Make A Wish Dragonflies

 Hello and Happy Saturday to you! Hope everyone is well and enjoying good weather. It's been raining here as it often does this time of year. I'm just thankful the temps are still spring-like. Today I have a card to share that has a pretty cool front and a kinda weird back and yes, there's a story, lol.

Gosh, I'm so happy with how this turned out! Going into it, I was so nervous. I sometimes don't do that well working on just one paper layer, not to mention some of my mis-fires at CAS style. But I didn't give up and ended up with some good practice and trial-and-error recoveries. I used a bold and juicy orange SU card stock for my base and 3 sheets of Strathmore 140# cold-pressed watercolor paper: 1 sheet for the card front, 1 for the back and 1 for the yellow dragonflies and orange sentiment.

   
I taped off the watercolor paper card front using yellow Frogtape for delicate surfaces to create a vertical strip on the left side. I then painted watercolor stripes in a rainbow. When it had dried, I removed the tape. I also painted rainbow stripes on a second sheet for the card back, and on a third sheet I painted it half Cadmium Yellow and half Sennelier Orange, then cut them apart. These were for die-cutting 2 yellow dragonflies and the Make A Wish sentiment (both Stamplorations dies).

I used this sketch from SplitCoastStampers, but I made the left vertical strip more narrow because I wanted more CAS white space. And my sentiment took the place of the #4 strip. I still kept the element structure of the sketch intact, even with these changes.

Inside the card, I hand-stamped the Uniko birthday sentiments with Ranger Archival Deep Purple ink.

Now, here is the back of card that didn't go as planned. But as I never let imperfection stop me, I went ahead and used it, with a good ending. This is the sheet I painted rainbow stripes on. I also die cut the dragonflies out of it so it would show the orange card base through the negative space. At the time, it wasn't my plan but I ended up using 2 of the dragonfly bottom layers and one of the top layers on the card front. I stamped a Kaisercraft siggie onto a Clear Dollar label die cut from some of the leftover orange card and put two glittery purple strips underneath that were left over from my Periwinkle Christmas cards last month.

But before I die cut the dragonflies though, my plan, as shown above, was to ink this Stamplorations stencil with embossing ink and then clear heat-emboss some subtle texture and pattern. I was thinking that if it looked good that I would also do this on the front rainbow strip. Man, am I glad I did not! I usually use my VersaMark ink pad to smoosh embossing ink through stencils, but all I could think about was the watercolors activating and staining my ink pad, so when I pulled open my embossing inks drawer I saw a bottle of Stampendous embossing ink with a dauber top and decided to use that. Well, bad idea! I ended up smooshing way too much ink and completely lost the pattern as the ink bled and spread under the stencil. After heat-embossing, it didn't look any better, but I went ahead and die cut the dragonflies. Then, I thought, well, that made it look a little better and since I needed a sheet of comparable weight paper for the back to balance the card, I was like, hey, let's just use it. And I have to tell you, the recipient did not think a thing was wrong with it. In fact, when her granddaughter (who studies art in school), took a look at it, she decided it was an abstract water element as dragonflies love to hover over water. Hey, I'm down with that! Heehee! I was once again reminded that the recipients of our cards see them in so much more of a more positive, happy and forgiving light than we do! Plus, I also have to add that it was much ado about nothing because looking at the back in real life, the embossed ink is not nearly as shiny and eye-catching as in the photos. Anyway, all's well that ends well! (Apologies to Shakespeare for the references.)

That Sennelier Orange watercolor shocked me how bright and bold it was! And it's such a good match, my sentiment looks like it was cut from my card stock, but here's a photo to show it was not! You can see the backside of the water colored paper it was cut out of. The color looks almost neon. This is yet another lesson to me of the difference that high quality paints make, as I used my good paints for this project because I was wanting bold, bright, rich color.

   

Here are close-ups of my dragonflies on the card front. These were cut from a layering die that has a solid bottom and an outlined top. I cut the yellow dragonfly tops from the sheet I watercolored with the Windsor Newton cadmium yellow paint. Their bottom layers came from the cuts made on the card back, as did the purple outlined die. The embossing makes them look like stained glass, I think. 

My final addition was to add some flat sequins to the card, and this was to cover up a tiny bit of "finger painting" that I inadvertently did. That CAS white surface is really difficult for me in more ways than one, LOL! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your visit today. I very much appreciate you stopping by and hope your weekend is going well. Until next time, stay well and craft on! XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:

1.   SplitCoastStampers Sketch SC480

2.   The Rainbow Card Challenge #30: Radically Rainbow -- Tried to make it as boldly colorful as possible!

3.   CAS Mix-Up June 2021 Hosted by Viv: WC + Flight -- #1/3 My card front (and back), dragonflies, and big sentiment are all water colored, and the dragonflies are in flight.

4.   Stamplorations Spring Fling Blog Hop & Linky Party   --  #1/5  Used Stamplorations products

5.   Stamplorations CAS June: ACASG -- #1/3 Optional color twist not played this time  

6.   Stamplorations Never-Ending Anything Goes Challenge -- Products Used: Make A Wish Cut-plorations die, Dragonfly Layering dies, Shaker Blends flat sequins (and a failed attempt on card back using Dragonfly Waltz stencil, good story tho lol)

7.   Inkspirational Challenge #240: Photo Inspiration -- I went with the rainbow color and flight aspects of the hot air balloon  

8.   Outlawz Festive Fridays 5/28-6/10: Anything Goes theme

9.   Crafty Animals Challenge #51: AG with an Animal -- Dragonflies

10. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies June Challenge #51: AG with a Critter -- #2/5 Dragonflies

11. Classic Design Challenge 2021 June #6: AAG  

12. Aud Sentiments #276: AG + A Sentiment -- #1/5