Alex’s Almond Blossoms

Welcome back to my blog!  I’m featuring another one of the beautiful new images recently released by Alex Syberia Designs in the form of digital stamps!  If you haven’t ventured into that world yet you really should!  Not only are the images super affordable, but you have the option to manipulate and play with them to create a myriad of designs and layouts!  Once you’ve created a design you like, just print, color and go!  For today’s card I chose the trio of Almond Blossoms, printed it in a size to fit an A2 card and got busy!  

 I started coloring the flowers with Zig markers, then realized that I hadn’t printed on Bristol Smooth card stock which is my go-to for Zigs and water.  So I used my Prismacolor pencils to fill out the rest of the blossoms.  Next time I’ll leave a little more white space!  

How about those stamen?!   I made them by dotting Glossy Accents to the ends then sprinkled on black glitter!  I love how the light catches them!  I fussy-cut the blossoms then put them aside in order to create my background!  

On a panel of Bristol Smooth this time, I sponged a thick layer of Fossilized Amber, Scattered Straw and Lemonade oxide inks, then deepened the edges with a layer of Aged Mahogany and Worn Lipstick.  You can see my favorite script-y stamp which accents the side and of course, my lovely spatters of black!  I attached this panel to a white base card, put some foam tape under my blossoms and added that to the background!  Finally, one of the great sentiments from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips was the last touch!  Oh!  I can’t forget my pretty little gems which add a little sparkle!  I hope you like my card and I hope you’ll go on over to Alex’s Etsy shop to see which designs will spark your creativity!  Thanks for visiting!  

Advertisement

AlexSyberiaDesign May Digi Stamp Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Welcome to a very exciting event!!  I am privileged to guest design along with a stellar group of designers in celebration of the newly released Alex Syberia Designs plus a blog hop and giveaway!  I’ve been a big fan of Alex’s images for quite some time as you know if you follow my blog!  I’m a bit flower-crazy and she is all about flowers!  My card features a spankin’ new design called Full Bloom which I printed out in a 4X6 size thus getting two big images on one sheet of cardstock.  I spent a happy time coloring these luscious blooms with Copic markers.  As always, I use many colors so I can’t provide a list of those for you.  I also regret not remembering to set up my camera to either snap many progress photos or make a video!  

I did get a shot of this stage of my card! After coloring Full Bloom, I decided to fussy-cut it in order to mount onto a stenciled background.  As you can see, I ended up cutting the yellow blossom completely off the main panel because I wanted to fit it onto an A2 card and create a layer with it!  BTW, I don’t know where I got my leaf stencil but I do love the added foliage it provides for my flowers!  

After adhering my main image to the stenciled background, I put several strips of foam tape onto the back of the big flower and arranged it over the others.  I love that that particular flower was complete so that it could be the star of the show!  

A friend recently gifted me with the wonderful new sentiments and die from The Ton called Easy Expressions; I love the double font styles in this set and especially the little pop of black it provides against my floral background!  

I think this may be one of my favorite designs by Alex; those dainty little flowers are so sweet and the petals on all three blooms are perfect for coloring!  Now, onto the details of the blog hop and Giveaway:
To celebrate this release, Alex is giving away 7 $10 gift certificates.
Please leave a comment on each of the participating designers’ blogs/IG accounts in this blog hop by 05/22/2020 for a chance to win.
Winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the blogs/IG accounts listed below and will be announced on Alex’s blog on 05/23/2020.    Please join us in the celebration and increase your chances of winning by taking a peek at the other creations made by the team!   Alex Syberia
Amber Rain Davis
Hannelie Bester
Nora Niskanen
Ilda Dias
Natasha Vacca
LauraJane
Jenny Colacicco
Yasmin Diaz
Tina Wilstrup
Rebecca Rapanaro
TaeEun Yoo
Jyoti Adhikari
Colleen Balija
Sandhya Iyer
Deborah
Nicoletta Porcu
Sharon White
Elena Cazares
Bonnie Crane
Melissa Goodman

 

 

Clean Up Cards!

 I don’t know about you, but I have hundreds and hundreds of card photos stored in my computer and my typical habit is to edit them for blog posts or to post on social media then pop them over to my CopyCatCard file!  Once that’s done, I delete them from Camera Uploads but unfortunately, I often forget that step!  During this time of social distancing, I’ve been working on cleaning up my files and came across a number of cards that I never edited and so they were never used for a blog or Facebook post!  I thought I’d share them with you today!  You’ll see that I have quite a few cards made with some of Alex Syberia Designs like this one above!  I printed it onto Bristol Smooth card stock and then colored the blossom with my Zig markers.  After die-cutting the image into a circle, I mounted it to a white base card which I’d embossed with a lovely folder I have.  I think that script is so elegant, don’t you?  The sentiment is from Unity Stamps.  

Here’s another one of Alex’s designs called Roses Bouquet which I stamped onto Bristol Smooth and painted, again using Zig markers! I think the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions  Simple Strips set!  

This card features a stamp made by Crafty Individuals called Summer Poppy Meadow.  I have to admit that I didn’t check to see the actual dimensions of this stamp when I ordered it, assuming it was a full A2 size!  It was quite disappointing to see the actual size when it arrived but it’s still a beautiful image and easy to work with!  I paired it with a black and white striped panel of a store bought card I had in my stash!  

I made this card over a year ago (maybe two?) and I’ve kept it for myself instead of selling it!  The simple yet striking lotus blossom was drawn by Luisana Lowry for her collection of digital stamps she called Red Hibiscus Designs and I was honored to be asked to create cards for her!  I colored this blossom with Copic markers and paired it with a background I had in my stash.  A little gold cord and a few sequins are pretty details!  

How gorgeous is this moth?!  Another one of Luisana’s designs, it’s not something I would typically be interested in, but I loved coloring this!  My Copics collection was fairly new and quite limited at this point but with the excellent tutorials that Luisana has shared, I learned so much and just love how beautifully this came out!  The background was made with Hero Arts Everything Flower stamp and I think I colored directly on the stamp, misted with water then stamped it onto Bristol Smooth card stock.  A perfect pairing, if I do say so myself!  Oh!  That bold sentiment is from Stamplorations!  

I just love this card!  It’s a print I found on Pinterest and it came with the blue background so all I had to do was color the flowers!  I believe I used Prismacolor pencils on this because I had to print it onto regular weight card stock.  The addition of Glossy Accents on some of the blossoms give it a really nice touch!  Sentiment is Taylored Expressions Simple Strips!  

When Alex Syberia created her first line of digital stamps, she invited me to design cards to help promote the line and I was honored and happy to do so!  This image is called Spring Bouquet and you can find it here in her Etsy shop!  Because I printed this with an inkjet printer, the ink smudged a bit but I used the printer ink as my gray and just went with it!  

Here’s the same image in orange and yellow; I like the addition of the Tim Holtz Hello die popping out of it!  

Another colorful card using Spring Bouquet, again letting the printer ink be my gray for coloring.  

Alex rocked the flower frame with this digi called XOXO Floral!  What a glorious array of blossoms and leaves to frame the hand-lettered XOXO!  I used Prismacolor pencils for this card, die-cut it with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle die then mounted it onto a base card made with heavy patterned paper!  

My last card is a simpler design featuring a sweet little Stampendous set called Sunshine Daisy!  I colored it with Copics, die-cut it into an oval and adhered it to the dotted paper oval.  The embossed base card is perfect with it’s display of petals, right?!  The sentiment is from Butterfly Reflections, Ink set called Let’s Flamingle.  

Here’s the inside of the Daisies card with the rest of the sentiment!  

I leave you with this sympathy card done in restful colors of nature and Papertrey Ink’s Meadow Greensstamp set.  I heat embossed the ferns with clear powder then sponged oxide and distress inks over them for a resist look, one of my favorite simple techniques!  The sentiment is from an old Stampin Up set.  Thanks for coming with me on this little walk through my computer files!