Traditional Scandi Folk Art Style for Valentine's Day

 Hello Hello and Happy Hump Day! I hope everyone is enjoying their week. Today I'm sharing my first 2021 Valentine's card and a card I m especially proud of because it fed my love for Scandi Style. I love traditional Scandinavian folk art motifs and decided last year to begin to collect some art supplies and try my hand at it. 

Today was my first try -- do you like? My eventual goal is to create some framed art for my walls and until then, practice on cards and in journals. Traditional Scandi Folk Art designs require thought and planning. No junky layering. The elements typically are symmetrical and organic, and form a pattern. For me, achieving that will require practice. For instance, I should not have layered the flowers and flower bows to be true Trad-Scandi folk art, because it messes up the overall visual pattern of the elements that you are supposed to see. But I gave in to wanting to follow the sketch and that's ok as long as I knew I diverged. :-) Still, I think it's one of the prettiest cards I've ever made. Had it not been made for our daughter and her hubby, I would have kept it, but it's their Valentine's card and something needed to get in the mail!

   

The second I saw the current Inky Paws sketch #141 at Newton's Nook, I wanted to use it. The heart was perfect for V-Day and it's a pretty good CAS sketch, which is also what I wanted so I could play over at CAS Mix Up. I knew I had Newton's Nook Scandi stamps and a Funky Fossil stencil in that style, so my card planning began. In a rare show of conformity, I followed the sketch almost to the letter. :-)

The birds, flower border and blossoms are all Newton's Nook retired clear stamps with coordinated cutting dies. The background is embossed using a Cuttlebug folder "Heart Blocks". The white heart was cut from a Spellbinders Hearts Nestabilities die, inked with Brilliance Moonlight White through a Funky Fossil Sweet Hearts stencil and then clear-heat-embossed. The other stenciling I did was on the wide red border, stenciled with Versamark through a Funky Fossil Scandi Quilt stencil and then heat-embossed with white powder.

I used Palette Hybrid Bordeaux Red ink and did not use my stamping platform to get such great coverage, just a magazine as cushion and I left the stamp on the paper for like 20 seconds before lifting. The Bordeaux was the only red ink I had that matched the Basic Grey Bittersweet card stock card base, and I love how rich the color looks, like a nice deep red wine. Guess that's why they named the ink Bordeaux, huh? ;-)

  

(Click on pics to make bigger)

For the inside and the back, I used papers from BG's 12x12 Bittersweet collection as mentioned above. I chose this collection because I spotted a Scandi-like flower motif used repeatedly among the patterns. For the inside sentiment I tried something new that I like. I used an Impression Obsession die, colored the die with my Palette ink pad, adhered the trimmed up die cut paper and then inlaid the die cut back down. This is easier for me to adhere this kind of skinny, easily stretched out die cut by appling double-sided tape to the paper instead of applying glue to the skinny die cut. All I have to do is make sure there is tape covering most of the negative space to "grab" the die cut. I hope I explained that well enough! Anyway, I'll be doing this again! LOL The back of the card has a Technique Tuesday siggie stamp cut with a circle punch.

To show how well the Palette ink matches the BG card stock, answer this: the wide border at the bottom of the card...Is it BG red card stock or inked white card stock? The answer is: it's BG card stock from the same 12x12 sheet as the card base. That's a dang good match, no? 

A close-up shot to show the shimmer of the stenciled hearts and wide border. Both have shine but the hearts also have shimmer. Brilliance ink always has a bit of shimmer. I enjoyed trying slightly different ways to do the heat-embossed stenciling. The whites of this card are so bright that my mom's old-but-very-white lace looks quite dull in comparison.

And a final view. Since I'm pleased with my first attempt with my Scandi supplies, I'm excitedly hoping to find some more time to practice this style. Thanks for visiting and until next time, stay warm and well. XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:

1.   Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge #141: Sketch

2.   CAS Mix Up February 2021: Stencil Heat Embossing -- #1/3  I stenciled and heat-embossed both the heart and the bottom section, see post above for more details

3.   Simply Create Too #167: Use Hearts -- add "Entry #1/3" to Linky

4.   Shopping Our Stash SOS 438: Love is in the Air-Hearts -- 13 challenges max

5.   2 Crafty Critter Crazies Feb: AG with a Critter -- #3/5  Birds

6.   Get Creative #98: AG + Opt. Twist Use Red or Pink -- add "Entry #1/3" to Linky Option played!

7.   Outlawz Festive Fridays 2/5-2/18: Valentine theme

8.   Use Your Stuff #415: Hearts

9.   Cardz 4 Guyz #264: CAS -- this card is for my son-in-law as well as my daughter and also CAS

10. Happy Little Stampers CAS Feb: Love is in the Air  

11. Crafty Animals #47: AG with an Animal -- Birds

12. More Mixed Media Feb: AG + Opt. RED -- Color option played, MM not required!

13. Scrapping4Fun #185: Friendship, Wedding or Valentine Theme -- #1/3 cards Valentine theme