Pile Up Wednesday: Flower Box

Hello Stickles Lovers! Welcome to Wednesday!!!! Cathy here from the ATS Design Team bringing you another Pile Up Wednesday. In the spirit of our Nature/Great Outdoors Linky Party I created a bright window box scene for you. I put all my effort into the image which allowed me to keep the rest of the elements super simple. I like to keep the focus on all that Stickley goodness achieved during the pile up.

Here's my finished card using the image Fresh Brewed Flowers from one of our sponsors, Fresh Brewed Designs. It's such a cheerful image and let me think of beautiful spring flowers instead of the dry, brown grass I currently see outside my window. Yep, it's been dry in southern MN. Do you like my prop? I received a bouquet of fresh flowers from a co-worker the day of the photo shoot. The card looked perfect amid the real blooms.

Let's take a closer look so you can check out the Pile Up. I colored the image with Copics first and then went for the Stickles. Any guesses how many colors of Stickles I used? It's only 6, but they touched just about every piece of the image. I used Yellow, Lime Green, Thistle, Waterfall, Patina and Sequins Glitz. Every flower was given a color and then I piled things up by hitting the grass, window frame, curtain and flower box. 

Another Ranger product I absolutely love mixing with Stickles is Glossy Accents. It creates a perfect seal over a layer of Stickles (just let your Stickles dry first or you'll get air bubbles). I added a layer over the window panes after the Stickles had dried. I worked around the flowers since they are on the outside and shouldn't be hiding behind a pane of glass. Of course, that's just me being picky. You could apply the Glossy Accents over the entire window portion and it would still look fine.

For the flowers I pretty much covered all the petals in Stickles. I used the nozzle on the bottles to drag lines of Stickles across the window pane and flower box. I used 2 other techniques to give the card some added pop. I printed a second copy of the flower box portion and fussy cut some of the blooms and the window box out. I find it easier to color and add Stickles before the fussy cut stage. I have more control of the Stickles placement and can cut out any 'bloops'. A few trimmed down pop up dots lift the cut outs right off the card.

The last detail I added was to free squeeze a squiggle of Glossy Accents over the verse. By the way, my card base is from a set of thank you notes I snagged at Target on clearance for less than a buck. Always remember to check the stationary area of your favorite store for these deals. You can usually cover up a sentiment or piece of the design you don't need. In this case, I wanted a thank you card so I rolled with it. I LOVE how the squiggle turned out. I'd thought of using Diamond Stickles but didn't know how it would dry and wanted to keep the words readable.

 

So what do you think? Are you brave enough yet to try a Stickles Pile Up? Flowers are another great image choice to try this technique. Don't be afraid, come join me in the movement. You still have time to join in the Nature/Outdoors Linky Party with your creation.

Thanks for coming to the Pile Up! I'll see you with another creation in a fort night.

~ Cathy, ATS Design Team