Back to School - Sami Stamps Release!!

Happy Friday!
Can you believe that it's almost time (or is time) for kids to go back to school?  I don't have any myself but I see everyone else around me talking about summer break and everything, and it seems like it just started...
This year is flying by way too fast.

But because I don't have any kids, thinking about making back to school projects for teachers, or getting things ready for the kids just doesn't cross my mind, and I tend to have a difficult time wrapping my head around that topic.

So for this weeks Sami Stamps release, I really had to dig for some inspiration.  The images are so incredibly cute and I always want to be sure that I'm showing off Sami's images in the best most awesome way I can.
I thought it would be really cool to have an alphabet stencil in sort of a tone on tone effect behind my image...you know school is all about the alphabet :)

So I typed out the letters and got them arranged how I wanted them in my Silhouette studio and then cut them out to make a stencil.  Once that was done, I tinted some embossing paste with some grey ink and smeared it onto my stencil.  It needed a little sparkle, so I lightly covered it with some glittery embossing powder and left it to dry.

I don't have very much red patterned paper in my collection...just doesn't seem to be a color I reach for much.  So I decided to just do a simple watercolor wash for the background, but it really didn't turn out the way I was hoping, so I added some little white embossed dots by using the Swiss Dots embossing folder as a stamp.  That helped a little bit.

Then I set into working on the image.  I really wanted to watercolor this apple.  I felt the most comfortable doing that since my coloring skills with markers/pencils aren't exactly the best and watercolor is a little more forgiving.  Plus I just got that awesome new Gansai Tambi watercolor set and have to use it on everything :)  So I painted up my images and set them aside to dry.  The only problem is, they didn't really dry...the darker areas of the apple still seem to have some wetness to them, even after sitting for a few days.

I managed to leave a couple little red finger prints all over the image panel (strategically covered with some enamel dots:) )...but that frustrates me!  I'm not really sure why those spots didn't dry completely...it's almost like I didn't use enough water to spread out the paint and there's just too much concentration in those spots...who knows!

But to finish it all off, like I mentioned, I added a few enamel dots and the simple sentiment flag.  It's not perfect unfortunately...but with a few suggestions from Matthew for shading and detail, I'm happy with it.

Now go visit Sami Stamps to see the rest of this awesome release!  And remember we have a challenge running right now with an Anything Goes theme, so join in!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Penny's Paper-Crafty #190-Anything Goes
    Sassy Studio #242-Stack it Up
    Viva la Verve Week 2 Sketch

Thanks for stopping by, and making it to the end of my very long post! <3

5 comments:

  1. Such a fun, fresh and bright little back to school creation.
    Hugs
    Desíre
    {Doing Life – my personal blog}

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  2. Really sweet card! Thanks for sharing with us at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge.
    Mandy x (PPCC DT)

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  3. A lovely creation. Thanks for sharing with us at Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenges and good luck.
    Mags
    x

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  4. Hi Emily!! WOW I do love this card!! Your background with the alphabet is awesome!! Such a darling Back to School design! :) HUGS

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  5. Very cool card! Thank you for joining us at Sassy Studio Designs and the DTBST challenge this week! HUGS

    Kim
    SSD DT

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