Happy Friday everyone! I am excited to be joining a brand new design team, the Let’s Craft Together Team and we are kicking off with a fabulous Tic Tac Toe Challenge! This is a new concept to me and I am exciting to be participating. I chose three items off the challenge which you will see as you scroll down further. I can’t wait for you to see what the team has brought to you for this month’s challenge and what a beautiful collaboration of amazing talented artists have come together, I am so blessed to have been asked to be on the team.
When creating my challenge card, I also used it as a reason to bring an article to you today giving some tips and ideas on adding 3D effects to your die cuts and cards. This is something that I have been asked about recently and I love to add to my projects. Enjoy my article/post today and have a lovely weekend!

let’s craft together blog hop – tic tac toe challenge

Here is a look at this month’s fabulous challenge where you can see the great tic tac toe board. What a selection I had to choose from. I changed my mind many times! I have to say I struggled not to go with an easel card as that is quite a firm favourite of mine!
Instead I have chosen to go with; Animal, Embossing and Birthday (as you can see with my circled selections) What would you choose?

happy birthday to you – my finished card

Here is a look at my finished card. This was my first play with the Zoo Crew Suite and I am in love. When I thought of using animals on my card I just couldn’t resist pulling out this suite and the adorable little animals. I knew I had to make my little sister a birthday card and I just thought this would be too cute! These adorable stamps and dies set up a beautiful stage that you can create to literally put these animals centerstage!

I have chosen to colour my animals with Stampin’ Blends, however you can actually cut animals directly from the coordinating Designer Series Paper if colouring is not your thing!
I loved that I was able to colour my little leopard with the Pumpkin Pie and Lemon Lolly Stampin’ Blends and really focus on the 3D effects by adding dark and light blends highlighting curves and edges – I mean look at that little tutu – who could say no to that!
A perfect example of the 3D effects represented with using the Stampin’ Blends and how good it looks is with the turtle and how you can see that I have focused on the darker blends towards the left hand side, working towards fading out with lighter blends to the right. This helps to make the turtle appear curved and three dimensional.

my colour inspiration…

Lemon Lime Twist

Pool Party

Pumpkin Pie

Tahitian Tide

Granny Apple Green

Sweet Sorbet

I wanted to work with some fun, bright and happy birthday colours for my card and so I pulled some inspiration from the coordinating Designer Series Paper to work with and as you can see I have definitely loved the Lemon Lime Twist on this card!
Here is a look at my colour inspiration for the card…
P.s. I have used the Designer Series Paper from the Zoo Crew suite, but I have also used a piece of Designer Series Paper from the Bright & Beautiful Designer Series Paper for my background.

a close up look at the finer details…those 3d effects up close…

Here is a look at the close up detail of the card and you can really see the 3D effects shown up close on this card. You will see the varying dimensions of the different elements on this card and how I varied the heights of my different pieces, such as the balloons. I have laid one of the balloons flat and added some on dimensionals, this is important when helping cards to appear more three dimensional, to vary heights!

I loved working with the stage pieces and I have added all of these on dimensionals but another great great tip is to grab a Blending Brush (particularly when working with coloured cardstock) is to grab the same coloured ink and add some ink on the edges to darken and add tone. This will help add 3D effects and appear to make the edges curved and less flat. You can see this represented on my card above particular on the stage curtain. If I had left this without the blending it would appear more ‘flat’. This is a great tip for achieving a more three dimensional appearance.

With a Blending Brush I added some Pool Party ink to my background to both add some colour and interest behind my characters.

I finished with some embellishments such as the Neutrals Adhesive Backed Sequins, and I just had to add some stamping with those musical notes from the cute little turtle!

I tied a double bow with the coordinating Lemon Lime Twist ribbon from the suite. It is slightly big and bulky but really makes a statement on the card.

P.s. Where’s the embossing? I added my statement white embossing on my sentiment on black cardstock? This is one of my favourite things to do!

a little look at the inside…

I wanted to add a pretty inside and I just had to colour another cutie from the stamp set so I coloured that cute little raccoon, I am pretty sure that is what it is? I added some die cut flowers and more sequins and a little blending in some Pool Party.

A little more Designer Series Paper to coordinate with the stage curtain and I have also added some Gold Foil. If you look closely there is a tiny touch of Gold Foil on the card front with the little tie backs on the stage curtain, just a touch but I thought I would add a little to the inside as well.

I had a blast making this fun birthday card and it was a hoot of a challenge!

I hope that you enjoyed a few of my tips for adding 3D effects to your cards. To wrap them up in summary. Here they are …

• Use Stampin’ Blends to colour your images with your dark/light blends to really help highlight the three dimensional appearance of your images.
• Vary the heights of your elements on your cards. This helps the eyes move between heights so that cards/projects do not appear ‘flat’
• Add tone on tone ink to coloured cardstock with Blending Brush to edges to help appear three dimensional. Focus on corners and edges, do not oversaturate and apply ink lightly.

Here’s a list of the rest of the amazing Let’s Craft Together team and their amazing project’s for this month’s challenge. Be sure to go and check out their amazing projects.

I have had a blast with this month’s theme and I hope that you were able to get some inspiration and enjoyed a few of my tips.
Until next time, crafty hugs, xx

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TWO BRAND NEW CREATIVITY KITS

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Zoo Crew Suite Collection (English) [161319] $134.50	Zany Zoo Bundle (English) [161315] $95.25	Zoo Crew 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [161304] $21.75	Bright & Beautiful 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [161449] $21.75	Ribbon Duo Combo Pack [161318] $17.50
Neutrals Adhesive Backed Sequins [161627] $13.25	Gold Foil Sheets [132622] $8.75	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] $14.00	Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154897] $17.50	Lemon Lolly Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161673] $17.50
Sweet Sorbet Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [159224] $17.50	Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [153112] $17.50	Tahitian Tide Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [159221] $17.50	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154958] $17.50	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154883] $17.50
Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154885] $17.50	Lemon Lime Twist Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161682] $17.50	Pool Party Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154894] $17.50	Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154904] $17.50	Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154843] $17.50
Blending Brushes [153611] $23.00	Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker [100082] $5.25	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [147097] $15.75	Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad [147145] $15.75	Sweet Sorbet Classic Stampin' Pad [159216] $15.75
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $11.50	Versamark Pad [102283] $16.75	Basics Embossing Powders [155554] $32.00	2023 New Core Colors Stampin' Write Markers [161694] $68.75	Basic White A4 Thick Cardstock [159230] $15.75
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688] $17.50	Lemon Lime Twist A4 Cardstock [144250] $17.50	Pool Party A4 Card Stock [124391] $17.50	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $10.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $7.50