Radiant Blooms

My first project with the February Betterpress Society plate, Radiant Blooms was hot foiled onto some pale peach cardstock.

As a bonus this month, we received a roll of rose gold foil, so that's what I used on my panel.  I pulled out the scalloped frame dies from Pinkfresh Studio, cut it out of some metallic rose gold cardstock, and layered it on a second frame for some dimension before adhering it to my base.

I used the flowers from my Fresh Picked Buttercups die set, and cut the flowers out of peach cardstock that was a shade darker.   I added a sentiment from the You Are Everything press plate set, that was pressed with Lisa Horton's Copper Pot metallic ink.

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

Arched Pierce and Press Die

 I have a mix of old and new products on today's card, all from Spellbinders.  This is the new Arched Pierce and Press die, paired with the older Floral Stems dies from Simon Hurley.

I die cut the flowers from watercolour paper, and used a combo of inks/paints to add some colour.  I adhered them on top of one of the three arches that come in the set, splattered on some gold paint, and then added a hot foiled sentiment from the It's Your Day Sentitment set.

More Lotus Field cards

 I made two more cards using the Lotus Field press plate/stencil bundle from Hero Arts.

This amazing shimmery pink card was pressed using Lisa Horton metallic ink in Lovestruck.  It gives amazing coverage.

I actually Googled photos of lotus flowers, and there are quite an array of beautiful colours!  It inspired me to experiment a bit with the stencils, and go bold with my inks.

For my tan background card, I pressed the plate with Betterpress Tawny Brown ink.  This was the first press that I ever did with the plate, so the coverage is not perfect (press plates need seasoning, just like stamps do), but I actually love the mottled look that it gives.

Even the image itself is not great, I rolled it through my die cut machine twice (which isn't recommended!), and the plate shifted a little.  I finished it up, and loved how it looked anyway.

Both sentiments were glimmered, the bottom one being a reverse glimmer image.  You can find the Lotus Field bundle at The Papercrafter's Workshop.

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.

Baggage Cards

I pulled out my favourite baggage dies today to put together a couple of cards.  These are from the We All Have Baggage collection from Sheri Ballantyne for Spellbinders.

This is the Retro Suitcase and Sentiments die, which is the sweetest little piece of luggage!  It's so cleverly designed, and is such fun to assemble.  

This is the first time that I've used the little sticker/decal images that come with the set.  Such great details!

And here is the fun Designer Purse die:

The sentiment is from the Keep Calm Sentiment set by Hero Arts (part of the same Spellbinders collection).

You can find the whole collection at The Papercrafter's Workshop!  And if you're on the internet this Thursday at 8:30pm, Meghann Andrew will be creating with it on the SCT Youtube channel.

Buon Appetito!

I absolutely adore the Buon Appetito collection from Spellbinders, and when my niece received it as a gift, she graciously allowed me to die cut a bunch of the bits (before she'd even used it...).  They have been sitting in my craft room for weeks, and I finally had time to assemble the MANY tiny pieces, and got them made up into cards.

 

I wanted to keep things fairly simple, so went with a primary colour scheme for the most part, and looked through my stash of papers to find some 'tablecloth' looking prints.  An old pack of Graphic 45 paper to the rescue.

The cutlery is an old Your Next Stamp die set, and the square and oval dies are from The Greetery, but otherwise all products used were from Spellbinders.

The sentiment set that is in the collection is amazing!  Hilarious and punny to go with such cute images.

As always, the sets are so well thought out - right down to the little piece that goes under the rosy cheeks.

Shower Invitation

This is just version number one for a shower invitation I'm creating for a girlfriend... I will post the final product when I start mass producing in a few weeks.

Forget-Me-Nots are meaningful to the bride & her Mom, so I got as close as I could with Spellbinders Fresh Picked Buttercups.

I used an Altenew piercing plate for the base, with a little ink blending to warm it up.  I cut and stacked two frames using the Essential Arches dies, with a little blush ink in the corner, then layered my floral sprig overtop.  I cut the Celebrate from metallic gold cardstock, layered twice, and added a few gold pearls.

We are tweaking the colours a little to match the bridal party colours, which should be lovely!

Craft Your Stash!

I am playing along with a couple of challenges today (haven't done that in a while!).  The Craft Your Stash challenge is a just for fun group on Facebook - that asks you to use something from your stash that you've never used.  I am also playing along with the Alphabet Soup challenge on the Papercrafter's Inner Circle group, with E is for Embossing Folder!

 

I have had this Carta Bella embossing folder for many years... and once I decided on using one for my card, I dug it out and pressed it with some soft green cardstock.  I pulled out the 5835 Mini Paper Pack from Art Impressions to die cut the Happy Birthday (Lawn Fawn), and matted it with the same green over a gingham oval.  

I wanted a simple colour palette, so I added a larger pale yellow oval, and used the Floral Spray dies from Spellbinders to cut the flowers and leaves.  I darkened the smaller flowers with some Scattered Straw ink, and added a few champagne pearls as their centers.

Cozy Toes for a Baby Girl

 And these make for a total of five baby cards made in the last few weeks!  I've mainly needed baby boy cards, until a friend saw my girl version a few days ago, and asked for another...  So I have two baby girl cards to share with you today, made with the Cozy Toes stamps and dies from Cocord & 9th.

 I once again pulled out paper packs from Art Impressions - as the coordinating smaller scale prints work SO well with this design.

The use of patterned paper with the dies also make these come together really quickly.  I loved making a couple of non-traditionally coloured baby cards.

Happy Bee Day

It's been a week of last minute card requests!  (I love making specific cards for people...)  I have been teaching my girlfriend's daughter to sew, and she had created a couple of bee-themed projects for her sister, so I offered to make a bee-themed card to go with the gift.

I knew that I had this large Bee die from The Greetery, and realized that I had the honeycomb stencil too.

The sentiment I needed was a no-brainer, and since I needed to create it fairly quickly, I took 'happy' and 'birthday' word dies, and trimmed off  'birth', then pulled out the small font die, and already had the yellow letters cut and ready!  Voila!

One of the best things about my card, is that I used products from six different companies to bring it all together.  The Greetery (Bee), Pinkfresh Studio (White circle), Spellbinders (Word dies), Art Impressions (Small font), Lawn Fawn (stencil) and Tim Holtz (Inks).

Baby Girl Card

Once again, it's Cozy Toes by Concord & 9th to the rescue!  I had a last minute request for a baby card, and reverted to my trusted and true card design with this set.

I pulled out the 5835 Mini Paper pack by Art Impressions, and used it with all the dies from this set to put a card together fairly quickly.  Using a coordinating paper pack takes out a lot of the guesswork.

I think this is my 5th card with this design, just switching up the papers.  More are in my future, as I cut a bunch of additional pieces to use in cards down the road.

Glam Designer Purse

This was a special request card, using the Designer Purse die from the 'We All Have Baggage' collection designed by Sheri Ballantyne for Spellbinders.

I found these older kraft/gold papers in my stash to create a glam card using pearlescent black cardstock and some metallic red for the hearts.  The sentiment is 'Keep Calm Sentiments' by Hero Arts.  My card is 5 1/2" square.

You can find the entire collection at The Papercrafter's Workshop!

Watercolour Tulips & Daffodils

I knew that I wanted to try painting this image as soon as I saw it, so I pressed a couple of them on some Canson XL Watercolour paper, and pulled out my Gansai Tambei set of paints.

 

This is the Yana's Tulips and Daffodils press & foil plate from Spellbinders.

Both versions are pretty similar, with slight variations.  This one has a softer background, and more red toned tulips.  I added some gold spatter, and a sentiment from the Golden Blooms set.

I stitched around the outside of the piece with my sewing machine, and added a few champagne pearls.

My second version has a moodier vibe, with a stronger background.

I went for more pink toned tulips, and used a sentiment from the Bouquet of Hugs set.

So much fun to paint!  You can find the set at The Papercrafter's Workshop.