Nicecrane Designs Sponsor Spotlight

Welcome to this month's 'Sponsor Spotlight'.

Our sponsor this month is Nicecrane Designs

Our Creative Corner are so excited to be working with Nicecrane Designs, who supply the most fantastic range of reasonably priced digital images to suit every taste.

I went very retro with this card and chose to work with three of the Valentines collections;

Be My Valentine CS

Romantic Valentine Collection I

Romantic Valentine Collection II

I love the seasonal collage papers that are part of the Idea-ology range and realised that by combining my own choice of images from these digital collections I could create my own bespoke background. If you haven't tried something like this before it is pretty easy. You can resize the images and insert them next to each other on a blank page.

Just like those bespoke papers, I wanted a more vintage feel. By brushing Antique Linen Distress Stain to the background, drying it thoroughly, sanding it lightly and applying Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the edges the separate images blended beautifully.

If you are going to layer elements onto a background it is always a good idea to trace around the main shape so you can work out where to place everything underneath it. This also helps if, as in this case, you want to apply stencilling and spritzing with inks and paints. I used white to do both and add some contrast to the background/foreground.

I was careful to choose card colours that coordinated with the main colours in the background images. It's one of my 'design principles' - complicated background, simple foreground. The heart was coloured with Red Geranium Archival Ink before being covered in clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint and a thin layer of Matte Multi-Medium.

It always makes a difference to add Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the edge of every element, taking away that harsh white colour. The ink also helped to highlight the embossed areas. And with a sentiment added, matting the background gave the card a frame.

I really hope you enjoyed this Sponsor Spotlight. There will be two more this month featuring Nicecrane Designs, hosted by Astrid and Laura.

And don't forget to join us for this month's 'A three colour challenge'. You could be picked as one of our Top 3, or even become our Top Talent with the opportunity to showcase your work here at Our Creative Corner. One of our lucky entrants will even be picked at random to receive a wonderful prize, kindly donated by Nicecrane Designs.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx