C.A.S.E.

What is that??  Well, this weekend I am experiencing my first "C.A.S.E." event in paper crafting, and boy did it get me thinking!  It makes me look back to 20+ years ago before us paper crafters did anything fun to expand our comradery and our creative horizons. Basically, what you do is "Copy And Share Everything" from a designer you find on line who happens to have a project that speaks to you.  In the socialite world, copying someone is the ultimate form of flattery and in artistic paper crafting the same is true.  So, through the Altenew educator training course, I had an opportunity to do my first "C.A.S.E" experience and the designer that was assigned to me was Lana at https://lanabylanadesign.com/blog/. She has a beautiful paper crafting business and offers amazing paper services.  This is definitely the first time in my life I have felt honored to make a project based off an inspiration from a fellow professional in the field.  

Ok, so without further blah, blah, blah, here's my project "Cased" from Lana.

I was inspired by a work of hers that was the most perfect shade of blue accented with just enough gold to set off a beautiful color partnership.  Me being "extra" had to add more gold and layer the heck out the blue, which in this case incorporated first, second and third generation stamping with Altenew Crisp Ink in Lagoon.  Now, I don't know if there is such a thing as "third" generation stamping but let me explain my process of this card and you'll see what I mean.

This card is an A7 card.  I layered the face of it with a gold foil cardstock and immediately knew that I wanted to offset the prominent layer of the card and frame it with a hint of the blue that was going to be the focus of the card. The face layer is an A2 size card face cut from 140lb water color paper and was edged with Altenew watercolor paint in a blue very similar to Lagoon.  I used a wide paintbrush to basically slop it on along the edge and spritz it with water as I went along.  While the edges were still very wet, I used my heat gun to dry the edges and push the water towards the middle to create a classic water color effect.  Once this was dry I sprayed my work surface with water to create a small pool. I used my Lagoon ink pad to run along the edges of the layer and as I went along I set the edges in the pool so the ink bled up into the paper. Again I dried this using my heat gun on the front and back to avoid warping. Using my Stamparatus to help me line up the layers of stamps  I set my paper onto the stamping board and this is where the first, second and third generation stamping came into play.  The first layer of the stamps was where I inked the stamp heavily, stamped it onto scrap paper and then stamped the card layer with what ink remained on the stamp.  This is second generation stamping.  To achieve a more layered look, ie what I am calling third generation stamping, I heavily inked the second stamp layer, and then with a foam dauber, I sucked the ink up out of the middle of the stamp.  This resulted in a dark to light layer.  The final layer I heavily inked and stamped twice to get a good saturation of the color. My original brainstorm of this card was to ring this layer in Lagoon colored flowers from the Watercolor Wonders layering stamp set which I did, and use a die-cut, gold embossed blue painted flower set in the middle with foam to raise it up. Now, after doing the entire process as I just said was my intention, and taking the photos, and uploading the photos...I realized that it was a much better card without the extra die cut flower.  So, I popped it off, used my permanent black ink to add a sentiment in the blank area from where the die cut flower was and I think I made the most of Lana's inspiration piece.  To add some fanciness, I used Liquid Pearls in Bisque to adhere gold sequins strategically around the card.  I hope you like this card and I would love to see how you "C.A.S.E." it as well!!  The "C.A.S.E." project is part of a Blog Hop, so please check out the next blog stop on this journey, Saundra at Crafted Bliss Studio: CASE Your Fellow AECP Crafter