Hello! I have a second post to share with you today, this time it’s my monthly spotlight with Kitty Bee Designs.
This month, I chose to feature Gello Giraffe’s Christmas Lights image, from Kitty Bee Designs Etsy Store to make a summery tropical themed card for those who have a warmer Christmas season. I decided to create another one layer card that combines some digital manipulation with coloring to make another great card for posting. I wanted to combine quite a few elements to create a scene and doing these combinations digitally really saved on the postage bulk.
I started with a digital paper pack, called Halftone, available on Etsy and, using my photo editing software, I resized two Halftone papers to 5″×7″, one in blue and one in green. I then cropped the green paper so I was left with only the bottom half of the dots design and overlaid the green over the bottom portion of the blue patterned paper. I thought this made a great stylized, bright and summery background without too much fuss.
Next, I turned my attention to the Gello Giraffe image, digitally erasing the background. I overlaid the modified giraffe image over the green Halftone paper, giving the illusion of the giraffe being in the foreground of the scene.
As the giraffe is tangled in decorations, I thought I would add a simple Christmas tree to the scene. This would give a little more context to my scene, justifying why the giraffe was in such a tangle. I didn’t have a suitable tree in my digital files, so, by doing an online search, I found some simple free tree designs and in amongst them was a decorated palm tree. Not only was it perfect for a summery Christmas, it was a great reference to Kitty Bee Designs‘ home base of Hawaii.
I downloaded the tree image and digitally manipulated the image, including flipping it and overlaid it twice onto my scene. I finished off the manipulations by adding a stylised sun graphic, from stock files in my photo editing software, to the top corner of the scene.
Even though my photo editing software is able to print, I still preferred to load it into my free Avery Design and Print Software for printing. It not only gives me more control over the sizing and placement on the cardstock, but I’ve found it to give me the best quality print as well.
Once my scene was printed, I colored the images with my Chameleon Pens and used various Sakura Stardust Glitter pens to color the lights. I also overlaid the sun and the star on top of the giraffe’s head with a layer of Spectrum Noir Clear Overlay Sparkle Pen. Basically, I added some sparkle to anything that could shine.
Once all was dry, I cut the panel down to fit within a 5″×7″ card, using Sue Wilson’s Noble Pierced Rectangle Die Set. I also cut a second, larger piece using the same die set from plain white cardstock, to use as a frame. I then cut a piece of black cardstock to fit between the feature panel and the white pierced frame. I glued all three pieces together using liquid glue that allowed me some slip while getting they layers just right.
When placing there panels on the card base, I thought the white on white border needed just a little more definition, so I quickly inked the edge with a Tuxedo Black Memento marker to tie it in with the black card layer.
I really love how building the scene digitally keeps the card thin enough to post without extra cost. I also like how the matting layers beneath the feature panel gives the card plenty of strength to stop any bending in the post. This card would also be a great last minute quick make.
I hope this festive period is healthy and happy for you. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. I look forward to next time…😊
Constantly Carding 