justBstamping.blogspot.ca: Magic Rain Cards (Blog Hop)

I have been impatiently waiting to share my projects for this month's Stamping Symphony Blog Hop with you, and now the day has finally arrived!! And I have THREE projects to share, all featuring the Magic Rain technique.

This is the same basic design but in three different sizes: standard portrait (5.5" x 4.25"), slimline (3.75" x 8.75"), and mini-slimline (3.25" x 5.5"). I don't know which one I like best!

Did you notice the magic part? There are crystal beads on clear thread running from top to bottom that look like rain falling! Here's a quick video to show you the sound and motion:

All three cards feature this super fun technique. It is a bit time consuming to thread the beads and string the card, but well worth it for the wow factor! Here is a link to the tutorial I followed if you'd like to see how the mechanics work. I layered multiple cloud and grass pieces to hide the threads, separated with dimensionals.

And here is a closer look at the beading.

I used the same colour palette for all of the cards and just adjusted the quantity of pieces to suit the final size. The background pieces were so quick to make using blending brushes! I used Pretty Peacock for my thunderstorm-clouds, and Granny Apple Green for the grass, starting very dark and blending out to white for an ombre effect.

The fluffy clouds and grassy hills are made with a border die from the Happy Die set. I mixed things up a bit for the standard card and used a border die from the Peony Dies set instead, for a more tailored look.

I used the blending brushes to create all of the umbrellas as well, with a mix of my favourite rainbow colours: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green, and Pretty Peacock.

As a final touch a spritzed some water and white ink on the finished pieces, so it really looks like rain!

For the mini-slim line card I didn't have room for the big umbrellas, so instead I added a smaller umbrella (from the same set) and used my Calypso Coral Blends to colour the rain boots.

My sentiments are all from the Pretty Parasol set too and are heat embossed in white on black cardstock. Who wouldn't like to know that are your sunshine, or make your day brighter?!

Because there is so much to see on the front of my cards I kept the insides very simple, with a black and white stamped umbrella, and plenty of room to write a personalized message.