Wax Seals

 Have you tried them?  They're pretty addicting once you start... (and then you want all the seals!!)  I've been wanting to try them with pressed flowers, and a plain circular seal... so I scoured my neighbourhood for tiny flowers, and pressed them in a dictionary for 3 weeks!  Scroll down and you'll see my efforts at the end.

These ones were with vellum and clear wax - that are virtually identical.  They're actually a little 'brighter' than this is reality, as the woodgrain is showing through the seals.  You can see my fail there on the right!  I was trying to add gold leaf flecks, which were very difficult to handle, and caused the wax to cool before I could press the seal on it.

Pretty happy with this group - I love the teal, especially done as a two-tone seal with the lime.  The two daisies were a purchased set of pressed flowers that my niece gifted me - and they turned out perfectly!  The dark grey wax was lumpy, and not easy to use... another fail.

Happy with these ones also!  Two shades of pink, some marbled, and finally done marbled with white.  This is where I started experimenting with Distress Glitter - and it worked really well.  I learned that less is more!

Finally, I ended my afternoon with the gold wax, and I knew it wouldn't look amazing with the flowers, so I mainly did regular seals.  I tried my gold paint pen with the vellum seals, but need to work on my technique a little more.

Here are my favourites!  The hydrangea blossoms are gorgeous - I still have the plant, so will definitely press more.  Below are shots of the flowers I pressed - the hardest part is arranging the fresh blooms so that the will press open - harder than it sounds.

You can get all your wax seal supplies at the Papercrafter's Workshop!

Incredibowl

It's been a minute since I've used the 4530 - Incredibowl set from Art Impressions - it's been retired for a while.  But an old coworker of mine is retiring today, and she's a bowler, so I inked her up and pulled out my Copics.  Plaid papers are older Lawn Fawn.

Betterpress Q

 I really do love this large, elegant Q!  This is the Floral Q and Sentiment Betterpress plate from Spellbinders, pressed onto their white cotton card panel, and watercoloured with the fabulous Shimmer Sunbeam/Moonbeam Watercolour palettes from Crafter's Companion.  A few Glacier Jewels from Pinkfresh Studio added a little extra glimmer.

I painted the flowers in rainbow order!  Love the look

All supplies are available at the Papercrafter's Workshop!

Betterpress Z and Shimmery Watercolours

I am revisiting a couple of the Betterpress Alphabet plates this week.  Today is the Betterpress Z and Sentiment, pressed on watercolour paper, and painted with the most amazing shimmery watercolours from the Crafter's Companion.  This is the Sunbeam set - available at the Papercrafter's Workshop.

Hello

This is one of the first Betterpress plates that I owned, and pressed it on my first play day, but haven't used the impression until now!  I love the big bold sentiment, and have a bunch of ideas on how to jazz it up a little.

I pressed the plate onto a Pebble Cotton card panel using Betterpress Black ink (perfection!), and cut it out with my die from The Greetery.

I used my Spellbinders Holiday Blooms die set to cut out all of my bits and pieces, and arranged them around the sentiment, then added some Glacier Jewels from Pinkfresh Studio.  After matting it on black, I adhered it to my blue card front using 3D foam adhesive.

All supplies can be found at The Papercrafter's Workshop!

Flower Power

 I've made up a couple of cards for the May 2024 challenge on the Pinkfresh Studio blog.  The May theme is "Flower Power", so I've used the Floral Square Frame press plate for some bright square cards:

Both cards have the image pressed onto regular Neenah 120lb cardstock with Memento Onyx Black ink, which allowed me to use my Copic markers to colour them in, with a little shading.  The blue one is 5 1/4" square, with the image and sentiment popped up with 3D foam adhesive.

The turquoise card is 5" square, coloured up the same, and also adhered with foam adhesive.  Both sentiments are Betterpressed.

All supplies are from the Papercrafter's Workshop.

All the Geraniums...

 Ta da!  All six geranium cards that I started this week are complete.  I'm posting the last four all together in this post, along with my original two at the end.  Super happy with how they turned out - and they're not as labour intensive as they look.  The fun part was picking out the patterned papers and colours for each card.  All dies are from The Greetery, papers are all October Afternoon.  Sentiments are Betterpress.

Pink Geranium

 I have a pink version of the Botanicuts Geranium card that I posted last week (stay tuned, there are four more on my craft table, so there are more to come!).  I was really happy with the design using the Hoopla Oval die as a background, so I am not reinventing the wheel... just switching up the colours and papers.  All dies are from The Greetery, papers are older October Afternoon, and I've used a Betterpress Sentiment.

Geranium Card

I have long coveted this gorgeous Botanicuts Geranium die from The Greetery, so was pretty excited to purchase it during Betsy's recent sale.

I die cut several different colours, but couldn't resist starting with a classic deep red one. The Pretty Pot die and Hoopla Oval die are also from The Greetery.  I inked up and splattered the frame to make it look a bit aged, then glued it over a cream panel that I had used my Altenew Dotted Tile Debossing Cover Die on.

I tried a little ink blending on the centers of each bloom, but it didn't show up enough, so I went in with several shades of Copic markers to darken them.

I used Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness on the stems and leaves which I'm really happy with!  The sentiment is Spellbinder's It's Your Day Sentiment Strips done with my Betterpress machine.

A Birdhouse & a Birdcage

 

I'm up on the Art Impressions blog today for the Watercolour Weekend post!  I pulled out a favourite set of mine for my first card, here is 5261 - WC Large Birdhouse Set:

I started by taping off a 1 1/2" stripe on my Bristol Smooth Cardstock, and I did some ink blending with Broken Glass and Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide inks.  I mostly avoided the area where I wanted the birdhouse to be - and then used my Misti to stamp it exactly where I wanted it, using N57. 

Next, I created my vine using a portion of the small vine from Foliage Set - 4051 and #177, stamping it repeatedly to make the vine wrap around the base.  I used my damp brush to soften the leaves, extending the colour to the background slightly,  then used the spiky flower from 5258 - WC Flower Set 4 to stamp my flowers using #606.  I painted the birdhouse with N57, and added #991 to the roof.  With N57, I used my stamp positioner to add the two birds from the Birdhouse Set to the sky, and painted them in with shades of #565.  Shadows were painted in the windows and on the undersides of the surfaces using #565.

I hand drew in a few blades of grass, and used the small branch from 4964 - WC Branches Set to finish off my scene.  The sentiment is from 5797 - Little Things Sentiment Set stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.

For my second card, I've used the 5367 - WC Birdcage Dies.  I've used them before, but as a mask, so the die shape was simply the 'negative' that was painted around.  But these dies are gorgeous when cut, so I wanted to use the larger one cut from metallic silver cardstock - and I really love the look.

I started by tracing the rough shape of my die onto my Canson XL Watercolour Paper, so that I would have an idea of how to create my flowers & foliage.  Using my stamp positioner, I added the trailing blooms from 5474 - Flower Set 5 in #725/177 and #676/177, as well as the two fuchsia stamps in the same colours.  I added the Daisy Bunch from 4052 - Flower Set 1 in #993 with #725 around the bottom, which gave a peachy-pink shade to them.  The circlet flowers from 4868 - WC Flower Set 2, and the Foxglove from 4052 were both stamped in #565, and then I filled in around them with the tiny leaves from 5009 - WC Mini Flower Set in #126.

After touching everything with a damp brush, I added a wash of #493 to the background.  I spattered a little silver metallic paint onto the edges, and wanted a little something more - so stamped and diecut two of the butterflies from 5561 - Birds and Bugs Set.  They were coloured up with coordinating Tombow colours, and adhered with their wings bent up.  I glued my birdcage on top of my painting, used a decorative edge die to cut out my panel, and adhered it to my cardbase with 3D foam adhesive.

Yay! Birthday

 I have another card made with the Citrus Bloom suite, done in pinks and plums this time.  I decided to experiment with my inks and frames to see what I could put together.  The sentiment is Perfect Sentiments, the frame is Stitched Scallop Rectangles and the background is from the Slim Stitches die.  All supplies are from Pinkfresh Studio.