Welcome to another Flourishes Friday! Today it’s me Christine and I’d like to focus on what it takes to create dimension on your creative projects.
When I was a little girl enjoying being my little crafty self, my Mom had a German nickname for me, Schnippezach. It doesn’t really translate to anything literally (I actually asked them about it recently) – but essentially it means that I liked play by cutting things into little pieces 
I believe these were the roots for some of my paper-crafting style, and now we have a 7 year old that we call the same thing! I really enjoy creating a sense of dimension on my cards, that extra effect that gives an image realism. It works really well in so many of Flourishes images because florals are especially suited to this type of technique.
I have three projects to show you today
On this first card I want to show you how I created a version of the Sunflower that makes the petals look real. You begin by stamping two versions of the image.
I fully colored the image on the left and then partially colored the petals and leaves that I was going to cut out on the right, I only chose a few I wanted to pop up. Just like a sunflower in real life would have some petals moving toward you or coming forward, we are trying to mimic that feel in the design. Then you carefully cut out those pieces to prepare them for putting on the fully colored image.
TIP: Cut your pieces out in the “middle” of the black stamped line. Cutting out too far outside the line leaves white space that won’t match up when you try and place it on the fully colored image, and too far inside the line leaves it feeling like it doesn’t fit.
Above you can see that I’ve started to add some petals. Because a sunflower is very deep in the center and petals are extended out on the outside, you can see in the top right that I’ve added Scor Tape to the inside of the petal so it will lay more flat and then a part of a Dimensional dot to the outside of the petal so it will stand out from the out side of the image. If you really wanted to extend it farther out you could add a double dimensional. This petal I’m going to pop up is the one with the lady bug on it. Then it’s just about matching the lines up and placing it down. See how the center of the flower petals are flat to the design?
Above you can see the raised parts of the design in the petals , the leaf curl and I also popped up the lady bug. You can see a hint of the dimensional on the bottom right from this angle too. TIP: Outline your cut out pieces by running the image edge over with the side of a marker in the color you’ve used so that the cut edges don’t look white. Above on the Sunflower petals I edged the inside of them brown to match the Sunflower center and the outside of the petals yellow.
Now on this next card, I want to show you how you can create the feeling of Background and Foreground in a design. I started with these gorgeous Poppies from the Poppy Patch set coloring them to match the very pretty paper I had on hand. I wasn’t worried about masking anything because I knew I was adding popped up dimension on top.
Now this would be pretty alone to be part of a card, but how about we step it up a little? In a field of flowers poppies would have a sense of some being closer to you, and others being further away. So after I cut out the above image with my Labels 14 Nestabilities. I stamped a second image of the different parts and again colored up those parts of the image I wanted to look like were coming forward, cut them out and popped them up.
As you can see above, I cut out a part of the petals on the yellow Poppy, left the pink/red Poppy alone implying that it was receding in the background and was further away, popped up the right Poppy pod, popped up the left leaf matching it to the design and then the right leaf I just added it on it’s own – not matched up to anything below – just to fill in the design. Poppies are really quite leafy so I wanted it to feel fuller. So this way some parts of the Poppy scene appear more in the foreground and some Poppies are in the background.
And now a last design using a different element – a dimensional type product called Flower Soft which I’m sure many of you are familiar with.
Above I’ve stamped the larger daisies from the
Gerber Daisies set several times on the paper, colored them up and then added some glue in the flower centers and sprinkled
Ultra Fine Sage Flower soft onto the glue.
TIP: Add color to the flower center in green before you add the Flower Soft – this way if there are any bare spots the green color will show through making it less noticeable.
It gives it a really great realistic effect for the flower centers. You can also see that I popped up the bottom right flower over top of the label die too. I hope you experiment with some dimensional items on your creative projects to give it that extra touch! Thanks for joining me today! Now you can head on over to these Design Team members to see their Dimensional projects!
Flower Soft, Tutorials & Techniques |
All of these are spectacular and thanks for the ideas, sometimes we forget to do the simple additions. Just gorgeous and I just got that flower soft in so will be playing with it.
Ohhh my gosh these are just GORGEOUS!!!
What gorgeous cards you have created, I love all three of them. Thanks so much for your clear instructions and tips….
all 3 are really beautiful. and just that little extra step makes all the difference!
tfs, sandyh
All three cards are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing this tip.
Christine, your cut out dimensional images are just stunning. My favorite crafty creations as a little girl were coloring and paper dolls. I LOVED cutting out clothes, etc for the dolls. I too just LOVE dimensions in my card making. TFS your gorgeous creations and little story.
OH, my, Christine, these are GORGEOUS! THanks for explaining so many details.
Wow Christine! These are all so beautiful! Thanks so much for the great tutorials. What super techniques, can’t wait to try them out.
You are SOMETHING ELSE, WOMAN!!
Wow, your applications have made these flowers seem alive. I am going to try, with your help lol, to make a card too.
[...] Christine over at the Flourishes blog shares how she adds a lot of depth and dimension to her stamped images by stamping multiples, cutting and layering with foam tape. The results are so realistic! [...]
Love these cards!!! Gorgeous!