Around the World on Wednesday – and what is my favourite inspiration?

Well that is a good question! And my answer would have to be “EVERYTHING”!

Welcome once again to Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop, travelling around the world through every time zone. You may be starting here or you may have come from the fabulous Rochelle Laird-Smith’s Blog.

Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop is the brainchild of Angie McKenzie, a wonderful friend and amazing paper artist. My name is Cheryll Miller, and I am so delighted to be a part of this varied and talented group of Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators.

What inspires me?

Absolutely everything … it has been said that I have “squirrel brain”, so everywhere I look, I am inspired … and immediately want to go off and create! It can be our garden, the fabulous views in our part of the world, the feel of my craft room on a rainy day (all soft light and shadows), a texture or pattern in clothing or furnishings, travel photos or simply colourful images out of magazines. Quite often I am inspired by other paper artists work, or images from the Stampin’ Up! Catalogues. For today’s hop, I was inspired by our crockery!

For a long time, I have been looking at our dinner plates and loving the vintage feel of the floral pattern, and today I have chosen to follow through on that inspiration.

Forever Blossom Stamp Set

So I have used the Forever Blossoms stamp set …. Cherry Blossom is not quite the same flower as what is on my plate, but I love the softer stamping vintage feel of the Forever Blossoms images.

Triple Step Card

I created a Triple Step Card … to be totally correct … a Triple Side Step Card.

It was relatively easy to create, once I had the measurements worked out.

• The background card is Basic White Thick card, and I have used sizing for a standard A6 card so that when folded, it will fit in a standard C6 envelope (metric sizing).
• The background is created in one piece using Shimmery White cardstock and the “smooshing” technique. Put some ink colours onto a non-stick crafting sheet and then spritz with water. Place the card stock down into the wet, inky goodness and “smoosh” it around until the piece is covered in ink. The ink colours will blend together and as you lift the card off the crafting sheet, you may end up with ink pooling in some areas (which is quite nice). Dry with a heat tool.
• I then splattered the piece with plain water which reacts with the ink to form lighter “splats” and dry again with a heat tool.
• Then the background piece can be cut up to fit on the forward facing panels of the Triple Step Card.

I stamped the large blossom stamp from Forever Blossoms onto my pieces using the Stamparatus and Memento Black ink. This allowed me to position the image exactly where I wanted to feature the gorgeous Cherry Blossoms.

I coloured the flowers with Stampin’ Blends in Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. Using the Colour Lifter to blend the Smoky Slate certainly helped the flowers feel “lighter” in colour (although they aren’t really lighter).

The sentiment is also from Forever Blossoms. I added a touch of gold twine (from the Forever Greenery Trim Combo pack) echoes the gold edging on my plate. You can see from this image that I also added a panel of “smooshed” card to the inside panel.

I am so excited to see how all my fellow AWOW Team Members get their inspiration.

Next Blog

Next up, you are heading across to the West Coast of Australia and Melissa Gifford’s blog How exciting!

The full blog hop list is below. How exciting to check out what inspires our team, all around the world!

Angela Meiritz-Reid – NZ
Tatiana Tobin – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Melissa Gifford – AU
Ximena Morales – DE
Aurélie Fabre – FR
Mikaela Titheridge – UK
Tina Zinck – CA
Annette Ball – CA
Angie McKenzie – US
Wendy Lee – US
Shel Anderson – CA
Chris Smith – US
Brenda Nelson – CA
Tricia Butts – US
Elaine de Montmorency – CA
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert – US
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US

xxxx
Cheryll

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