Whimsy Stamps ~ Hello There Sunshine!

Hey crafty friends, I'm popping in to share a cute creation I made with a super sweet image from Whimsy. I think this is just full of sunshine and happiness and had great fun trying out a couple of backgrounds with this design. I started with a fun background I made in a patchwork style, with light and bright papers but I settled on this darker plainer background, because i felt it let the image feature better. I'll show you the other background in a later creation, which I'll share very soon. 

The background for this design, I've simply created an A2 Top Folding Card Base with some purple cardstock from my stash and then stamped it with a fabulous Plaid Background Stamp from Whimsy. I used navy ink for a tone on tone effect. the purple cardstock made the ink look quite purple, which was a cool result. I didn't think the purple ink would show up, so went with Navy and this was the result, which I'm very happy with. 

I don't often watercolour, it's not my forte, but I just really wanted to watercolour this cutie, so pulled out some watercolour inks and had a play. Don't ask me what I used, I did this earlier in the month and I've completely forgotten now. I do know, that I couldn't find my Gansai Tambi when I was hunting for them, I really need to do a craft room tidy up! A few things I'm missing still since our shift, so quite possibly, they're in a box in the garage, but I thought I'd had them since the move, so equally likely I've put them in a 'safe' place, sigh, I can find things when they're all around me, but obviously need to add some labels to my storage units! I used a white pen to add some little accents to the image after the watercolouring was dry and also added some black gel pen accents for a shiny nose and some accents on the flowers. I popped up this sweet image on foam for a bit of dimension and interest. You'll note in this close up, I had a little fussy cutting whoopsy, but thankfully didn't chop the petal off completely! 

I mounted the sentiment over the image, which I diecut with an older, now retired sentiment strip die from Whimsy. This made it look like this sweet character was peeking over the sentiment. The strip looks a little blue in the above shot, taken in dusk light, it is in fact a cool white. Most of my English white cardstock is this slightly 'blue-white', but still definitely white, just a cooler tone than something like Neenah Solar White, which has a warm white tone. I try when I'm crafting not to mix the two as there is a definite difference in tone. Watercolour paper is often a warmer white, so the contrast is showing a bit here.

We've had three amazing releases this month at Whimsy, the first a real tribute to those who serve in the military, wonderful for remembrance cards and cards for those actively serving. The second release had some fun birthday and prehistoric themes and the final one, more birthday shenanigans, but with robots and gargoyles and as always the New Release Team knocked it outta the park with their showcase, which you can see below.

I'll be back again with another crafty adventure, but in the meantime, check out the fun the team are having with these cute New Releases over in our Facebook Group. All the teams share their creations there and it's a fabulous place to recharge your mojo. Always worth popping in to the Inspiration Blog too, which, true to it's name, you're sure to leave inspired and enthused to create. Hugs and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

(I use affiliate links where possible, which helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice. I receive a small commission, which costs you no extra whatsoever, but helps these companies see where their marketing efforts are most effective. I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own. Please feel free to use the Whimsy Stamps $5 discount code in my sidebar if you're doing some shopping and remember to check out their retiring section, the deals are phenomenal!)