Brighten Foliage Ink Removal

 I tried doing an ink removal technique with the May Betterpress Society plate, Brighten Foliage.

I began by ink blending three colours of Distress Oxide ink onto my cotton card panel, keeping the center area the lightest.

I used the plate with my Glimmer Hot Foil machine to add the leaf design in gold foil.

The foiling was gorgeous!  I used a wet paintbrush to 'paint' each leaf, essentially activating the oxidation process, by lightening the ink several shades.  I patted it with some papertowel to soak up any excess water.  While I liked the effect, next time I would skip this step, and just leave the pretty foiled leaves as is.

I die cut the word Beautiful (Pinkfresh Studio) in both pink and metallic gold, and stacked them together before attaching them to the center of my panel.  You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Monochromatic Blues

My second project with the May Betterpress Society plate, Brighten Foliage is done in monochromatic shades of blue.

I had just recently purchase the new colours of Concord & 9th ink/cardstock, so I chose the Bluebell cardstock as my base, and pressed the leafy frame in Bluebell ink.  *The C9 cardstock is fairly thick, so I got some really great texture from the press!  Before I removed the frame plate, I placed the Hello plate on top of it to determine placement - then counted the grid squares on my Betterpress chase so that when I removed the frame plate, I counted and knew exactly where to place the Hello plate.

Hello was inked up in Capri ink.  I wanted a little more contrast around the edges of my panel, so used both shades of ink to blend softly around the outside.  I used both colours of cardstock to die cut a bunch of small flowers that I adhered around the hello, and added some silver gems to the centers.

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

Brighten Foliage

Yes... I do think this is an odd name for a Betterpress plate??  The May Betterpress Society plate is called 'Brighten Foliage'.  Not really sure what it means... but it is lovely!

My first project with the plate was a simple one.  I pressed it in Betterpress Black ink on a Porcelain Cotton Card panel, so it has wonderful texture!  I used an Art Impressions font set to cut out Happy from some Concord & 9th cardstock, then glued them together, overlapping slightly.  I wrapped some metallic gold thread around my panel several times, then added a gold foiled sentiment and some gold pearls.

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