Limelight Week 1 with Sherry - From the Beginning

Good morning! I’m so excited to be the Flourishes Limelight Designer for the month of June and I look forward to joining you every Sunday.

As Julie said yesterday, I do have a very distinct, somewhat eclectic if I must say so myself, style. I love vintage anything and truly enjoy trying to make something new look old. I also enjoy techniques and will be sharing a few with you during the month of June. I can honestly say that even though I do stamp in a variety of styles (which is why I say my work is eclectic), I’m most comfortable when I have my sanding tools and daubers in front of me and my fingers are covered with ink.

I think today I’ll share with you how I start a design. More than 99% of the time, there is no rhyme nor reason as to what I am going to do. I typically start with my image first, and as I work I pull it all together. It might be inchies, a single image or as in today’s card, multiple stamping of one or two images. Once I have the image colored and/or stamped if they are solid, then I pick my paper and start putting down my layout. After I have a basic layout it’s time to determine the shape of my image and start putting the card together. I lay it all out on my work surface to determine how it will look and what embellishments it might need. I try to decide what the card needs before I start to assemble. I truly don’t like to see anything on the inside of the card but paper, so I always work on a second background layer that will be attached to the card front. This way, I won’t see stitching or brad and ribbon ends on the inside of the card.

For today’s card, I knew I wanted to work with the Poppy Patch set and I definitely wanted them red! That was the first thing I did . . . stamped and water colored my image. My background paper is 7 Gypsies Market that has a number of oriental pages and the one I chose to work with had a dragon. Poppies and dragons . . . oh yeah! I made sure the dragon appeared at the bottom of the card and would be showing.

The poppies were stamped randomly on watercolor paper and then water colored with Ranger Distress Reinkers. The background was painted very lightly with Broken China to add some depth and then the image was die cut and embossed using Spellbinders Petite Oval Nestabilities. The edges of the image were sponged with Old Paper Distress Ink and the edges of the designer paper were sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Once I had the layout I liked, the designer paper was sewn to a layer of cardstock on the sewing machine. The black border was then sewn to the background separately. The sentiment was stamped on a tag die cut and embossed with Spellbinders Tags 5 Shapeabilities. A vintage black button was used to tie the tag on the ribbon.

• Stamps: Poppy Patch from Flourishes Stamps
• Paper: Prism Spring Willow Medium and Black; 7 Gypsies Market
• Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black; Ranger Vintage Photo, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick, Broken China and Old Paper Distress
• Accessories: Spellbinders Petite Oval and Deckled Mega Rectangles Nestabilities, Petite 5-1/2” Deckled Scalloped Borderabilities, and Tags 5 Shapeabilities; May Arts Ribbon; Vintage Button; Venture Foam Tape; Sewing Machine; Koi Water Brushes; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Ranger Matte Accents

Thanks for joining me today and I look forward to next Sunday!