Ruscus

 I used the remaining portion of ink blended watercolour paper with another die from The Greetery - Ruscus (it's a type of foliage!).

This time I adhered it to a black cardstock panel, then mounted it with foam adhesive over some matte gold cardstock on a white base.

I added some irridescent pearls and a gold foiled sentiment.

Eucalyptus

 I felt like doing a little ink blending, so pulled out five Distress Oxide inks and tried blending on watercolour paper - worked beautifully.

I pulled out the Eucalyptus die from The Greetery and cut it from my panel - you may see the negative used on something, it's very pretty.

Before die cutting, I spattered my panel with water, and both Villainous Potion and White ink - which gave a really great effect.  I mounted it on a white panel cut with The Greetery's Nordic Frames die that was popped up with foam adhesive.  The sentiment is in brushed gold, and is by Studio Light.

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.

Wish Upon a Dandelion

The 'Wish Upon a Dandelion' stamp set is one of many by Pigment Craft Co. that I bought last summer after the company had gone out of business.  Still love everything they did, and will be using my sets for a long time.

I started by stamping the Script all-over background stamp from Hero Arts on my white cardstock using Tattered Rose Distress Oxide ink.  I stamped and layered the images using Oxide inks, leaving a spot for the sentiment included in the set.

I used the Nordic Frames dies from The Greetery to cut out my panel, and attached it to some green cardstock using 3D foam adhesive.

Painted Daisies

 I am revisiting an older set from my craft room.  This is Painted Daisies from Pinkfresh Studio.

This stamp set has a set of stencils that produce the most amazing floral cluster.  I used three colours of Distress Oxide ink (Scattered Straw, Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans), then used the coordinating die to cut it out.

I mounted it to my white card base with 3D foam adhesive, and added my gold metallic sentiment from the Serenade Sentiments die set by Spellbinders (doubled!).  A few gold pearls finished it off.

Pride card

 I am celebrating Pride month today with a pretty rainbow card.

I blended five colours of Distress Oxide ink in irregular rainbow order on a piece of white cardstock, then pulled out the Market Place Mini dies from The Greetery, and cut them out in white.

I added some white paint spatters, then double stacked one of the Perfect Sentiments from Pinkfresh Studio, that was heat embossed in gold.

Happy Pride everyone!

Jolly St. Nick

I picked up a few wonderful new-to-me items at The Papercrafter's Workshop Crafty Destash sale yesterday!  I was actually a vendor... but of course you have to check out what others are selling.  Here is the Jolly St. Nick stamp/stencil/die set that was released last fall by Concord & 9th:

I used Distress Oxide inks on a white, A2 panel, and used five of the stencils to put him together.  There are several sentiment stamps that fit on his beard, so I picked one of them, and stamped it in Hickory Smoke ink.

I also stamped and die cut several of the holly & leaf bits, then used the coordinating dies to cut them out and added them around him.  I cut then entire image with a stitched edge die.  I may add a little glitter before I mail this one out?

Lotus Field

What a beautiful press plate this is from Hero Arts!  This is the Lotus Field plate and coordinating stencils.

It is an all-over background plate, so you need a lot of ink coverage.  I used Distress Oxide inks to do both a solid Peacock Feathers background, as well as a three colour ombre ink blend.

The coordinating stencils allow you to ink blend the petals as well, but there is also a detail layer.  Quick and easy to complete an entire panel.

For the ombre background, I used Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers.

I did minimal colouring of the flowers on this one - just a little soft yellow behind the centers.

The sentiments were all done with gold foiling on Spellbinders black cardstock.  You can find the set at The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Spotlight Golden Bloom

I am sharing a couple of projects featuring the spotlight technique, used with the January Betterpress Society plate, Golden Bloom.

I started by ink blending my card bases, by masking the areas with some low tack tape, using a three-colour blend.  The first was done as a vertical stripe:

And then I did two with a masked rectangle:

The stripe panel was pressed with Betterpress Black ink, along with one of the sentiments in the set.

And the two rectangles, were pressed with Betterpress Tawny Brown ink.

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

Bright Autumn Cheer

 My second version of the cascading leaves card featured some pretty vibrant colours!  This is the September Betterpress Society plate set, Autumn Cheer:

I ink blended several colours of Distress Oxide ink after masking about a 2" strip over my Cotton Card panel.  The leaves were then pressed with Betterpress Black ink.

I pressed one of the sentiments from the set, and added it with 3D foam adhesive.  A few black jewels finished it off.

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

Best Ever Birthday

Rarely (if ever?) do I make a one layer card.  There's always a mat, a layer or two of patterned paper etc.  So this one surprised me, but I really wanted to keep it simple, and be all about the colour.

I've used three different stamp sets from Pigment Craft Co., who are no longer around, but remain one of my favourite companies.  Sets are Best Ever, Sweet Sentiments and Sending Love.

I used several colours of Distress Oxide inks, doing two white versions and two on kraft cardstock.  *The pale one looks better in person, as it has a sort of subtle glimmer to it.

I am entering these into the Simon Says Stamp Instagram challenge for September, which is to use a stamp, in celebration of Stamptember.

Spring Mix

I'm revisiting a stencil & stamp set that I've had for a few years, that I'd been itching to play with again.  This is the Print Shop Spring Mix from The Greetery.

When I play with a multi-layered stencil, I usually like to make multiples, so I put four of these together, doing two of each die-cut version.

I picked out a palette of Distress Oxide inks for the ink blending, and then used them for the stamps that add on all the details to the flowers.

There are several sentiments in the set, and they work really well simply stamped on top in Versafine Onyx Black.  I added a few white paint spatters to each panel.

I used the Hemstitched Rectangles dies from Spellbinders and the Crimped Frame Die from The Greetery to cut my panels, and mounted them on some blue cardstock.

Sea Friends

The June Betterpress Society plates, are a set of underwater images, called "Sea Friends".  I decided to create a beachy background to showcase the shells in the set.

I used five Distress Oxide inks blended to create my shoreline, leaving a bit of a white area between sand & sea.  I went over that section, by pouncing some white paint with a blunt blending brush to make it look like seafoam.  Water was sprinkled to give some colour variations, and a little brown ink was spattered onto the sand.

I trimmed down the panel to be 4"x 5 1/4", and mounted it onto a white card base.  I pressed the two shells in several different inks, and cut them out with their coordinating dies, along with one of the sentiments from the set.

To go with the 'sparkle' part of the sentiment, I die cut each of the shell shapes, and the sentiment shape out of gold glitter cardstock, layering it behind the sentiment, and tucked in behind a couple of the shells.

It created a nice beachy card!  You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.