Field of Poppies

Field of Poppies
By Judi Kauffman

Hello, everbody. It’s Judi Kauffman, back as Guest Designer with four cards that can be made with a single sheet of Flower in Frame black outline peel-offs. One of my favorite memories of a trip to California was seeing an entire field of poppies in bloom. Red, red, and more red…kind of like the stadium during a football game in Lincoln, Nebraska – only silent instead of deafening!

Instructions:

1. Place Flower in Frame peel-offs onto smooth finish white cardstock. Color inside the lines with ProMarkers. Add a soft blue-gray halo around the flowers and leaves that are inside frames, but no halo is needed around the rest of the peel-offs. Add details to the flowers and leaves using the white Gelly Roll Medium pen. Tip: When positioning the peel-offs on the white cardstock allow the fine stems for two of the individual flowers to extend beyond the edge of the cardstock so you won’t have to cut around such skinny shapes! (The third skinny stem is a separate piece. Leave it on the backing until step 9.)

 

2. Carefully cut around all six individual flowers, the leaves, as well as the two frames with flowers.

3. Following the manufacturer’s instructions, heat a Magic Stamp block and press it against a group of buttons. Stamp a couple of pieces of white cardstock using a mix of black and red-orange inks. Make sure some of the impressions are distinct and show detail; allow other impressions to be less distinct, more abstract. Also pat a couple of sheets of cardstock against the ink pads to create totally abstract texture.

4. For square cards, cut a scant 1/16” sliver from all four sides of a 6” x 6” sheet of Through the Lens Wood Series Patterned Cardstock. Mount onto a 6” x 6” Rich Black Soft Finish Cardstock side-fold card base.

5. For rectangular cards, mount a 4.5” x 6” OR 4.75” x 6” piece of Through the Lens Wood Series Patterned cardstock onto a Rich Black Soft Finish side-fold card base leaving a scant 1/8” border on all sides.

6. Now, cut up and begin to play with pieces of the stamped white cardstock to create backgrounds for the poppies and phrases. Distress the edges of all pieces with the same inks. Square cards: 4.75” x 4.75” piece of abstract cardstock. Rectangular cards: Two pieces of Magic Stamp ‘button’ pattern cardstock, overlapping. Refer to project photos.

7. Add the poppies with frames to the square cards, off-center toward the right. Add the individual poppies to the rectangular cards, leaving room below or between them for die cut words.

8. Die cut A Way With Words sentiments from Black Velvet Adhesive Sheets. Die cut the word ‘Danke’ a second time from Red Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz backed with Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet before cutting. Die cut your choice of corners and hardware elements from Fire Opal Gemstone and Ruby Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz that has been lightly sanded and backed with Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet before cutting. Optional: Alter with alcohol inks before die cutting as shown on ‘Congrats’ card. Also die cut 5 Leaf & Berry Branches from Ruby Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz that has been lightly sanded and backed with Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet before cutting.

Reminder: You must use a Precision Base Plate (for Sizzix Big Shot) or a metal adaptor plate (for other machines) when die cutting Shimmer Sheetz. Review Els van de Burgt’s video tutorial if you are new to this technique.

9. Complete the card fronts as shown or as you prefer. Note that I punched small holes and added twine so that the clipboard-style pieces look like they are hanging (photo above). And I used the circles left from these pieces as accents at some of the corners (photo below).

A Detour

If you’re ready to make cards, skip the next bit of copy and go straight to the supply list, but if you want a slight detour, read on…

I am often asked why my cards appear to be perfect. Of course, they are far from it, but I do pay attention to tiny details and I have many years of experience as a designer on which to rely. Sometimes the best parts of a project are accidental, other times planned ahead of time. But I have learned that being playful and free, watchful and intentional all at the same time is the way to go.

I’m going to put on my longtime ‘teacher hat’ for a moment to share some of what I call ‘Design Strategies’ (or details to notice):

*The piece of Through the Lens cardstock used for the ‘Hello’ card was carefully and intentionally cropped so that the upper and lower right corners are dark parts of the sheet, forming a curve that strengthens the composition.

YOUR TURN: Rotate any patterned paper till you are pleased with what you see. Trust your eye.

*The large corners on ‘Get Well Soon’ are only at the upper left and lower right, a quarter-inch circle is used on the lower left and upper right. A large corner at the lower left would have distracted the eye from the sentiment.

YOUR TURN: There is no rule that all four corners need to match.

*The word ‘Congrats’ was positioned so that the bottom edge of one of the stamped pieces is hidden by the thickness of the lettering, and at the one spot where this would not have worked (the lower case ‘o’) there is a flower to distract the eye.

YOUR TURN: Before positioning a sentiment, move it around until you find the perfect spot. I used the word ‘Danke’ twice to fill space as well as to add more of the color red to the card and to emphasize the vertical nature of the poppies. I grouped ‘Get Well Soon’ on three lines, tucked close together, to echo the area of that card where the open poppy and leaves are clustered.

If you would like me to include this kind of ‘Detour’ on future blog posts, please leave a comment or send an email to aisling@ecraftdesigns.com so I know it would be useful! I know it adds to the length of the post, but if it’s of interest I will continue.

 

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs –

Flowers in Frame peel-offs in Black (Poppies)
Shimmer Sheetz in Fire Opal Gemstone, Ruby Gemstone, Red Iridescent
Leaf & Berry Branches
A Way With Words – Danke, Congrats, Hello, Get Well Soon
Els van de Burgt Studio assorted corner and hardware dies (Hardware 1, Tags & More, and/or Corners 1)
Through the Lens Patterned Cardstock, Wood Series
Soft Finish Cardstock 12” x 12” in Rich Black
Velvet Adhesive Sheets in Black
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheets

Other Supplies:

Magic Stamp block (Clearsnap)
Assorted buttons
Heat tool
Ink pads in black and red-orange
Winsor & Newton ProMarkers
Sakura Gelly Roll Medium in White
Precision Base Plate for Big Shot (or a Metal Adaptor Plate)
Sanding block
Twine
1/16” hole punch
Cardstock in White (WorldWin ColorMates Smooth & Silky 90lb)