Sweet Leaves Valentine

I have owned the Sweet Leaves Frame stencil & die set from Pinkfresh Studio for a while, and had stenciled up a panel, and never used it - until now!  I still make valentines for my adult children, and decided this would be a pretty one for my daughter.  I used the coordinating die to cut out the images, not realizing until I was assembling the card, that the frame actually has a right side up - I thought it was the same in either direction.  You can see across the middle, where the die/stencil don't line up!  Oh well, my daughter will still appreciate the colours and sparkle.

A Quick Valentine

I needed to put together a last minute valentine for an elderly relative that I was visiting today, so I dove into my stash to see what I had on hand.  I pulled out a couple of papers from Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka in the Meadow pack, and cut one into a large heart.

The flowers are all from Fleur Impressions by The Greetery, that I already had stamped and ready to use in my craft room, so I was able to decorate my card quickly, and finished it off with a gold 'love' die cut.

Thought You Knew!

I'm sharing my favourite new Spellbinders press plate today!  This is the 'Thought You Knew', which I purchased from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

I made two 5 1/2" square cards, using some ancient Lawn Fawn rainbow paper!  I pressed the plate onto some Prism Watercolour paper with Betterpress Black ink (a 3 1/4" square), then painted them in ombre fashion with Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers distress ink.

I used a fine paintbrush, and painted in the 'shadow' edges on each word, with the ink at full strength, and it really made the words pop!  Plus I used some glittery gold paint to paint in the heart.

I cut a slightly larger square of Brushed Gold Treasured cardstock from Spellbinders as a mat, and adhered it down to the card base, one of them on an angle.

The pressed images were adhered with 3D foam adhesive.  I've used two different floral stamp sets from The Greetery, Oopsie Daisy and Fleurs - both of which I had stamped and ready to go, to decorate my cards, and added a few iridescent pearls to one of them.

Flourish & Vine

What a fun plate we have as the December Betterpress Society set!  It is called Flourish & Vine.  I usually start with a tutorial project, but just wanted to get a quick card made up with this pretty plate.

I wanted to do some ink blending that would make the heart image shine!  I've done a similar ink blend before on a Pebble Cotton Card Panel (pale grey), so I pulled out my Distress Oxide inks and did a background blend in the shape of the heart.

I pressed the image in Betterpress Black ink, then painted in each of the leaves with some shimmery pewter paint - it's very subtle, but shows more in person.

I trimmed a little off my A2 panel, and mounted it on some black cardstock.  A few iridescent gems added even more sparkle!

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Sending Hedgehugs!

Lawn Fawn just seems to be my go-to for Valentines...  I pulled out the Hedgehugs stamp set, and found these little guys already coloured, waiting for me.  Just a little fussy cutting, and then I created a little grassy hillside, and used the LF gold dot paper as my sky.

My final Art Impressions post

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I have started all of my posts of the past (almost) 13 years with that phrase.  It is a bittersweet day for me that this will be my last post as part of the Art Impressions design team.  I started on the main team in 2013 after falling in love with Bonnie's amazing Girlfriends, and Old People stamps - still my favourites to this day!  I took a short break 4 1/2 years later, then returned on the Watercolour team where I've remained until today.  Life changes, and it's time for me to allow someone else to be part of this amazing team, using Bonnie's wonderful creations.  Thanks for being along for the ride with me!

My first card is using the newly released 6106 - Spring Keepsake set.

I positioned the frog and watering can on the same block, and stamped them both using Tombow #N45 onto my Canson XL Watercolour paper.  After masking, I stamped the pot behind them, and then added the flower bouquet.

I was painting this in the middle of a snowstorm!  So I was reaching for bright, spring colours (helped brighten my mood, but the snow kept coming!).  I wanted a lot of contrast on the frog, so used #126/055/245/373, using the same on the greenery, but with some darker #177 added in.  #515 was painted in layers on the pot, and N45 watered down on the watering can.  #991/933 were used for the daffodils, and shades of #847 for the tulips.  A wash of #565 was painted as the sky, and used to add shadows around the images, and amongst the flowers.  When I'm painting something metallic or shiny, I like to add hints of the other colours in my painting, so you'll see touches of pink, blue and green on the watering can - as though it's catching their reflection.

The Spring die is from the 5719 - FB Fence & Window Set, cut twice and glued together to be a little sturdier.  The scene and blue mat are die cut using the 5724 - Nested Rectangle dies.  I mounted my scene onto some bold paper from the 5741 - Valentines paper pack.

My second card was a bit of a departure for me... and the jury's still out on this one!  I was inspired by a card from Alli Frazier, whose card was very CAS using diecuts.  I thought a watercolour version would be fun to try:

I really love the Ai alphabet dies... so I pulled out the 5910 - Large Letter Die set, then went searching for a house that was the right scale, facing forward.  But first, I had to make a template to plan out my card.  I traced a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" rectangle on my Canson XL Watercolour paper, and drew a line across it diagonally in pencil.  I placed the letter dies along the line, and this allowed me to figure out my placement for the house from 4961 - WC Mini Cottages Set, which I inked in Tombow #N45, and stamped.  I picked the three trees from 5826 -WC Large Tree Set 2, and after masking the bottom portion along my line and the house, I inked them all in #312 and stamped them across the page at varying heights, stamping some a second time without reinking.

There was still a lot of sky on my card, so I decided to add the larger mountains from 5198 - WC Mountain Set, inked in #533.  I pulled out the colour of both the mountains and trees with a damp brush.  The house was painted with #N45 on the roof, #703 on the house, and #847 on the chimney.  I used #565 as a wash in the sky, and to add shadows to the house & windows. I used my Gray Twintone marker to darken the lines of the house and to outline the smoke.

This is the point where a lot of debate ensued!  The mountains and trees were way darker than I'd envisioned - I had wanted them to be more of a hazy background.  I used some of the white paint to soften the lines/colour of the mountains, and painted in the smoke from the chimney.  I added a strip of green cardstock under the line - and had planned to use the same green for the letters, but they were too similar of a colour to the trees.  The pink letters were much bolder than I intended, but gave a better contrast with the background.  My daughter described this as a girly card!!  Which I'm okay with.  So the pink won.

I found this pale green striped paper in the 5892 - Easter S2 paper pack, and cut it to contrast with the angle on the card.  I thought the word 'home' was a little lonely on it's own, so pulled the sentiments out of my craft stash to finish the card off.  The sparkles are just clear silver, and look great in person, but appear black in the photos.  It was a lot of fun doing something out of my normal style.

On a parting note - a huge thank you to Bonnie, Phil, Joel, Kim & Kendra for everything.  It's been such a joy to work with you & your amazing products.  

Avocado Toast

I am playing along with the Alphabet Soup challenge on the Papercrafter's Inner Circle group on Facebook.  This is Lawn Fawn's Let's Toast set which I adore...

On Tuesday's Learning Live, Sheri was giving suggestions on how to approach the challenge, and mentioned 'Avocadoes'... and I immediately knew what set I was going to use.  I even had some of the pieces already stamped and coloured.  I finished up the remaining bits that I needed, and pulled out my Farmer's Market paper from Doodlebug.

Now the best part of this set, is that there is an add on die that creates this very wonderful little pull tab that allows the toast to pop up out of the toaster - Lawn Fawn does this so well!  

I am playing along with the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge - Lots of Heart.

 

Ombre Friendship Grows

My second project with the November Betterpress Society plate, Friendship Grows is done in an ombre style.

I pressed the plate in Betterpress Black ink onto a Pebble Cotton Card panel, and decided to use it horizontally.

Using four colours of Distress Oxide ink (Blueprint Sketch, Shaded Lilac, Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry), I mentally divided the panel into four sections, and used each of the five stencils, inking them from left to right - so I used all 4 inks on each stencil.

I die cut the Best Wishes twice from black cardstock, layering them, then added an additional layer cut in metallic silver cardstock that was slightly offset to show the black.  I added a few silver discs for some added sparkle.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

B is for Betterpress

I am playing along with the Alphabet Soup challenge on the Papercrafter's Inner Circle Facebook group.  Each month there will be 2 or 3 letters that you can feature in a project.  For January, I am doing B is for Blue, Best Wishes and Betterpress!

This is the Every Occasion Floral B and Sentiment press plate that came out a couple of years ago.  I have pressed it in Betterpress Black ink on watercolour paper, then used Distress Ink to paint in the florals.  I added some shimmery gold paint to the tiny leaves.

I die cut my image with Art Impressions Stitched Square die, and attached it to my base with 3D foam adhesive.  Before attaching, I had added both a dark blue and a shimmery ivory square mat, and wrapped some gold metallic thread around the entire card.

The finished card is 5 1/2" square.

More Valentines for Vets

Just under the wire, I got 5 more Valentines for Veterans made before I popped all 32 off in the mail.  They don't have to be elaborate, but I do try to make them nice with a few pretty details.

Honey Jar

 I pulled out a few older products from The Greetery this weekend to put together six (!!) honey cards.

I wanted a warm honeycomb background, so I pulled out Lawn Fawn's Honeycomb stencil, and used some yellow and blush tones of Distress Oxide ink to add interest to two of the corners, and blended some ink around the outside of my frame, before die cutting it with the rectangle die.  A little gold paint was spattered on the backgrounds.

The bees, honey jar and dipper are all from the Honey Jar stamp/die sets, and the flowers are the Honeysuckle Stems set.  All are multi layered images using 3-4 colours on each.

For the blooms, I did a blush and a blue version, and did some cards as a mix of the two.  I added some Wink of Stella to the bee's wings and on the honey dipper for a little extra glimmer.  The bees and honey jar are attached with 3D foam adhesive.

Friendship Grows Halo Card

My first project with the November Betterpress Society plate, Friendship Grows, was a Halo card.

I pressed the plate with Betterpress Tawny Brown ink, then used the coordinating stencils to colour it in with several Pinkfresh Studio inks.

The set comes with two edge dies to cut out either side, so I cut just the right edge of the image, and trimmed off about 3/4" on the left.  I cut coordinating yellow and pink cardstock with the edge die, and layered them under the right ege, leaving about a 1/8" halo of each colour.  Everything was glued onto a strip of green cardstock that served as the background.

I pressed one of the sentiments included in the set with the same Tawny Brown ink, and adhered it to the card with foam adhesive.  A few gold pearls finished it off.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Valentines for Veterans

This is the fourth year that I've been participating in the Canadian Valentines for Veterans program run by the Federal Government.  The military accepts generic Valentines, and sends them out to Veterans in homes and hospitals across the country.  If you are interested in participating, Google it, and you'll find a webpage with all the details and an address to send them to.  *Read the fine print, there are a few no-no's like glitter or 3D embellishments - and they would like them to be signed with an encouraging or thankful comment.  They also encourage you to take cards directly to local care homes if you can - so check out who accepts them in your neighbourhood.  For my American friends, I know there are similar programs in the US that you can look into.

Happy to have assembled 27 of these this week!  Will try to fit in a few more, but want to get them off in the mail in the next few days.

Friendship Grows in Rainbow

Spellbinders has a new monthly challenge, and January is 'January Glam' - and I just happen to have a brand new Glimmer Hot Foil machine!  So far I've had really good results, as this is only my second foiled image.

I am using the rainbow foil that came with the kit, and wanted a large plate that would show off the entire rainbow, so this is the November Betterpress Society plate, Friendship Grows.

After foiling, I used the included dies to cut out both edges, then adhered it to my card base with 3D foam adhesive.  The sentiment is from the It's Your Day Sentiment Strips press plate, pressed on the wonderful Brushed Gold Treasured Cardstock.  A few gold pearls finished it off.  As always, it's hard to photograph metallics - but I think you can get an idea of how pretty this is in real life.