Monday, May 26, 2014

Gallery Idol Round 2!


I'm thrilled to have been chosen as one of the Top 20 finalists for this year's Gallery Idol competition.  If you're not familiar with the competition it's like American Idol for cards.  There's a challenge each week that is issued on Friday morning, the contestants have the weekend to create a card that meets the challenge, and then the public gets to vote on them.  Each Friday the field is narrowed by five until the ultimate winner is chosen.

The theme for this round was die cutting, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.  My card is a die cutting version of spotlight stamping.

I started from the inside and worked out.  First, I created a watercolor sky background using Inktense pencils, and then die cut the pennant shape.  Then I placed the skyline die over the bottom of the pennant and ran it through my machine which leaves the empty negative space.  I had previously cut the skyline in dark gray cardstock.  I adhered some scratch printer paper to the bottom of the pennant, placed the skyline in like a puzzle, added the pennant die over top of that and die cut again to remove the excess skyline portions.  This process was repeated for each of the inlaid elements on the tag.

It would definitely be easier to build the whole scene at one time and cut the pennant once, but my creative process is not so organized as that.

Once I had the pennant done, I started working on the card base.  I first die cut and inlaid the skyline on the base.  Then I used that to line up the pennant to place the clouds.  This is a little tricky, but you use the grooves to make sure your die is in the right place, and then hold it down on the base part of the card and slide the pennant out and die cut.

The overlapping clouds required an extra die cut on both the pennant and base, but it's worth it.  Incidentally if you have the Lil Inker cloud dies that I used, you might be wondering how I did this because the clouds are actually fully attached.....I have some heavy duty kitchen scissors that I used to cut them apart.

At this point I had most of the card done.  I embossed the sentiment, from my Neat & Tangled Clouds set, on the sentiment piece, and added some rays using a Crafter's Workshop stencil, distress marker and waterbrush, and finished it with a little die cut heart as an accent.



Both the pennant and sentiment panel are popped out with foam tape for some dimension as is the little heart.

Sorry this is so wordy, but it was a bit complicated to put together, so I wanted to make sure to explain as best as possible.

Be sure to check out all the cards in the gallery, this is on talented group and I know you will be wowed, and of course, I'd love it if you would vote for my card!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - White, Fog, and Cherry Cardstock; MFT - Steel Grey cardstock; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps:  Neat & Tangled - Clouds
Ink:  Versamark
Other:  Paper Smooches - Super 2 and Hearts dies; MFT - Die-namics Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX; Lil Inker Designs - Rainbows and Clouds Die Set; The Crafter's Workshop - Mini Stripes Explosion Stencil; Derwent - Inktense pencils; Ranger - Squeezed Lemonade Distress Marker and Waterbrush; Stampendous - White Embossing Powder; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Stamp Runner; Kuretake - Glue Pen




40 comments:

  1. So cool, Miriam--spotlight die cutting! Love how the red heart just pops!

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  2. Love this, Miriam! Awesome work with using the diecuts as shadowing. Congrats on making it to round 2. :)

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  3. Wow! The die-cutting was not easy, and you did it perfectly! Beautiful card!!

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  4. Well i haven't seen them all yet but this is AMAZING and the best one!!!! def a bit of a puzzle to pull it all together!!! Love it!!

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  5. Clasp clap clap...this is so well done, Miriam! I love the contrast of the dies and dimensions. You nailed the challenge! Wish you best of luck in this round. Hope you make to the next!!

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  6. I agree, you toally nailed it! Love the technique, it must have taken ages to put this one together! Good luck :)

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  7. Fab card, Miriam! Love all the details & the layering. Good luck! :)

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  8. WOW Miriam this is OUTSTANDING.. I love what you did.. Congrats on making an amazing card.. so well deserved..

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  9. Very creative card Miriam! Great great job!

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  10. AMAZING card Miriam! Just love how everything fits together perfectly! AWESOME! Good Luck! :)

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  11. HUGE CONGRATS!! This is gorgeous! LOVING the rays!!!!!

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  12. Awww Miriam! Your technique is undeniably perfect. I love every details of it. Good luck!

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  13. Wow Miriam! Your card so cool and amazing!! Your idea is fabulous. It is just AMAZING CARD! Good Luck!

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  14. So pleased for you Miriam! And this is an awesome card, conceptually, with flawless execution. Love the play on words and "shades of grey."

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  15. Woohoo! Congratulations, Miriam! This is so fun! LOVE all the layers and dimension, and that little heart is just the perfect finishing touch! Great job!

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  16. Congratulations! This card is fabulous - love the city scape and the amazing way all of this goes together. Wow!

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  17. You must be so excited, congratulations! Have never heard of spotlight die-cutting, its amazing. Thank you for explaining your process so well and the end result is spectacular. On my way over to the Gallery now to do some voting!!

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  18. Your card is just amazing in so many levels! Holy cats Awesome! Everything about it. Your round one card about did me in too :) your are one talented person! Wow! Good luck!

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  19. Congratulations on making it to the next round. I see this card as winning too, it is so creative, I love it.

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  20. Your card is extremely amazing!! Love all the shades and pop of red.Fantastic!!!

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  21. Oh, wow, this is fabulous, Miriam! I will be shocked if you don't make it to the next round!

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  22. Yay Miriam...this is AWESOME

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  23. Oh my!
    This is brilliant!
    How did you come up with the idea?!
    Awesome card Miriam!!

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  24. Love love this! Such a cool idea and the contrast of colour on the spotlight and little pop of red makes for a brilliantly executed card! Hope you get to round 3! x

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  25. WOW fantastic card!!!! Well executed, bravo!!!!!

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  26. Love this one! So many fun details, very clean look even though there's a lot going on. Good luck!

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  27. Miriam, this is beyond cool!! Off to go vote...

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  28. Beautiful! Love the pops of colour!

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  29. That's some level 3 shiznitt! Pretty cool Miriam. Even a guy like me would buy this...though I'm not completely sure that's a full compliment. (;

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  30. So Awesome with the city scene :)

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  31. You are so very clever! I don't think I've ever seen this technique done with dies! High five for the win!

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  32. This is just AWESOME!!! I don't think I have much of words for your card!?!...lol...LOVE it!

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  33. wow this looks great! Ijust love how you mixed up the different images and inlaid them back.

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  34. This is brilliant, Miriam. I love the double image and the way your sun rays are streaming down. What a great look with your dual layer of clouds and the way you used your banner die cut! You're one creative lady!

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  35. Really...This card is amazing! It really feels like sun and happiness is shining down! Awesome card!!!

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  36. This is an amazing use of dies :) love the sun rays and the dimension :) good luck at the Gallery idol !!

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  37. Oh my! Your card is fabulous, Miriam! Love the gorgeous scene you created using dies. Good luck to you! May

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  38. Wowww!!! Such an amazing card, beautiful scene...

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  39. You are genius. And my creative process is not organized. If it was, I can't be creative. CONGRATS! Gorgeous!

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