You're the Coolest!

The current Lawnscaping challenge is "Embossing." I actually started my card intending to make a CAS card. I kind of got carried away with my background stamping, though, so I don't think this qualifies as CAS anymore!

I decided to try my  hand at a technique called "spotlight coloring." Basically (at least as I understand it), the brighter colors are confined to a certain, defined area, while the rest of the images are shades of a neutral color. A key to making this technique work, is to have some of the images overlap the border between the "color" & "neutral" areas. That part, at least, I think I pulled off pretty well! :)

My design inspiration came from Operation Write Home's Sketch #B-23:

Granted, my card is pretty loosely based on the sketch: smaller circle in place of the heart, no outer mat, and the greeting on a banner instead of directly on the card front. But the sketch was my jumping-off point.

I chose the 2 popsicles and a greeting from Lawn Fawn's "Best Pun Ever" stamp set. To prepare my card front, I first cut a piece of Strathmore Bristol paper with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies. (As a side note, Catherine Pooler had suggested the Strathmore Bristol for use with Zig Clean Color pens, and I must say, it alleviated my buyer's remorse with these pens! They just seem to blend so much better than on watercolor paper. Pure heaven!) I then positioned the largest of the "Stitched Circles" dies by Simon Says Stamp in the upper middle of the panel, and die cut that. I taped the circle and frame together on the back side with low-tack painter's tape, just to keep the circle from shifting while I stamped the popsicles.

After masking the border outside the faux stitching on the frame, I stamped the popsicles several times over the panel, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. Once I had filled the panel, I heat embossed the images with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. Then I removed the circle from the frame, and colored the popsicles in with my Clean Color pens, using my detail water brush draw the color out to create highlights. When I had finished that, I set it aside to dry, and colored the popsicles in the outer frame with grey. Finally, I removed the painter's tape from around the edge of the panel.

For the greeting, I stamped it in Versafine on a scrap of Bristol, and clear heat embossed it. I inked over that with Wild Honey Distress ink, to tie it in with the orange popsicles. I cut it into a banner shape, and adhered it to my card front with foam tape. To finish, I mounted the outer frame to a white A2-size card base, and inlaid & glued the circle in place, making sure to line up the images. I will be sending this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids. Hopefully a cool kid will get a kick out of it! :)