Bright Sweet Stems

 I've only used this die once, making some pretty pastel cards, so decided to go in a brighter direction this time.  This is the Sweet Stems stamp & die set.

I cut the background die in five colours of cardstock, then started to mix and match to put my cards together.

I used my Pinterest board to find my colour inspiration, and honestly this doesn't take too long to put together!  

For this one, I added some pale blue to the mix, from a previous time that I'd cut out this set.

I used the coordinating stamp set for the 'good day' senitment, and the other two are the Dashing Sentiments set from Pigment Craft Co.

Delivering Wishes

 My first project with the June Betterpress Society plate, Delivering Wishes, was to try ink smooshing!

I pressed the plate on regular white cardstock with Betterpress black ink, then picked my colour combos of four coordinating inks.

I put some ink on my work surface, spritzed with water, then picked it up with a piece of acetate, and smooshed it onto my image, intentionally adding the ink on top of the shapes.

I cut the image out with the stitched rectangle from the Postage Rectangle and Tag dies from Spellbinders, and cut a larger shaped piece out of coordinating cardstock to mount it on.

The sentiments from the set were pressed on the same colours of cardstock.

After cutting them out with the coordinating dies, I cut two more out of black cardstock and stacked them all together so the sentiments would have more height.  I added a few iridescent sequins.

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

Reverse Foil Rose

I tried a bit of an experiment today!  I used the reverse foil of a background plate that didn't turn out very well.  There were sections of it that were quite good, and others not so much - but I was hoping it would give a bit of a distressed vibe.

I first used rose gold foil to glimmer a piece of peach cardstock with the Art Deco plate from Pinkfresh Studio (love this!), and used two colours of Pinkfresh ink to colour it with the coordinating stencils.

I used the Build A Flower: Rose dies from Altenew to cut out the base layer of the rose and leaves from my unsuccessful reverse foiling.  Then cut the remainder of the pieces out from peach and pale green cardstock.  I used the same ink colours to darken the layers, and assembled my flowers.  The sentiment was also layered on the reverse foil panel, and attached with 3D foam adhesive.  I spattered some rose gold metallic paint on my card.

Not my favourite card, but the process was fun.

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.

Christmas Bouquet

 I took advantage of Alex Syberia's July sale to get the Christmas Bouquet die set.  So many possibilities with this one!

I used mainly Concord & 9th cardstock for this one, and added a little ink blending to most of the pieces.

I created a shaped card, so used the outline die to cut out my card base.  I added a glimmered sentiment - and may go back and add some gold paint spatters as well.  We'll see!

Rainbow Peonies

 Last one for a while!  These are the whole reason that I bought this press plate set.  This is the Lush Peony Bouquet from Alex Syberia Designs.  The amazing Mona Toth is on their design team, and did three of the most beautiful cards I've ever seen (you can see them here!).

I have copied her outright - so can't take any credit for these, but am beyond thrilled with my results.

The image was pressed using Betterpress Black ink onto regular white cardstock.  The plate comes with three coordinating stencils, which make it so easy to achieve a polished finished product.

The flowers are stenciled using only three inks, that all overlap to give the rainbow effect.  A pale aqua, yellow and pink.  The leaves are stenciled with two colours of green.

I used two different rectangular dies to cut out two of the images, and adhered them to a white card base with 3D foam adhesive.  The third card was left as a single layer panel, but give some black ink spatters.

I used three different sentiments that were hot foiled in gold on black cardstock, and added a few black gems.

Pink Peonies

 When I pulled out the Lush Peony Bouquet press plate a few days ago, I pressed and glimmered a bunch of images, so you're going to see a lot of these over the next while!

I hot foiled the plate with gold foil onto some pale pink cardstock, then used the coordinating stencils, and a mix of Distress and Pinkfresh Studio inks to colour it up.  These come together so quickly.  I used my Beam paint to splatter some gold over the florals.

I used a decorative rectangle die to cut it out, then added foam adhesive to attach it to my base.  The glimmered sentiment was also attached with foam dots.