2015 #16 Pink Spots {By Jo Firth-Young}

Topic 16: Circles

Hi Everyone. Jo here, and my project for the circles theme is some lovely clean and simple cards created with my stamps set JOFY31 which is full of circles!!  I designed this stamp set with scrapbookers and journallers in mind - I thought the big scribble circle would be a great (and easy) way to highlight a particular part of a photo, or as a journalling space.  In this blog post I've decided to use it for cardmaking instead.

Here is JOFY31 - as you can see lots of lovely circles to play with. All the cards I made are on a very limited colour scheme - Bougainvillea, Candy Floss, & Chalk.  Bougainvillea is a Limited Edition colour (from Lin Brown's 3 set) but its a 'go-to' colour of mine (I love how juicy and bright it is!) and I couldn't resist using it - I know many of you have the colour so I hope these 'less is more' projects inspire you to use it.  The paint set is sold out online at PaperArtsy but you may still be able to buy it from you local shop or online retailer.

The cards I made are relatively simple so I'll only give brief 'how-to's'. 

I started by painting an ombre panel to feature on the cards.

I stamped the small patterned circles onto the panel - stamping three at a time is much quicker.  I put these to one side, cutting them out when needed.

First up is a 12.5x12.5cm card where I have used the circles as flowers - the leaves are the petals from the flower on JOFY31 stamped onto green scrapbook paper.  ('Thanks' is a die cut: 'Fancy Thanks' PoppyStamps).  I really like how they become stylised flowers.

On this card I splashed/splattered a white card with diluted Candy Floss paint and dried with a heat gun.  I stamped the 3 circles onto the card, cut out and attached the ombre circles.  I stamp the images onto the base card so that my hand drawn squiggles/sketches carry across - you can see this on the top edge of the left hand circle.  'thanks' is from JOFY32.  Circles were glued in place. 

The heat gun warped the card when I dried the paint splats (something I'm never happy with, especially when its going to be a greeting card) so I cut the card down and attached it to a kraft card base (this flattens the card) - I also really like how this frames the white panel. I sewed across the circles several times.

Speaking of sewing;  I used the 'stitched' scallop edging to create a stitched line and then added hand drawn stitches - easy way to achieve a stitched look if you don't have access to a sewing machine.

This card was fun to create - a busy little card (it has a little bit of everything!) but still quite 'less is more' maybe due to the white background and limited colour palette.  ??

I Started by splatting the surface with diluted Bougainvillea paint to break up the white background.  Then I stamped (and dried) plain black scribble circles. Stamped and embossed green circles (pink and green is one of my favourite colour combinations) - I used WOW's Sensational Sage embossing powder - really lovely sparkly soft green with a touch of gold.

 

I added colour puddles to some of the circles, and dried these before gluing on some of the stamped circles created with the ombre panel.  

I stamped on a greeting, and drew lines around the outside of the card to finish.  I decided it weren't enough paint splashes so I added some more - I like how these are the top layer.

The cards above all use the small circles, here are a couple of cards using the large scribble circle.

The large scribble circle was stamped and embossed (Versamark ink, Sensational Sage WOW embossing powder) onto a panel of Smoothy card.  I die cut 'thanks'  from the ombre panel and attached it to the white panel.  I sewed the panel to a kraft card (10x10cm) using my sewing machine & finally added some pearls to finish. (I've photographed the card so the light catches the embossing powder.)

This last card was created by stamping a circle in black Archival ink (drying this) and stamping a slightly offset second circle in Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and, while it was still wet adding water and dragging the ink out with a paint brush - I also added more ink because I wanted more of a 'bleed'.

I created a stencil of the circle by stamping onto a large sticky-note and cutting out the inner circle.  I layered this up with a sheet of 'punchinella' - (more circles !!) and sponged ink into the centre of the stamped circles. 

I also added the punchinella pattern to the bottom edge of the card.  The seed head is a die cut that I trimmed to suit (Shrewsbury stem, MemoryBox.com).  I added a clear sparkly embossing powder to the top of the stems to break up the black.

These are my circles projects - I hope you've enjoyed them and I've inspired you to make some cards (its always handy to have some cards ready to send isn't it). my blog is over at www.jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk

Wow Jo, Love your Pop of pink on all these great cards! And love how you have made a mask with the circles stamps so effectively!! Awesome! Beautiful ideas, simple and elegant as always! ~Leandra
Did you know that you can play along with us on the PaperArtsy blog to share and explore with us how you interpret the current theme. The current topic is Circles, and if you are inspired by any of our contributors on the blog this fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE.

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Circles challenge link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Sept 6th, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.