Well that was an interesting 24 hours. This time yesterday it had started snowing and I could barely see the end of the driveway through the storm. By 2.30pm the deck and steps we impassable and it was at least 6″ deep outside the garage. So out came the snowblower and we spent an hour restoring access. Then in the evening and overnight rain was forecast, in fact a lot of rain. So now almost all the snow has gone and we’re enjoying sunshine and blue sky. That makes me much happier and I wanted to create something to reflect that feeling. In the end I chose the Silhouette Scenes Stamp Set and Forever Flourishing Dies and set to work.

SILHOUETTE SCENES

I began by choosing two stamps from the Silhouette Scenes Stamp Set. Creating a silhouette means getting a really dark image and for that I would also need my Stamparatus stamp positioning platform.

For my sentiment I chose “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams”. So I cut some Very Vanilla Card just a little wider than this at 2-1/2″, although I still wasn’t sure how tall it would need to be.

To go with the sentiment I chose the image of the girl on a swing. I thought the image paired well with the sentiment but I could also see a similarity in the shape. With that I placed the Very Vanilla Card strip onto the Stamparatus then laid the clean stamps on top. After a little trial and error I angled the image fitting her legs nicely around the sentiment. Now I knew to cut the strip 3-1/2″ high. Then I closed the hinged plate on the Stamparatus to pick up the two stamps.

After cutting the card, I still wasn’t quite ready to stamp. First I wanted to create a background to ‘explain’ the silhouette. For this I chose Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red ink pads together with some pieces of Stampin’ Sponge.

Starting in the top right corner I began by sponging on the Mango Melody ink. Next diagonally across the centre of the card I added Pumpkin Pie ink. Then towards the bottom I used the Real Red. Finally I blended the change from one colour to the next and I was ready to stamp.

First I placed the sponged card back onto the Stamparatus platform. Then I inked up the stamps on the hinged plate using Tuxedo Black ink. With that I closed the plate and stamped onto the card. As expected the image wasn’t dark enough, so I opened the plate, reinked the stamp and closed it again. This allowed me re-stamp in exactly the same place until my silhouette really stood out.

FOREVER FLOURISHING

At this point I thought that there was something missing from the scene. Firstly the ropes for the swing didn’t reach the edge of the card. So I took a Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker and simply extended them.

But what were these ropes attached to? A tree came to mind, but I had to consider the scale, perhaps a branch might be better? After a little searching I found some leaves in the Forever Flourishing Dies that would work just fine.

Looking through my scraps I pulled out some small pieces of Mossy Meadow Card. Thankfully before going on I remembered to cover the back with some Adhesive Sheet. This would make attaching the cut pieces much easier. Then from the Forever Flourishing Dies I took the largest leafy die. I didn’t need the whole thing, just a few branches, and I cut these using my Mini Stampin’ Emboss Machine.

After peeling off the backing from the Adhesive Sheet I pressed pieces of the leafy die-cuts around the top of my scene. It was nice, but I felt it lacked definition. So I went looking for card scraps in a contrasting but complimentary colour.

In the end I cut some Granny Apple Green card using the same Forever Flourishing die. Now my problem was that there was too much contrast between the Mossy Meadow and Granny Apple Green pieces.

It only needed a little tweak, and my Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers were what I needed. Using both markers I simply coloured over the Granny Apple Green leaves creating a tone-on-tone look. It was just enough to darken the pieces, without losing the contrast I originally wanted.

With that done I attached some of the leaves over the top of the Mossy Meadow ones. Finally my scene made more sense and I was almost done.

FINISHING TOUCHES

First, using Paper Snips I trimmed off the excess leaf pieces using the edge of the stamped layer as a guide. Then I cut two layers onto which I could mount the completed scene. First I cut a 2-5/8″ x 3-5/8″ piece of Real Red Card. Next I cut a 2-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ piece of Basic Black Card. Then I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the three layers together.

Finally I cut a piece of self-adhesive magnetic sheet for the back of the assembled layers and my project was finished.

I’m so pleased with this project and how the silhouette really stands out against that bright background. In addition, having the die-cut pieces layered on top of each other creates a really tactile surface that I love.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Forever Flourishing Dies in a bundle with the coordinating Forever Fern Stamp Set (not used today). This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to explore this option.