I fell a little behind this month on my Divine Design challenge usually posted on the 8th of each month (< you can click on that link to read about my past ones). So when my friend, Asela Hopkins, asked if she could send me her new stamp set to play with, I knew this set would be perfect for my next challenge and I waited just a bit longer to share this with you all, until the set would be released for sale this Thursday, July 24th through Gina K Designs.
If you don't happen to know Gina K, she started her stamp company with a vision of helping others in need and wonderful causes that help them out. You can read all about her past campaigns here. I've been fortunate enough to design for this sweet lady in the past and finally got to meet this spunky little spitfire in person this past weekend at CHA. Let me tell you -- she is one funny lady and an absolute sweetheart!
You can follow the release of Asela's special stamp set over at Gina's blog. Be sure to find the post where she's giving away one of these stamp sets for free!
Back to Asela -- she created this stamp set for her friend, Daisy, who is battling cancer -- you can read Asela's heartwarming story about her friend here. $4.00 of every retail set sold will go to the American Cancer Society until the end of August through a donation of part of the proceeds from both Asela Hopkins and Gina K. Designs.
Here's what I created -- a set of two 6-inch scrapbook pages:
I decided to make a patterned paper from the double flower in this 9-piece set. I started by stamping the image with black StazOn ink onto a large piece of watercolor paper and watercoloring the flower petals with Ranger's Cranberry Adirondack pigment ink:
Next, I colored the flower centers with Ranger Espresso dye ink:
Then I watercolored the background with Ranger Lemonade dye ink:
The paper was then cut up and used on both 6-inch pages. The actual Divine Design challenge is to prominently display a Bible verse and make it the main focus. So for that page, I colored some of the blank watercolor paper with just the Lemonade ink and used it to make the label for the Bible verse that is included with this stamp set:
Before cutting that piece, I did a reverse stencil technique on my Spellbinders die (Labels Two S4-161, which is one of the new CHA releases that will be available from retailers beginning in August). All you do is ink the cutting side of the die with pigment ink:
And after it is cut & embossed, you'll be left with a nice inked edge around the die cut:
The verse was stamped with the same pigment ink. I used another new CHA-released Spellbinders die -- Sunflower 2 (S4-158) cut from Stampin Up Burgundy cardstock because I thought the flower matched well with Asela's flowers. The flower was folded in half and popped up for a little dimension. The reverse stenciling was also done on the flower center, this time with brown chalk ink and then a gold metallic ink pad was rubbed over it, to bring out the embossed dots:
The yellow horizontal strip was stamped with Adirondack Butterscotch dye ink with Cornish Heritage Farm's Pretty Pattern backgrounder on a pale yellow cardstock. The edging around the horizontal strip was cut using yet another Spellbinders new CHA-released die, the Victorian Pierceabilities (S4-167)! A little machine stitching and darling yellow flower sparkle gems finish off this page.
For my own Divine Design challenge, I decided to make a 6-inch brag scrapbook for my Mom. So each month will have the Bible verse page and also a 6-inch scrap page of her granddaughters! Here's this month's coordinating page:
It has pretty much the same elements. On the background, I used the flower center die (which is a separate piece) to only emboss a few spots -- I liked the added texture this provided to the plain cardstock background. The Labels Two die (S4-161) was used to cute the photo and some Papertrey Ink Lemon Tart Satin Ribbon finishes it off.
Be sure to check Gina's blog over the next few days. She's showing some wonderful sneak peeks of new sets, Asela's included, that will be available for sale on Thursday at Gina K Designs, along with links to quite a few more blogs with wonderful inspiration with these sets. Also on Thursday, Gina will post the entire set for you to see.
I'll be back later this week with some new Spellbinders projects to share with you, and some more CHA reports!
