spots. The nice thing about doing this is that it will only appear on the card stock not embossed. It's awesome. I then flicked some of the Color Shine on there as well. Set it aside and let dry. Orrrr, you can take your heat gun and speed things along. I *might* have done that.

For the clouds, I took the two clouds from the Lawn Fawn, Into the Woods set and inked them up on my block with Memento Summer Sky and Nautical Blue. I stamped them onto a scrap piece of patterned paper in my stash. I fussy cut around some of them and stuck them down with foam adhesive. 

The hello bubble is also from the Lawn Fawn, Into the Woods set. I stamped that with the Versamark and used black embossing powder and heat set it. Once dried, I cut around it leaving just a thin border. I also stamped that on the patterned paper from my stash. That was also stuck down with foam adhesive.

For the branch, I used that from Lawn Fawn's Winter Sparrows set. I then stamped the owl from Lawn Fawn, Winter Owl on top of the branch. I used the card stock from Crafter's Companion for this because I planned to color it in. Beautiful for coloring your stamped images. I then colored her in with Spectrum Noir markers. 

I also always forget to paper piece (see how many things I did and used that I haven't?? How fun!) and I wanted a fun scarf for my owl, so I used some pretty floral patterned paper and paper pieces that on. I did use one of my Spectrum Noir grey markers and blender to add a little shadow on the scarf. It's hard to see in the photo, but it's there in person. Adds just a little depth. Fussy cut around all of that, stuck them on with foam adhesive and I'm done. 

Hopefully you can see the background and how it
looks shiny because I embossed it!

I had a blast playing around with unloved and forgotten supplies! I encourage you to find something in your crafty closet that needs a little lovin' and make a project to enter in this challenge. I can't wait to emboss some more really soon. Thanks for stopping by!

..................................................................................................................................................................

P.S. For those that like to see how cards are photographed, here's my simple set up. I open my blinds behind my kitchen table, set up my heavyweight cardboard white background. When I worked at my previous job as a graphic designer, these large cardboard sheets would come in our boxes of printing plates. I took several home and that's all this is! Trash to backdrop. I have a small black wooden easel my cards sit on. When I'm not using it for that, a Greek plate sits on it on our china cabinet! Then I open my reflector on the left to the silver side facing the project and snap away. I take my photos with my Canon 5DMKII and my 50mm f1.4 lens. A simple set up you can do yourself! A little secret-I have actually taken these same type of images with my iPhone! ;) Get creative with items around your house! You can make your own reflector as well covering a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil.