A Sincere Form of Flattery

As many of my readers know, we in the stamping world use the phrase CASEing to refer to the practice of copying another stamper's work and giving credit ("Copy And Share Everything") or using it as the jumping-off point to a very different card. In many communities, including StampNation, we suggest that a CASE have three or more things that are different from the original card, so for that reason I prefer the acronym be used as Copy And Selectively Edit.

I take inspiration from cards all the time, sometimes without even realizing it. I don't think I'm alone in this, as we are all looking at each others' work all the time and it would be impossible to not be influenced by it. I try my best to give credit where credit is due, though, and today I would like to give credit to Heather North, one of the Dream Team members at StampNation, for a batch of cards that I had a lot of fun with. Here is her card:

Is that not gorgeous? I love pinks and blues and purples together to begin with, but then Heather knocks it out of the ball park by using butterflies and a fabulous quote.

I wanted to recreate her card, but got off to a rocky start. (Don't laugh too hard when I show you this!) Here's my mess:

Sometimes I think I'm smart, but then experience usually steps up to give me a reality check. I used the same supplies as Heather, most significantly embossing powder and Zig Clean Color Brush Markers, but the result was marginal. I started by embossing the three butterflies in silver and then the quote in clear embossing powder over Onyx Black VersaFine ink. Next I scribbled with the markers in the same colors as Heather used, then added water and utilized my Ranger heat tool to move the color around. Try as I might, I just could not get the color to spread like on Heather's. I finally had to give up because the watercolor paper was starting to pill and the embossed images were starting to flatten and spread.

That's when I had my "Aha!" moment. I touched base with Heather and confirmed my theory that I should have done the color background first and then embossed. (It's rather obvious when you think about it, lol.) By embossing over dried color the images remain raised and clear. Also, more water can be added to create the color background to begin with.

Armed with this knowledge I was able to create these two cards:

Thank you, Heather, for the wonderful card idea! I hope my little story gives you a chuckle. 

Stamps: Beautiful World (Gina K.); Uplifting Thoughts (SSS)
Paper: Distress watercolor; Basic Black (SU)
Inks: Onyx Black (VersaFine), VersaMark
Accessories: Zig Clean Color Brush Markers, detail silver embossing powder, detail clear embossing powder, sequins, Corner Chomper, corner punch (SU)

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World Card Making Day is just around the corner! I hope you'll be able to join us on StampNation in the celebration! There will be challenges, live events/chats, and prize drawings from some amazing sponsors, so don't miss out! I have a little surprise of my own to announce as the date gets closer.

Today IS a good day to smile,
Joyce Spear a.k.a. StamperJoyce