Monday, April 01, 2013

Beautiful World Tour - Childhood

Welcome to the April Beautiful World Tour, brought to you by Flourishes! Each month the team presents a themed blog hop, hosted by our group of international designers... we are literally spread out all over the globe!  At the heart of our projects is the idea of truly showcasing beauty in card making – whether in a beautifully colored image, a fabulous way to incorporate an embellishment or a new twist on a card layout.

 If you just happened on the blog hop today because you're a regular reader of my blog, and you'd like to view the entire hop, you can start back at the Flourishes Blog - you'll find a full list of participants there, and all the details you need. If you're already hopping and linked to me from the Flourishes Blog, you're doing just fine!


Each member of the team is pulling inspiration from their childhood - I had this childhood photo on my computer, and decided to be inspired by these amazing woven porch chairs and my Dad's batik shirt. My parents spent an 8-year term with an oil company in Indonesia, which is where both my brother and I were born.  Yep, that's me!


I created a 'faux batik' panel... first I covered Neenah cardstock with blue acrylic paint, then scrunched plastic wrap over the panel - when it was mostly tacky but not quite dry, I pulled the plastic off. (There is a technique for canvas where you allow the paint to dry completely... I tried that first... and it didn't work for me on the cardstock. It stuck.) The Poppy Patch stamps were lined up on a long narrow acrylic block, and I brayered them with acrylic paint to stamp them over the panel, then brayered paint on a piece of plastic canvas and stamped that as well.


 My initial thought was to use the batik piece and the chair together, but that was a lit-tle too busy, so I decided to make two cards instead.  The sentiment above is from the Hydrangea set.

I colored the porch chair with reinkers, and sketched in and watercolored a little screened-in porch scene, like the porch we have here and the one I remember when I was little... our screened-in porch now is mostly functional (laundry and storage area) - I sure wish it had a bright corner like this!

Here's a closer look at the chair scene. The sentiment on this card is from the Magnolias set.


Leave comments for all our designers and you could WIN A FREE FLOURISHES STAMP SET!! Comments will be accepted until the end of the month, and a random comment will be chosen by one of our designers - but we're not telling which one! The more comments you leave, the better your chance of winning will be.


From here you'll be traveling on to.........


 Thanks for hopping with us today! Don't forget to leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

26 comments:

  1. That chair is on my wish list! Beautiful!

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  2. Gorgeous card Dina! I love you faux batik background and I love how you've used it on the second card. And the image of the porch is so lovely and you've colored it so beautifuly!

    Have a nice and peaceful easter holidays! Blessings,
    Aleksandra

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  3. Dina, your batik effect is amazing, and leave it to you to come up with such a beautifully creative interpretation of our theme - LOVE your porch scene too, the bg you created for the chair is fabulous!

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  4. Very pretty and wonderful background!

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  5. Dina, you are the most incredible artist!!! I just love how you've created the batik background, not to mention the incredible scene for your chair!! Unbelievably amazing girl!!! Love, love, love it!! :)

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  6. I love how you drew your inspiration from your childhood picture. Both card are beautiful done!

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  7. Fabulous cards. Love the batik effect and the way you tied your picture and story to the cards. The chair is gorgeous.

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  8. waw beautiful effect. such pretty cards. hugs! Mojca

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  9. That background is fantastic, Dina! And I love the picture! We could have been twins when we were little, only I think I had on those black and white saddle shoes instead of sneakers. : )

    Tricia

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  10. What lovely cards. The batik background is wonderful.

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  11. Your porch with its chair is really lovely and I love your picture with your parents when you were little its great

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  12. Love the techniques you used - absolutely beautiful! :)

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  13. I like the cards you made using this family photo!

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  14. Your techniques never cease to amaze me Dina!! The batik technique is INCREDIBLE, and it turned out so beautiful! I love that you included a hint of it in your chair card, too, tying the whole thing together. Seriously, these are both just STUNNING.

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  15. Maxeen Olson4/02/2013 12:31 PM

    You look so much like your mom, thought it was you and your husband younger, great detail and color to your porch very beautiful

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  16. WOW!!! These are beautiful!! Love the batik looking background.

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  17. How amazingly clever!! Love the "batik" background and your background for the chair is fabulous.

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  18. What a lovely family photo. Great take on your father's shirt. Gorgeous chair image and card.

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  19. Both your cards are amazing! I love the batik technique you used! Beautiful! TFS God bless!!

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  20. You are so gifted- love the Batik BG- and the childhood memory- but your coloring of the chair scene and the area around it is awesome!!!

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  21. Love the chair. Your coloring is amazing.

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  22. Dini, what faux batik! You could easily be the driver of BATIK license plate, Big Sky Country! Biannual quilt show is this next weekend. The gal driving BATIK does tediously beautiful work as do you. What friends you could be! . . should be! Thank you for faux batik technique in the lovliest of blues. Then to tip the scales to total dreamland, a wicker porch chair like Vets came home with from VN!/ Phillipines in the most relaxing of settings colorful and welcoming. m23stamperatyahoo Keep Looking Up!

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  23. Love what you have done here! The Batik background is super cool!

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  24. Wow, your cards are just amazing, Dina! What a great technique! Your chair is also beautifully colored! Gorgeous work! Hugs

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  25. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE BOTH of your cards!!!!!!!!I've heard of the technique you've used making the batik but, have never used it! (I WANT TO TRY IT NOW!!!!!!! ) BOTH OF YOUR CARDS ARE GORGEOUS!!!
    WHAT STUNNING CREATIONS!!!! :)

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  26. Oh Dina... I'm drooling over your cards. They are BOTH so beautiful. Wonderful job!! TFS!

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