New Catty Sneak Peak -'Sitting Here'

Hi there 

Today I have one of my favourite cards that I created for Onstage Local in Sydney. This was one of the Cucumber Crush samples and it uses the new 'Sitting Here' stamp set from the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue.  It has a collection of elements that you can use together to create a lovely scene or use them individually as design elements on your other projects. The elements include the lovely swing, cat, dog, dog basket, cushions, bird and pot plant. I stamped this image from a friend who received this set for her display board stamping, so I was pleased when all attendees received it at OnStage.

To create realistic 'scene' cards from individual elements you generally need to use the masking technique. This allows you to place some elements in front or behind others as in real life. If you haven't tried this technique before, then please give it a go. All you need is some sticky notes (they are now available as a full sheet of sticky, rather than just the top 1cm), stamps and Stampamajig (or you could just wing it!)

  

To start, I've stamped the pot plant in Basic Black Archival ink onto Shimmery White card stock, as I wanted this image to be 'in front' on my card. I stamped the pot plant image a second time onto a sticky note and cut it out right on the lines with my paper snips. Don't leave any border around your mask image as it will create a white space when you stamp the background image. Pop the sticky note mask over the top of the original image you stamped and then use a Stampamajig to position the swing and stamp it in Basic Black Archival ink.  When you remove the mask, the swing will appear behind the pot plant. I love how simple and effective this technique is.  I water coloured the swing and plant pot with my aquapainter and ink pads.  The flowers are quite small and delicate, so I used Stampin' Write markers to colour them. 

My swing disappears into a cloud of leaves created with the  tree canopy image from the 'Sheltering Tree' stamp. It was stamped firstly in Mint Macaron and then again (the other way up) in Cucumber Crush.  Stamping the second time with the stamp rotated gives you a more realistic blending of the leaves. The cat and cushion were stamped separately and water coloured on Shimmery White card stock and then fussy cut.  While the pieces were still a bit damp, I used the Simply Scored  stylus to create a little hollow on the reverse side of each that gives both pieces a great 3D look. When they were dry I used small pieces of foam pad to fill the hollow and attach them to the swing seat. I added the bird on the back of the swing seat to tease the cat (he is the same colour as my silver Bengal Artie!).

I got a small ink smudge on the very bottom of the piece (don't you hate that!) so that resulted in the sweet greeting 'just sitting here thinking of you' being stamped on the Cucumber Crush strip at the bottom. Not in the plans, but I love how it balances out the card. Such a lovely sentiment for a friendship card.

Project Details
Stamps	Sitting Here, Sheltering Tree
Card stock & Papers	Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Shimmery White
Ink	Basic Black Archival, Cucumber Crush Mint Macaron, Soft Suede, Smoky Slate, Watermelon Wonder, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze
Accessories	Rhinestone Basic Jewels
Tools	Stampamajig, Stampin' Write Markers, Aquapainter, Stylus, Dimensionals

Thanks for looking!

Comments

[Nancy]

Can't wait to see the new catalog! Great card! Thanks for sharing!

[Mary Kelly]

Beautiful card Judy - what a lovely picture you have created.

[Amanda Bates]

Really lovely Judy....

[Johanna Beebe]

Oops! Just saw you are from Australia. I am from Ohio in the
USA Sometimes technology is wonderful!!!!

[Johanna Beebe]

I have one cat that is my "friend" since my husband passed away.
Love this card and your thoughts to recreate it! Thank you!