Hearts Come Home - CASED Swap

Hello, Crafters.

Oh, boy! How quickly the pre-order Stamparatus sold out last night! 

If you missed out, make a note of the next pre-order which is from 5th - 30th December 2017 at 22:00CET/21:00GMT, for delivery from 19th March 2018.

There will be a third and final pre-order between 15th - 30th January 2018 for delivery on or around 15th April 2018. 

After that it will be available for normal purchase in the new 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue which goes live on 1st June 2018.

Today's card is a card that I've CASED from one of the swaps I received at OnStage last weekend. 

The swap was made by Laura Mackie, and I loved the simplicity of the card, as well as the shiny "splodges" in the sky behind the houses.

Reading the recipe Laura had put on the back of her card front, I thought I knew how she had created her splodges, but I was wrong! 

As I was making this card, I was confident my card was going to be the same as Laura's, so I resisted all temptations I had to make little changes. 

As it turned out, my card finished up looking rather bland, and I had to add something to change this! 

The main point of swapping is to share ideas and to inspire, which Laura's card certainly did, although I'd still like to know how she achieved her "splodges"!

I started my card with a base of Whisper White Cardstock (CS), a layer of Island Indigo CS, and a top layer of  Whisper White CS.

I took another piece of Whisper White CS that was the same width, but not as high, and die cut the three houses from the Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies. 

I cut curved lines on either side to make the houses appear to be on a hill. 

On the other Whisper White layer, I used a Dauber, with Island Indigo Ink, to create a blue sky background, which turned out a lot bigger than I had intended it to be, but it wasn't a problem.

Next, I had assumed Laura had used Versamark, and the spotty stamp from the Swirly Bird Stamp Set to create her splodges, so I followed suit. 
 
The only change I made was to use the heart stamp from the Cheers to the Year Stamp Set, but I didn't get the lighter colour I was expecting. 

I carried on and put my card together, and made one more change.

This was inking the sentiment stamp in Versamark, then in Island Indigo Ink, before dipping it in Clear Embossing Powder, and heat setting it.

Next, I did the same on the Whisper White layer for the inside of the card using the Father Christmas and reindeer stamp from the Hearts Come Home Stamp Set.

I die cut a Whisper White CS heart using the die from the Trim Your Stockings Thinlits Dies, and adhered it by the side of the sentiment using Dimensionals.

I put some cut strands of Silver Thread under the heart.

 It was at this point when I sat back and looked at my card that I decided it looked rather bland.

I toyed with the idea of stamping Father Christmas and the reindeer in the top left hand corner, but I didn't want to repeat what I'd already done it inside.

I finally decided to add Dazzling Diamond Glitter along the hill top and all over the houses - it worked a treat! 

You can see what I mean about the splodges on Laura's swap, which I've shown in the last two photographs.












This is Laura's website: www.lauramackie.co.uk  

This evening, Hubby and I are going out for dinner to celebrate 116 Top Demonstrator in the World - it still hasn't sunk in!

That's it for me today. 

So until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.