Summer's Flight

When I was looking at blog posts for manufacturers, the Impression Obsession challenge caught my eye, Hello Summer! I've been on a summery kick, so I decided to give it a try. There was one catch, they want all stamps and dies used to be their stamps and dies. Totally understandable, but.. umm.. I currently only have 2 IO dies and no stamps. However.. an idea popped into my head and it was perfect for the items I have.

Challenges

Impression Obsession blog 21 July challenge: Hello Summer!
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps blog 27 July Wonderful Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes
Crafty Card Makers: #169 Summer

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Putting It Together

As I said, I only have two IO dies, a grassy border I bought months ago (and have used on a few projects) and a kite I bought on a recent trip down to Bellingham, Washington to Stampadoodle (okay, recent is probably a couple months ago). I think I bought the grass there, too, the die, of course. sheesh :)

So I decided to do a sunset background with a lone kite flying across the sky and grass below. In my head, it has a mournful feel to it. 

I am rather happy with how my sunset painting turned out. This is actually the third panel I painted, the first was too yellow, the second was the wrong size (far too big and no way to cut it down without losing sunset), and this one is just right. It's the three bears of painting *laugh*. Watercoloured with Distress Ink pads smushed to my work surface then the ink picked up with a water brush to apply to the paper. I also used the texture of the Strathmore watercolour cardstock to add that little somethin' somethin'.

From bottom to top: Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries, Aged Mahogany, Chipped Sapphire. Some colour from the higher areas is brought down into the lower, of course.

I cut some grass in 2 colours and the kite in three, embossing the main part of the kite, and dry fit the scene.

I also considered using a string/wire of ribbon bows. I love the grass, I love it in two colours. I don't love it for this scene. It's over powering. The ribbon bows were also too much, more festive than the sombre note I wanted to hit.

Ahh yes, without the grass, this scene looks much better. I also planned to matte the watercolour panel with the same cardstock I used for the main part of the kite to further tie in those colours.

I scored the main kite area and folded it a bit to give it dimension. I then glued the kite pieces together almost like building an actual kite. Even though I planned to have the kite flipped over, having the structure made it feel right. I used Glossy Accents on the kite pieces because it is a strong glue.

I used a balled up Glue Dot to tip the kite on it's side with a smaller bit of Glue Dot at the bottom of the end and side points touching the panel. I also used Glue Dot to raise the middle bow with Glossy Accents anchoring the end bow to the panel.

The Glue Dot does show a bit from the top and can't really stand up to being squished, but I love the dimension it gives without adding colour. The inside of the card is blank.

Summer's Flight: A lone kite on a sunset sky.