Shaped Sweet Moments

I made a bonus card with the August Betterpress Society plate, 'Sweet Moments', using the Essential Arches dies from Spellbinders.

I pressed the plate in ombre fashion on some aqua cardstock using four of the teal inks from Pinkfresh Studio, using a blending brush to soften the colour transitions.

I cut out my panel with the Arches dies, then adhered it to a slightly larger arch shaped base in a deep teal.  I used the same die to cut a folded piece of white cardstock to serve as the card base.

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

Giant Happy Birthday

I have a whole host of family birthdays over the next few months, and needed to build up my gender-neutral stash of cards.  I pulled out an old favourite - the Giant Happy Birthday die from Lawn Fawn to get started.

I love that literally any papers will work with this die!  I dug out some ancient Basic Grey papers in a couple of coordinating colours and got cutting.  I cut the large die also in black and offset it under the patterned paper.  I used die cut bits from Spellbinders Holiday Blooms stamp set for some extra decoration with a black jute bow.

I did my favourite thing - sewing on a card!  Just added a row of black stitching around the exterior.  I am happy to get four of them made (one was already in the mail when the photos were taken).

Bolder Sweet Moments

My third project with the August Betterpress Society plate, Sweet Moments, was pressed with 49th & Market's new ink in Arctic Blitz, which gave a nice crisp image!

I used a mix of Distress inks and Pinkfresh Studio inks along with the coordinating stencils to colour in my flowers, sticking with bold, strong colours.  The panel was cut with the Hemstitched Rectangles die from Spellbinders.

Since the Arctic Blitz is an unusual blue/green colour, I didn't have any cardstock in my stash that matched it, so I created my own, by inking up the edges of some white cardstock - worked out really well.

The panel was adhered to the inked cardstock mat, then glued onto some patterned paper from my stash - it's a larger 5"x6.5" card.  The sentiment from the set was also pressed in Arctic Blitz, and was attached with some 3D foam adhesive.  A few pale blue enamel dots finished off the card.

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

Market Place Mini

I am so excited to be playing with these!  This is the newest release from The Greetery - a full set of European style buildings, called "Market Place".  This is the Market Place Mini set of dies:

For my first effort, I chose some muted cardstock colours, trying out each building in each of the colourways, so they're all just slightly different.

There is a companion die set called Market Place Holiday Festoons, which includes all of the little wreaths, bows and the Merry Christmas swag - of which I die cut a bunch!

Betsy at The Greetery does an amazing job designing her products - all the details are just perfect, and they're all easy to assemble.

After gluing all of the buildings together, I spattered them with some gold paint, then attached them to a rectangle die cut (also The Greetery!).

So happy to have three more Christmas cards in my stash.  I'm just getting started with the Market Place collection... stay tuned.

Muted Sweet Moments

My second project with the August Betterpress Society plate set, Sweet Moments has a soft, ink blended background on a bisque cotton card panel.

Instead of using stencils to colour in the flowers, I blended Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Bundled Sage inks, roughly in the area where the flowers and foliage appear.  I pressed using the new Fossil ink from 49th & Market.  This was my first press with this plate, and the coverage was not amazing (after cleaning and inking it a few times, it worked perfectly), so I initially put the panel aside - but went back to it after a few days, finding it's grainy appearance to be kind of appealing!

I found some polka dot paper in my stash that matched my muted colour scheme, and cut an oval shape out of it, before adhering it to my panel with 3D foam adhesive.  I also pressed one of the sentiments from the set in Fossil ink, and blended a little colour on it, so as not to have it appear too bright, then glued it over the opening.  

I added a few champagne pearls to finish it off.

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

I'm Just Here For The Pie

I've used the Spellbinders Perfect Pies Collection quite a few times, but don't think I've ever made pumpkin pies with it?  What better time than Thanksgiving to put together a little pie card.

I paired it with some fall die cut bits from Sizzix, and some utensils from Your Next Stamp.  The paper is from the Fall S2 pack from Art Impressions.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians who are celebrating this weekend!

More Candy Cane Season

 I am revisiting the fun Candy Cane Season dies from Hero Arts today.  I switched up my patterned paper (Simple Stories Say Cheese Classic Christmas Mouse) for these, and added a bunch of foliage bits from the Holiday Blooms die set from Spellbinders.

So happy to have six of these in my stash!

Shaker Tags

I give out Christmas tags in my family's Christmas cards, and wanted to do a few special ones this year.  I picked the most labour intensive tags that I could (ha!) - shakers.

This is the How You Bean? stamp and die set from Lawn Fawn that I've had for a few years.  They've come out with several 'add on' sets, so this is the Christmas Cookies one, and the Mint one, created with the Shaker Add On set.

The mint ones were stamped with Pinkfresh Studio Berrylicious ink, and a few diecut bits of holly were added to the corner.  I used an ornament topper from another set to diecut the little hanger piece.  I cut a plain green jar shape, and created a second tag that will go behind - for the person to write on.  That way the shaker can be reused another year, simply by switching out the tag in behind.

The cookie ones were stamped in Memento ink and coloured with Copic markers.  Not my best colouring, as I used inexpensive paper (they're just tags), but they still turned out pretty cute.

Sweet Moments

The August Betterpress Society plate from Spellbinders, is called 'Sweet Moments'.  I pressed the image on regular cardstock using the new 49th & Market Fossil ink.

Given that I used a muted grey for the main press, I came up with a muted colour palette to use with the coordinating stencils.  I chose four colours of Distress Oxide ink, using a little extra shading to colour them in.

I pressed a second set of the image, and fussy cut around the three largest flowers after colouring them with the stencils as well.  They were adhered to the main image using 3D foam adhesive.

There are 3 sentiments included in the set, so I picked one, pressed it in the Fossil ink, and cut it out with the coordinating die.  It was also attached with foam adhesive.  A few champagne pearls finished it off.

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

Christmas Cars and Classic Truck Foundations

 I am up on the Art Impressions blog today for the Watercolour Weekend post.

I have one fall and one Christmas card to share with you today,  let's start with my favourite season:

This is the 6066 - Classic Truck Foundation set.  I went for the softer side of fall with this one.  I stamped my image with #N45 onto some Canson XL Watercolour paper, and pulled out the colour with a damp brush.  I used a wash of #177 with touches of #993 to paint in the hillsides, and shades of #992/969 for the dirt road, tree and fence.  The truck was painted with a mixture of #565/249 to create the washed out aqua shade, and all the trim was done in layers of #N45. The interior of the truck was painted with #565 to give a shadowed look.

I wanted a white barn, so only painted light shades of #N45 on the shadowy sides of the barn, and a darker layer of grey on the roof.  I used a pencil to add in the vertical barn boards.  The doors were painted in #837, and #565 was used to shade in the windows and under the eaves.  A wash of #493 was painted in the sky, leaving negative white space to suggest clouds, and I added in some areas of #N45 to add some shading to them.  I drew in the trees along the hillside directly with my #177 and 933 markers, and even though I used a tiny foliage stamp for the tree in the foreground, I wasn't happy with the look so used the markers directly on my paper to add in the leaves. 

The image was die cut with the stitched/rounded corner die from the 5809 - Decorative Journal Page 2 set which fits the Foundations perfectly!  I added a blue mat underneath it, and mounted it onto this pretty plaid from the 5832 Gnome Paper Pack.  I wanted to accent the barn door colour, so used the Fall word die from 5770 - Farm FB Fence Set, cut out three times from some warm pink cardstock, and layered on top of each other to create a nice thick word.  I offset my panel slightly to the right of my card.

My second card is the start of my painted holiday cards!  

I used the sweet little truck from 5823 - Christmas Cars set, and stamped it in #N45 onto some Canson XL Watercolour paper.  After pulling out the colour, I painted the truck with several layers of #837 to build up the darker areas, leaving the rounded parts of the truck much lighter.  I masked off the back of the truck, and used my stamp positioner to stamp the tree from 5826 - WC Large Tree Set 2 in #249.  After touching it with a damp brush, I stamped it a second time to add some of the detail back in.  I wanted a wreath on the front of the truck, and the little half wreath from 5830 - WC Mini Wreath Set worked perfectly!  I used #249 and my stamp positioner to get it in the right spot.

I used #565 to paint in a wintry sky wash, and also added the 'suggestion' of a person in the truck, and added a shadow under it.  I used white paint and a #1 brush to dab on some snow on my scene.  I used my red Twintone marker to draw a bow on the wreath.

My image is small!  So I made a busier background using the 5812 - Christmas S2 Paper Pack.  I used the 5724 - Nested Rectangle Dies to cut it out, and matted it with black cardstock.  I cut the 5132 - Tag Stitched Die from the woodgrain paper, and adhered it down to my background.  The sentiment is from 5566 - Christmas Sentiments Set stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Welcome Faye!

I made a new baby card for my son to give to a friend.  I love her name, and decided to put it on the card, just using some fun papers that I've had in my stash for a while from Cosmo Cricket.

Both alphabets are from Art Impressions.  I cut the name out twice and stacked them for a bit of extra dimension.

I added a few aqua gems for a little sparkle, just because.

Candy Cane Season

I wanted this die from the first time I saw it!  I held out for a *short* while, but was excited to add it to my craft supplies.  This is the Candy Cane Season die from Hero Arts.

I found these cute papers from the cute Say Cheese Classic Mouse Christmas papers from Simple Stories, then added a few bits from the Holiday Blooms die set from Spellbinders.  The bow is from All Tied Up dies by The Greetery.

I got six of these done for my stash!  Let the Christmas card making begin in earnest.