Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Taylored Expressions August Studio Challenge




Hi Everyone,
Guess what time it is? It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge, which is a monthly opportunity for the Taylored Expressions team to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we  have a fun, crafty question or theme so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more. The question for August is:

The Sky's the Limit! There are so many ways to create sky backgrounds for our cards and projects.  Often times, our blog readers are left staring at a beautiful sky and asking "How'd she do that?"
Show us one of your favorite ways to create a pretty sky background and make sure we know how to re-create it!

Well! This is one of my favorite topics because one of my favorite things to do is to create scenes and I love sponging up some sky! There are different ways to create skies - the one that I find the easiest is to sponge the sky using a sponger, some inks and the Cloud Border die. I was going to create a little video, but it would take hours to watch because usually it takes me all evening to figure out what I am doing :D

To start out with, I usually try to figure out what I am using and create a scene with some of the pieces of the card and try to figure out if I like it like that or if I have to move some of the pieces - for this card, I thought I would create a little scene using the 
sets Sky's The Limit and the mountains from the Happy Trails Stamp set:


 
1. After picking out which part of the stamp sets I wanted to use, I stamped them and cut them out and placed them around the card panel
2. I used the Cloud Border die with different inks - in this case - Memento Teal Zeal and Distress Broken China
3. Start of by sponging the ink on a dauber over the Cloud Border die to create the first layer of clouds
 4. Keeping adding Cloud Layers - I like to move the Cloud Border die around to create "white spaces" for the clouds that have different sizes - so for one line the die would be more in the middle of the line above it - its fun to experiment with this die and see what kinds of clouds you can make!
5. Sometimes, I like to use a darker color right on the edge of the die - to give contrast to the lighter color that I started with
6. After finishing the sky scene, then I like the start layering, coloring and adding the rest of the components for the card before I start gluing it down. Here I could have colored the mountains from the Happy Trails stamp set- but I thought that I would paper piece them (because I am that cray!) so I used some DP from the paper pack to create some paper pieced mountains after crumbling the paper a little bit for texture.
7. Not pictured here - but an option is to add a little more cloud using any of the clouds dies from Taylored Expression - I chose to used the new Build A Scene - Swirly Clouds dies which I cut out using vellum and then layered into the sun rays from the Build A Scene - Sunshine dies.

And here is the card after I finished: I used the Circle Number dies to cut out the #29 for my friend's 14 time celebrating her 29th birthday ;) and used the sentiment from the Happy Trails stamp set to create the birthday sentiment that I created a little flag for.

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Sky's the Limit and Happy Trails from Taylored Expressions
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Teal Zeal and Distress Broken China
Papers: Simple Stories - i heart summer
TE Dies: Build A Scene (Sunshine dies, Rolling Hills dies and Swirly Clouds die), Cloud Border die
Accessories: Foam Tape from TE, Swiss dots embossing folder, Stickles, copics

I can't wait for to see all the different skies that these amazing artists have created - please hop with me and check them out!!!

Thanks so much for looking!
Big hugs,
Sankari :)



8 comments:

Unknown said...

Gorgeous, Sankari! Love the combination of the bold colors you used on your sky and the soft vellum swirly clouds!

Tammie Edgerton said...

You really are the Queen of Scenes, Sankari! Sooo creative to combine elements from so many different stamp sets/dies to come up with this masterpiece! Love it!

Wanda G (stampcat) said...

Beautiful card Sankari! Love your pretty birthday scene and your gorgeous clouds background!

Joan Ervin said...

Your clouds are sooo pretty, Sankari, and I love the vellum clouds!!! Your mountains look awesome, too, and I love how you added the sentiment!!!

Shannon White said...

Wow!!! Just Beautiful Miss Sankari!! I Soo Adore all your Awesome scene cards and this one is no exception!! Love you teal zeal fluffy clouds too! Super tutorial lady! 8-)

Hugs
Shnnon

Linda Carson said...

Saw this beauty on FB! Love how your created this scene and the rich color of the sky! Thanks for the tutorial!

Dana Joy said...

Fantastic card!!!

Charmaine (CharmWarm) said...

Sankari, I LOVE the depth of your clouds! What a fabulous sky you've created! LOVE this technique!