IMAGINE a Magnolia Easter

Good morning.  I think we are seeing signs of Spring in many places.  It almost feels like our Spring has already come and gone here in S. Florida, but the weather has actually been pleasant, so I shouldn't complain. 

Hi!  I'm Cher from Cheryl's Window and today is my Guest Designer spot for She's A Sassy Lady.   I wanted to create some happy Spring home decor, so here is my project today.  I was quite excited about using my Imagine ALOT for this project and being able to combine a Magnolia stamped image in my project.   This post is picture heavy, so enjoy.  

I was excited to take a Copic class with Suzanne Dean a few weeks ago and have not had time to post about it yet.  I love all things paper crafty, but have been neglecting my Copics and many stamps.  So I'm looking for ways to combine them more often.  I wanted some Magnolia stamps for quite a while and finally ordered a very small few of them to play with.   Even better that many are the newer Easter/Spring stamps.  I'm hoping this will motivate me to actually use them before the season has come and gone. 

My inspiration started with this Tilda with Eggs in Apron stamp and a framed scene done by Suzanne.   You can see her original HERE. 

I colored my little Tilda with a whole bunch of colors and added some Stickles.  I also added Diamond Glaze to her shoes so they would look like patent leather and a very thin bit of glaze to shine the eggs.  Don't you just want to go egg hunting with her?  I took my time, (and wore my reader glasses.... LOL  ...) to do a lot of fussy cutting and cut her all out.  

For my framed scene, I envisioned a hillside with little chickens by her feet and it grew from there.   I really liked many of the colors on my Imagine Cartridge Lori's Garden.   It was so great to create a scene using colors and patterns that all coordinated and being able to print and cut ALL of my images (except Tilda, of course.)

When creating my hillside, though, I did not like the color green on the pattern I chose, but I did like the pattern very much.   Thanks to my Imagine, I was able to alter my pattern.  

This is a close up of the original pattern as designed.   The green was too muted and olive for a great hillside.  

By going into to edit colors, I was able to define the color that I wanted.  I wanted to print a few pages with varying degrees of green so that I could have a layered look going from a darker green to a lighter more yellow green in front.  After choosing my original color and changing how much gray was in it, I printed a solid green paper edge-to-edge, directly from the Imagine.  

  

 Remember that you can choose the overspray amount.   I used a medium to ensure coverage from edge to edge.   Just don't forget to clean your overspray when done.

Since I was putting mine right back in to print again with the same color family, I did not clean my overspray yet.  I put the green cardstock right back in the machine and then chose my pattern paper again and printed the pattern right over the green.   I did this two more times, slightly changing the green each time to a lighter and slightly more yellow color. 

 After all were printed, I had varying shades of the original pattern in much greener hues.  You can see the original there to the left.  I used the wavy pattern lines of the pattern as a guide to cut out my hills and then layered these with the hills and valleys being off center just a bit for more interest.  Some hills I had to go back and cut on a lower line than the others - again for a more pleasing hill/valley effect.  Doesn't that make you start looking at those patterns a little different?   

Now that my Gypsy has the Imagine application, I could begin my design work.  One thing this application is greatly missing is the ability to move and manipulate our images where we want them and the ability to weld and hide-contour using the Gypsy and Imagine together.   I am learning to work within these limitations to a degree.   For this design, I used my Gypsy Application on my Gypsy to create a sketch of my design.   I used a house from handyman.   Do you notice how I borrowed a paper doll to act as a 'stand-in' for my Tilda?  hee hee!  :-)   All other designs are from Country Life.  By creating my sketch, I was able to get a better grasp of the sizes and proportions needed for my design.   I only worried about the base images for the sketch, not any of the layers for the images.   Once I had everything laid out like I wanted, I took notes of the sizes of each image and wrote these down.   I saved this file and exited the Gypsy Application and opened the Imagine Application. 

With the Imagine Application open, I was able to start my design coloring.   If you hold down the Imagine cartridge button you can select which Imagine cartridge you want to use.  Then hold the standard Cricut cartridge button down until you can select the linked cartridge you want to use.   I do truly appreciate the "Apply All" feature now on our Imagine and Imagine application.   This allowed me to guarantee that my sizes were all of relative height with one another.  I first chose my images and placed them all on the mat.  I then chose "Apply All".   This gives you the option to apply the same size and/or pattern to your pieces.  I was only worried about the sizes being consistent.   After the sizes were all the same "relative" height, I could go back in and edit the color for each one.  I tried to use colors all from the color palette on Lori's Garden or a basic neutral color ie the black.  Once my colors for each layer were chosen, I loaded my Imagine mat with white cardstock and cut the images.  

I was able to follow the same thing for my next set of images.   When I went to cut this hen, I flipped the paper that I had cut the house from and used the bottom side.

 When sizing and cutting the next set of images for my other little hen, I then selected Load Last so that the Imagine application would move my images over.   After filling each one with desired color, I cut again. 

 I used Load Last once more to set up my wildflowers and grass images and printed and cut one more time.

Here you can see my paper on the mat.  Starting with a white piece of paper, I chose print and cut for the houses on one end, and then flipped it for all my other cuts.   By utilizing the Load Last feature, I was able to maximize the use of this one piece of cardstock and colored 21 different images 21 different colors.   I went back and added the sheep following the same process once more.  

Look how tiny I can cut with my Imagine.  I still love and use my Expression quite often, but honestly do not get such tiny cuts from my Expression.  I seem to reach for my Imagine when I need detailed cuts now.  

After all the pieces above were cut, I layered and glued them all together.  I dressed many of the pieces with Stickles and/or Copic Spica pens for more dazzle and bling. 

I followed the same steps as above to create my banner and used Load Last again to cut the shadowed banners right behind the first set. Another thing I love about my Imagine and filling images with patterns is that the Imagine is smart enough to scale down the pattern to fit the image.   Look again how small these cuts and patterns became.  Only the H got a little curled, but came out just fine when I removed it from the mat.  Especially since I wasn't using the H itself only the negative space in the banner.  

I decided to glitter my banner shadow pieces.  I used my Xyron Sticker maker and ran the banner shadow pieces face side down to adhere the adhesive to the the front.  This is the best way to apply glitter to a die-cut that is small enough.  I used a Sparkling Ice glitter that would not add or change the color, only provide some glitter.  I'm sure you've seen this before, but notice that I use coffee filter to glitter in.  I can then fold it and pour the glitter right back in its jar.  I also LOVE and use Swiffer cloths to clean up any spilled glitter and/or embossing powder.   They also work great for getting smudges off your photos.  I buy the big box of refills and keep a box in my studio along with the stack of coffee filters. 

 A closer view all layered.  Tiny little banner.  Isn't it just cuteness?

I even decided to be brave and run my banner through the sewing machine with adhesive, glitter, and all.  I sewed right along the top edge.  I added a few twine bows at the ends and each side of the spacer banner.

Here is a closer peek.  Notice that I also embossed the sheep!  I think they are so adorable.   Since it was going behind glass in a frame and already has many layered images, I only used some thin pop dots on Tilda and the front hen by her feet. 

I embossed the roof of the house as well as smudging the chimney with some ink and doodling some curtains in the windows.  I also used The Copic Spica pens again to add some more grassy doodling  to ground my house a little more.  

Some little flowers from my stash glued to the frame finished my project.  Here is another look.  Note, I did remove the glass from the frame to take the pictures because it was creating too much glare, but the glass is back on and it now sits in my living room.   I hope you enjoyed my project today, maybe learned something, but most importantly found a little inspiration.  I hope you'll come visit my blog sometime at Cheryl's Window.

Thanks for visiting today,