When I am not taking pictures of my cards or my family, I'm often taking pictures of the sunrises and sunsets from my house. We have a perfect vantage point for sunrises and if I walk a block or two, a great vantage point for sunsets. No matter how gorgeous something we can create is, nothing beats what God can do with nature, in my opinion. In some places, it's like He is just showing off how creative and awe inspiring He can be!
One of those places is Arizona. We've been fortunate to have family in Arizona off and on and have enjoyed our visits down there through the years. I'm always fascinated by things that are different than where I live and one of those "things" are cactus! They are crazy weird and cool aren't they? I don't know much about them but they are fun to look at and I hear when they bloom, they are really spectacular.
I couldn't resist the new cactus themed stamp set in the 2019 Occasions catalog when I saw it. We saw a great card demonstrated at OnStage in Orlando creating a sunset and a cactus in profile. I remembered that demonstration and tried it on my own, only with a different technique. Here it is:
For my technique, I took our regular Stamp N Write markers and colored a swash of Gorgeous Grape, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody and Daffodil Delight, about 1/'2" span of each. I then used an Aqua painter and starting at the top, slowly washed the marker coloring all the way down, letting the water blend the colors as I went. I did use watercolor paper for this technique.
As you can see, it blurred the lines between the color changes and created a gorgeous sunrise background. You could easily reverse the order to create more of a sunset effect. I waited until the paper was good and dry and helped it along a little bit with my heat tool. I then stamped the cactus in Black Momento ink to create a silhouette effect. I created some desert with a couple of strips of Crumb Cake card stock and stamped my sentiment on the top layer. A couple wraps of our fabulous Linen Thread finished up my card. I love how it turned out.
For my second attempt, I wanted to get more of a "flowering" vibe and chose some warmer desert colors. I tried to create the impression of a whole bunch of cactus proliferating all over the landscape. As an aside, that doily I used is actually one of the Pearlized Doily just turned over and sponged with Grapefruit Grove ink.
For my last idea, I chose way more vibrant colors, Call Me Clover and Melon Mambo. I wanted to find some background Designer Series Paper that would really make this pop and found it in the "Happiness Blooms" set. The small circles are enamel dots that just came out in all the 2018-2020 In Colors!
I plan to revisit this set soon and see what else I can come up with. It seems pretty authentic as far as representing what a cactus-filled environment would be like and is a different sort of challenge for me as I don't see any cactus looking out my window in Montana!
I hope you've had a chance to look at the new catalog and Sale-A-Bration brochure. You'll see links to both as well as the online store on the right side bar of this blog. It's a great time to stock up on some essentials or even get started with rubber stamping if you want to try a new hobby. I can help you make some wise purchase decisions and you'll be on your way in no time. It's fun to have a hobby that employs skills you've been using since kindergarten like coloring and gluing!
Until next time,
Sarah
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