fourth of july

Hello and welcome back!

We have a brand new Inky Paws Challenge for you starting today! This time, we have a color challenge that is perfect for all of your summertime card making! Use the colors Crimson Red, Cobalt Blue, Turquoise, and White on a project and link a photo up to the Inky Paws Blog for a chance to win a $20 voucher to the Newton’s Nook online store!

For my project today, I wanted to make a 4th of July card – I mean, look at the colors for this challenge! I started by stamping the three images from the Newton’s 4th of July stamp set onto a piece of Hammermill card stock. I colored my images with my Copic markers in the following colors:

Black Cats: 100, W8, W6, W5, W3

Siamese Cat: E18, E17, E15, E13, E11, E51, E50

Dog: E18, E17, E15, E13

Dark Blues: B28, B26, B24, B21

Light Blues: B18, B16, B12, B01

Reds: R59, R29, R08, R05, R04

After I finished coloring, I cut out my images using the coordinating dies.

I wanted to create a firework-filled sky for my background, but I also wanted to fit all three of my images on one card, so I decided to use the A7 Frames and Flags Die Set. I cut the rectangle panel of the A7 Die Set out of a piece of Bristol paper (I have found that Bristol works best for doing a lot of ink blending.) I started by randomly adding some circles of ink to the panels of Bristol using Gina K inks in the colors Cherry Red, Lipstick, Turquoise Sea, and Blue Denim. After the ink was dry, I stamped the firework and star stamps from the 4th of July Stamp Set with Versamark Ink over the circles so each circle of color had a firework or star over it. Then, I heat embossed the fireworks with clear embossing powder. This is where the magic happens – after the embossing is cooled, I ink blended Black Soot Distress Oxide over all of the firework panels. Since the fireworks are embossed, the black ink will resist those areas, and you will be left with a black sky and brightly colored fireworks. I wanted to add a little bit of shimmer, so I splattered some silver ink over the panels as well.

For my sentiments, I die cut two of the straight panels from the A7 set and die cut them out of white card stock. Using my MISTI, I stamped the sentiments “celebrate” and “4th of July” onto my banners in black ink. Then, I die cut the scalloped panel and the rectangle panel from the A7 set out of black card stock as well as a 5in x 7in panel out of dark blue card stock. I adhered the black panels to the dark blue piece and inlaid the firework panels in the black frame. To finish everything off. I popped up my sentiments and images on foam and attached them to the card.