Stampin Up Keeps Up With Trends

This post continues with a post from last week to determine if Stampin Up keeps up with trends in the paper crafting world.  In the last post, I focused on Project Life (a form of scrapbooking) and the fashionable Ampersand.  If you haven’t read that post, here is a link…

Stampin Up Focus on Trends 2014 – Part 1

This post will focus on the geometric and the watercolor trends.

Geometric

 Have you noticed all the geometrics that appearing on cards or scrapbook pages?  There are all shapes and sizes of arrows, hexagons, triangles circles and squares?  Stampin’ Up! is incorporating those into their stamp sets, designer series papers, punches and embellishments.

 You can check out the various products in the Spring Occasions catalogue by using this LINK.

Watercolor

Watercoloring has been around for a long time but this year it has come on like a bang.  There are so many ways that you incorporate watercoloring into your paper crafting.

Have you tried out these?

• Use  ink and an aqua brush to paint various colours on watercolor paper.  This paper absorbs the ink and water and you can blend the colors into one another.  Once the paper is dry, stamp your image using stazon ink or versa mark.  If you use versa mark, heat emboss using embossing powder. 
• Use an acrylic block or an acetate sheet and squirt a tiny bit of ink and then mist the block with water and spread using the aqua painter brush.  Take your watercolor paper and lay it on the block.  When you remove the paper, you will have a design that can be used as a background to your art piece.  This technique is fun as you will get a different background each time.  Remember to let your paper dry before you stamp your image.

Here is a sample of a card where I used the watercolor technique.

 Recipe

Stamps: Postage Due (c- 126397, w- 132064, p103 2013/14 Annual Catalogue), Peachy Keen (c- 133113, w- 133110, p 18 2014 Occasions Catalogue).

Paper: Whisper White, Gumball Green, Crisp Cantaloupe, Crumb Cake, Watercolor, Watercolor Wonder DSP.

Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Versamark, Black Stazon.

Accessories: Big Shot, On Film Framelit Dies, Postage Punch, Gumball Green Stitched Ribbon, Black Embossing Powder.

 Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Baked Brown Sugar and Pistachio Pudding ink refills were used on Watercolor Paper to create the background.  Using the stamp as a reference, drops of ink were applied to an acrylic block and then allowed to spread out with the use of water.  Once the inks were in place, the watercolor paper was applied to the acrylic block.  Let the watercolor paper dry before stamping the image.

Stamp the image using Versamark and heat emboss with Black Embossing Powder.  Trim the art piece so that it can be layered behind the picture framelit from the On Film Framelit Dies.  Stamp the sentiment from the Peachy Keen stamp set using Black Stazon ink. 

Stamp the stamp image from the Postage Due stamp set using Crisp Cantaloupe, punch using Postage Stamp punch.  Assemble the layers as per the card on a Crumb Cake card base.

What do you think the trends in the paper crafting world are?  Leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Happy Stamping