The Ton Summer Release- Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of The Ton Stamps's Summer Release! Today we are debuting Vogue Skies, Sparklers Alpha, Minor Stripes Background, Floral World Map, Haute Books, and Haute Stacks. I have three projects for you, so let's get started! 

My first project uses the fantastic new set Haute Stacks. The large size of the stack of books makes it great for a quick and easy focal point on a card. I've chose to heat emboss the books onto some watercolor card stock with Versafine and clear embossing powder. I then added some color with my Zig markers, sticking to a blue and pink color scheme. The vase and layered bouquet are also included in the set... aren't they lovely!? I stamped the flowers using The Ruby Collection of inks from The Ton. I fussy cut all of the images and then turned my attention to the card base. I stamped the Rose Terrace background using Blue Diamond ink on a pale blue card base to create a sort of wallpaper in the background. I assembled my stack, then popped all of them up with dimensional adhesive. The sentiment (also from Haute Stacks) was stamped on a strip of white card stock, then notched at the end to create a flag. The final step was to add some pretty coordinating Bermuda Blue sequins. 

This next card is quite possibly one of the simplest cards I've made... but I absolutely love the clean look. I stamped that fantastic silhouette image (adding the London Eye and sentiment as well) from Vogue Skies using Versafine ink, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I did this because I knew I wanted to watercolor a sky behind, and so wanted the image to be completely waterproof. I used my Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors to create a sky and water background. Make sure you use really good watercolor paper when doing a "bleed" technique, because your paper will need to absorb a lot of water to make the colors blend well. You could probably also accomplish this with Zig markers, but I wanted to try to use more of the watercolor mediums that I just *had* to have. ;) I use my Zig markers all the time...

My final project for today might be my favorite for the whole countdown... I have a love affair with bokeh, and the new Sparklers Alpha set lends itself so well to a festive bokeh background that I couldn't resist. To start, I used the Minted Collection and a foam blending tool to create a blended background. To make my blended backgrounds, I always start with three colors: light, medium, and dark shades of the same color. I blend the lightest in three spots (always remember your rule of three!), then blend my darkest near those light ink spots. I then use the middle shade to blend them, so that it looks fairly seamless. I then stamped the solid circles from the Bokeh Burst: Round stamp set with those same inks, taking care to look as random as possible. (Which is absolutely an oxymoron, but it seriously took me forever to make sure it didn't look patterned at all lol.) The last step for the background was to use Perfect Pearls Medium and Perfect Pearls to stamp the large "burst" circle.  

For the greeting, I stamped the large calligraphic "happy" from Brushed: Happy on some vellum using sticky embossing ink, then heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I fussy cut it and then turned my attention to the new Sparklers Alpha! I heat embossed the letters using silver embossing powder first, then stamped the "sparkler" part of the sparkles using some white and silver sparkle embossing powder in my stash. The last step was to stamp the little handles in black! I used some clear dimensional adhesive to pop up the "happy" that I'd previously fussy cut. 

A different angle to show the Perfect Pearls and sparkles on the sparklers a little better. I love subtle little details like this. They may seem insignificant, but I think they make a huge difference in the overall feel of the card! This card took a bit of time, but it was totally and completely worth it. So festive and fun. 

That's all for me today! I hope you've enjoyed my projects. The rest of the Design Team has come up with some smashing examples. I hope you're enjoying the new products and inspiration! Now, for the giveaway details... Effie has generously given each Design Team member a $10 gift code to randomly draw a winner at the end of the release countdown.... Leave a comment on each blog each day for maximum chances to win! Effie will also draw the winners of the three $15 gift codes from The Ton's blog, so be sure to comment there, too. The comment period will end at 11:59 pm EST on Friday, June 17. 

Good luck! See you back here tomorrow for the last day of projects from the Design Team. The Summer 2016 release will also be available tomorrow morning at 7 am, EST, so prepare your wallets!