Daisy Trio - Fall Version

I pulled out a panel that I'd pressed a few months ago, and finished making it up into a card today.  This is the Daisy Trio press plate and stencil set by Yana Smakula.

This is such a gorgeous plate, and I loved making the daisies into more of a black eyed susan/fall type of flower.  The blue background wasn't perfectly pressed, the tape marks showed through a bit, so I purposefully grunged up my card with a little white paint, and fixed up some of the areas with my Copic markers.  I'm really happy with the end result.

The sentiment is from the You Are Everything Sentiment set, pressed in Copper Pot metallic ink from Lisa Horton.

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.

Christmas Whimsy Ornaments

The July Betterpress Society plate was called Christmas Whimsy Ornaments, which was a full A2 sized plate featuring a bunch of tiny ornaments, and came with a matching die.

My first project was pressed on regular cardstock, using Lisa Horton's Solid Gold metallic ink - which pressed really well!  I used the die on some patterned paper, and cut it out a second time from some matte gold cardstock which I layered under the patterned paper, slightly offset, so that a bit of it showed in each opening.

I adhered the paper over the pressed ornaments with some 3D adhesive, then added a sentiment and a few gold die cut bits around it.

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

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.

Capybara cards!!

I took the most amazing class from The Papercrafter's Workshop this weekend... using the adorable Capybara set from Lawn Fawn.

I haven't bought the set, as I wondered how many capybara cards I would actually give out?  But now I'm rethinking that idea...  So I thought doing a card class would be a fun way to create with the set.  Darlene at PCW designed a really fun class with some 3D & interactive elements:

We did ink smooshing to create the watery sky/river using distress inks, then glued all the elements in place.  Our kit included all the die cut and stamped pieces, so I had already coloured up all the images with my Copic markers.

This large die cut is layered onto some 3D foam to give it the extra dimension.  The card was intended as a horizontal card, but I switched things up a little.

Another one that I mucked with!  This was to be a gift card holder, but I don't really give out a lot of gift cards, so I turned it into a simple birthday card.

And our last card used an interactive Spellbinders die, that allows you to pull up the panel on the front to reveal the message.  So easy to assemble!  And such a cute card.  *I know there are a few kits still available at the PCW store, and the class is available on replay if you're interested.

Hello Fall Wreath & a Fall Scene

 I am on the Art Impressions blog today for their Watercolour Weekend post!

Painting fall scenes are among my favourite things to paint!  Another thing I love to do is to use multiple stamp sets to create my scene, which is what happened with my first card:

This was the first time I've used the Canson XL Mixed Media paper that is available in the shop, and it wasn't bad to paint on!  It's very lightweight, and fairly smooth, but took the colour well.  I started by stamping the large birdhouse from 5925 - Honey Bee Set in N45, leaving off the lower right corner as I knew that I was going to stamp the single pumpkin from 5595 - Harvest Pumpkin Set beside it.  After masking the birdhouse, I stamped the two pumpkins from 5059 - WC Harvest Set in N55, and put the mouse from 5599 - Mini Mice & Squirrel Set in front.  I really love the line of leaves from 5598 - Harvest Set, and stamped it in front of the pumpkin, as well as just small parts of it on either side of my scene.

With all the elements in place, I started painting in #993 and #312 on the house, and to get the colour of blue that I was looking for, I used Stormy Sky Distress ink for the roof and wooden base.  On the two lighter pumpkins, I used #312/N45/565, and for the orange one I used #993/933/947/899.  The mouse was painted with layers of #899, and my black Twintone marker filled in his eye and feet.  The leaves were done in a multi-coloured fashion, using #126/933/993/899.  The sky was added using a wash of #565, and a wash of #126 was painted in as the ground.  I used my #565 to add shadows under the house and objects, and darkened up different areas with my grey Twintone - or redrew lines that had disappeared.

The greeting from 5600 - Harvest Sentiments Set was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, and the scene was matted with a blue decorative rectangle die, and mounted on paper from the 5606 - Harvest Journal PP.

My second project was started with the intention of it being a wreath, but as I got painting, I stopped at a half-wreath since I liked the way it looked.

I started with the veggies from 5426 - WC Veggies, stamping them in N55, masking where needed (can you tell that's some broccoli peeking out??).  Then I began building my design with the ferns from 5830 - WC Mini Wreath Set, done two-toned in 126/993 and 126/158.  The vines from 5007 - WC Foliage Set were coloured in #565/177, stamping one in each direction, on each side.  This is the point where I decided that I didn't want to do an entire wreath, so I added the leafy branch from 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4 in 933/993 on either side to finish it off.  I decided that my wreath needed a little something beside the veggies, so I used the small sprig from 5830 - WC Mini Wreath Set in a bit of a rainbow fashion using #565/685/933/993.  After painting in the veggies with (orange) 933/947/969 (brown) 899/947 (yellow) 993/899/933 and (green) 249/177/126, I touched everything with a damp brush, and pulled out a bit of the colour.

After looking for a sentiment to add, I found the Hello Fall die in the 5592 - Harvest Journal Die Set.  I first painted it in an ombre style on watercolour paper, but it looked a little bold.  Knowing that I intended to add a metallic gold mat under my square, I tried adding a gold diecut layered over the painted one, and loved the look!  A few dots with my gold pen added a little more sparkle.  The square was cut using the 5061 - Square Double Stitched Dies, and was mounted onto paper from the 5838 - Fall PP with 3D foam adhesive.

Sea Friends Shaker card

 A bonus fourth project using the June Betterpress Society plate, Sea Friends - is a shaker card.

I just had to make one of these!  So many options of how to do it.  I used one of my 'rejected' panels from the seahorse card, as this one was too bold and too busy for that project.  It worked really well for this, though.  I used the add-on plate, to press the bubble frame onto my background, then adhered the Waffle Flower shaker cover to it on three sides.  I poured in a mixture of iridescent discs and micro beads, along with a pressed and diecut starfish from this set.

After closing the shaker, I adhered it to my card base, and went about adding the pressed and diecut images around the outside.  All images were pressed with Pinkfresh Studio inks, using one or two shades on each.  I pressed the sentiment from the add-on set in Black Betterpress ink, and cut it with the coordinating die, adhering it to the center of my card.

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