Susan's Level 3 projects

It was fun to complete Level 2 and be able to select 5 classes that can stretch my skills and help me create! The recommendation by Erum to take Jaycee's class on Floral Composition was a great one, and there's a lot to learn in the videos he offers. These lessons lay a great foundation for having an "artist's eye" and I know I will watch them several times in order to really understand these useful concepts.

I have tried to incorporate most of the concepts he teaches about in the card I created.

I started by ink blending a background panel measuring 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches (to make a mini-slimline card) with Distress Oxide inks in fall colors (orange, yellow and orange/red) and then stamped the solid layer of the flowers from Peaceful Reverie in darker fall shades (Carved Pumpkin, Wild Honey and Crackling Campfire). I love using the fall color palette and what a great time to be doing that! I then added the leaves, trying to help keep the piece balanced. In terms of the layout of the flowers, this could be seen as a triangular shape, but also as a large arc of a circle. By placing the larger flowers on the left side of the card and the smaller flower on the far right, it left a natural place to put the sentiment. Once the flowers and leaves were stamped, I used 2 techniques to provide texture - one was using water droplets on the Oxide ink and the other was splattering gold paint on the background (after masking off the flowers and leaves). After everything was completely dry, I used embossing ink to apply the second "dotted" layer of stamp on the floral elements and heat embossed fine gold embossing powder to add yet a different texture. The central portion of the 2 larger flowers was first stamped with a light brown Distress Oxide ink, and once that dried I used Nuvo Crystal drops in the color "Copper Penny" to provide another texture as well as a different metallic color, but still in the fall theme. For the very central portion, I stippled a brown colored pencil.

To make the sentiment, I die cut the Fancy Hello die from a copper colored metallic card stock as well as brown cardstock. There is one more layer of heavy white cardstock underneath them all. I offset the metallic from the brown slightly to give a dimensional look. I then stamped the word "friend" from the Extra Special stamp set underneath the "hello" in dark brown ink. I cut down the panel to about 3 1/4 by 6 1/4 and mounted the panel onto a layer of fun foam and then placed that on a brown glitter background. In trying to follow the 60-30-10 rule, about 60% of the card is in yellow/orange hues, about 30% is brown/copper, and about 10% is green (more or less!!).

Here is a closer look at the sentiment:

And here is a closer look at the gold heat embossed floral image:

I will continue to review the great videos by Jaycee and apply them to my work, not just for floral composition, but keeping all the great artistic elements in mind as I create. GREAT lesson, Jaycee! And thanks for the tip, Erum!