Christmas Sprigs

I have two more cards that I made to show off wax seals, using a bunch of different Spellbinders products.  The two die sets are Sealed Botanical Sprigs and Sealed Christmas Sprigs

I die cut all kinds of pieces from the die sets in holiday colours, and then arranged them into bouquets to show off my wax seals.  Several of the pieces were cut from the Spellbinders Gold Treasured cardstock, which is a lovely brushed gold.

I had to improvise with my wax seals, as I don't own any Christmas ones!  This leaf from Made of Honour worked well in a dark red wax with a gold paint accent.

I used some patterned papers from my stash, and added accents of brushed gold, and used decorative background dies.

I struggled a bit to figure out how to add a sentiment (without would've worked!), but since I wasn't adding twine or thread to the bundle, I just added a little stamped banner.

For this seal, I just used a blank stamp, then glued on a gold snowflake diecut.  You can get all your Spellbinders/wax seal needs from The Papercrafter's Workshop!

Wax Seal Wreath

If you're attending today's Craft Around event with the Papercrafter's Workshop in Stouffville, Ontario... you'll be making a very similar project to what I'm sharing today.  Our main focus is creating wax seals, so for those folks who've never tried it, they'll have a chance to create one with the Acorn Trio stamp from Spellbinders.

We're also using this Tim Holtz "from the vault" Fall Wreath die set, so I've created a couple of samples using many of the bits & pieces from the set.  I double cut the wreath in two different browns, and stacked them on top of each other, then created a little spray of all the bits, in fall colours.  Everything was glued onto an arch cut with Spellbinders Essential Arches dies.

Each of these has been spattered with gold paint, and then a wax seal that had a little gold paint added to to it - was adhered onto the wreath.  One of them got a fall sentiment, and I've left the other plain, but will likely add one depending on the occassion I use the card for.

There are five different stations at today's events, all creating a different project, with different tools and techniques.  Sign up for the Papercrafter's Workshop emails, and you won't miss the next one!

Sealed Sprigs Christmas Cards

 I am busy making up samples for the Craft ARound event at The Papercrafter's Workshop tomorrow, and was working on a couple of Christmas cards.  These are several of the various "Sealed Sprigs" dies from Spellbinders.

I don't own a Christmas wax seal stamp, so came up with the idea to use the Blank Circle stamp, and just glued on a snowflake diecut - it worked really well!

I also used Darlene's idea to create custom wax dots with my leftover wax, and love the way they look.

I've used a couple of ancient Spellbinders shaped dies on my cards - which felt good to pull out of my stash.

I've used the Spellbinders Silver Treasured Cardstock on my cards today - it cuts beautifully!

All of the Spellbinders products can be found at the Papercrafter's Workshop.

  

More Autumn Sealed Sprigs

 I have another similar card using the Autumn Sealed Sprigs die from Spellbinders, along with the leaf from the Sealed Squiggles die set, and the brand new Acorn Trio Wax Seal.

This time I mounted my sprigs onto a rounded faux stitched rectangle diecut panel that was adhered with 3D foam adhesive.  Instead of thread wrapped around the background, I used the Sealed Twine Etched Die for a faux twine look.  Everything was spattered with gold metallic paint.

I did a mix of pale gold, orange and metallic red wax, and added in a few bits of gold leaf to create my seal.  You can find all your Spellbinders needs at the Papercrafter's Workshop!

Autumn Sealed Sprigs

 I put together a few fall cards this week to show off some of my newest wax seals.  This is the Autumn Sealed Sprigs die set from Spellbinders, with a swirl from the Sealed Squiggles die set, cut from Spellbinders Treasured Gold Cardstock.

After die cutting and gluing all of my cardstock sprigs, I spattered them with gold paint, wrapped some metallic thread around the panel, and added my wax seal.  The seal is the new Forest Mushrooms
oval , made from Antique Gold wax, and coloured with a gold Decocolor paint marker.

I love the pop of blue in with the fall colours!  You can find all of your Spellbinders needs at The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Wax Seal making!

 It was a wax seal kind of day...  I needed to make a few for an upcoming workshop, and of course you can't just make a couple.  I think I did about 30 this afternoon.  I'm really pleased with my efforts.

I'm especially happy with my two and three colour blends - I'm really loving the look.

I wasn't convinced about this red/orange/yellow combination - some mettalic, some not - but they're starting to grow on me.

You can get all of your Wax Seal supplies at The Papercrafter's Workshop!

Swag with a Seal

 I made a bunch of wax seals earlier this summer using flowers that I'd pressed, and a plain circular stamp, so wanted to get using them on some of my cards.  I used the Big Branches Eucalyptus and Ruscus dies from The Greetery to create my swag, mounting them on the Spellbinders Essential Arches die cut shapes.

I wrapped some twine around the top panel before attaching the seal with some foam adhesive.  I added some champagne pearls and a little kraft tag with a Lawn Fawn sentiment

The patterned paper is actually from an older Christmas paper pack in my stash - I love that I could stretch it to be used for something else.

Fall Wreath

I was playing with my Gansai Tambei Watercolours a few weeks ago, after cutting out this pretty wreath from Elizabeth Craft Designs out of Canson XL Watercolour Paper.  This is 2079: Fall Wreath & Owl.

After painting, and spattering with black paint, I cut about 1/3 of the wreath off, and adhered it to my patterned card base as shown, after inking the edges of my paper.  It's actually Christmas paper!  But it worked well for my fall card.

I made a wax seal using Spellbinders Timeless Blooms Wax Seal Stamp and Matcha wax, then used a Decopaint gold marker to highlight the design.  I adhered it to the wreath over a swirl of gold mettalic thread.  I gold embossed a sentiment under the seal, and added a few gold pearls.

All supplies are from the Papercrafter's Workshop.

Gather

Finally a post of something new!  I've created 15 cards for different reasons, that I can't post yet... so I've been creating like crazy behind the scenes, and just felt like getting something put online.  This was a practise card for one of my projects, and I really love how it turned out.

The wreath die is from Tonic Studios that I've had for a few years, cut twice and inked up a little... and the bow die is Fit to be Tied from The Greetery.  I had previously made the wax seal, and thought it worked pretty well here.  Sentiment is from Art Impressions.  The Essential Arches die from Spellbinders was cut in cream cardstock, and inked with a little Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink around the edges.

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!