Unity/Brutus Monroe CopyCat!

This strikingly beautiful card was shared yesterday by Unity Stamps on the Stamping Life Facebook page and I was immediately captivated!  I love strong color and just love this card, so had to make a copycat!!  The card above was made with the newest release by the dynamic duo of Brutus Monroe and Unity Stamps, called Botanical Background and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!  But let’s talk about how I copied it!  

For my card, I used a Brutus Monroe favorite, Conservatory of Quotes to create my black and white roses background, heat-embossed in black onto a panel of water color card stock.  Then I got out my Zig markers, Mustard and Yellow and began to fill in the space between the images.  I scribbled one section at a time with Mustard, then went over it with Yellow; a wash of water from my waterbrush softened and blended the two colors.  As you can see, my image didn’t stamp out completely, but I knew I could cover that section up!  

I decided to make another card using shades of Aqua but the ink didn’t blend or flow as evenly, even with the addition of water!  The panel on the right was my first attempt and the one on the left wasn’t any better!  I set those aside to try another color!  

For this panel, I used Yellow Green and Mid Green, beginning with the darker color next to the image, then blending out with Yellow Green, and finally, softening again with water.  I’m not sure why the aqua inks didn’t blend out but I was happy this one did!  

The last color I did was purple; again, the colors didn’t blend as well as the yellow and green, but I like the texture of this one!  I used Purple and Light Violet then used my water brush to soften the ink.  

Here is my finished CopyCat card in yellow!  The sentiment is from Brutus Monroe’s Super Sentimental set which has a great variety of sayings!  I trimmed down my watercolored panel with Stitched Rectangle dies, then adhered it to a panel of white, and then to a black base card.  

The sentiment was heat-embossed with Alabaster embossing powder onto a strip of black then  adhered to a strip of vellum for accent.  

I don’t love this one, but it’s still quite nice!  I die-cut the panel again with Stitched Rectangle dies, then mounted it to a white card base.  A strip of vellum enhances the die-cut sentiment.  

For this version, I die-cut the image with Stitched Circles, then mounted it to an off-white base card which I’d embossed with a Large Dot embossing folder.  I stamped “Hello Beautiful” from Brutus Monroe’s Super Sentimental set and heat-set it with Alabaster embossing powder on a scrap of black card stock then attached it to the card front with a bit of foam tape for lift.  

Remember those aqua panels which didn’t work out so well?  I retrieved one of them by cutting it down with a Stitched Circle die then sponged Peacock Feathers distress oxide ink around the edges.  I had this embossed panel in my stash which I’d made using Tim Holtz’ Botanical 3D Texture Fades embossing folder.  I love the white on white effect and then the pop of aqua!  I recently bought this die “Fabulous” and love how it looks! The “YOU ARE” stamp is from Stampendous Big Words Thanks; the sentiment was actually “hope you are having a great day” so I taped off the words I didn’t need, inked it up with Versamark then removed the tape and heat-embossed it with Alabaster powder.  I trimmed it down and adhered it to my panel.  I had a lot of fun creating this series of CopyCat cards and I hope you enjoyed reading about the process!  I appreciate your visit!  

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Blog Hoppin’ With Unity!

I’m so freaking excited!  What a week!  Christopher Alan just announced a new collaboration between Brutus Monroe and Unity Stamps!!  And tonight is the big collaborative blog hop including the teams from both companies!!   A line of  background stamps have been created just for this occasion and I got the awesome Hit The Brick to play with!  After making several backgrounds with it, I decided to do a partial brick wall background for my card.  So, here’s what I did: I tapped Bundled Sage distress oxide ink onto the Hit The Brick stamp, spritzed it with a fine mister then, by bending the flexible cling stamp, I was able to just stamp parts of it onto my paper.  BTW, it’s perfectly sized for A2 cards!

After drying with my heat tool, I heat-embossed in white the beautiful Conservatory of Quotes in the lower right hand corner.  I colored sections at a time with Distress markers, adding water to move the color.  I let each color dry, then added more ink to deepen the color.  I also used the markers to add color below and around the image to create that lovely, shadowy background.

In the upper right hand corner, I added my script stamp very faintly with Bundled Sage.  For the spatters, I scribbled out the deep red and green markers onto my craft mat, and mixed them together with my wet paintbrush, then spattered the resulting color over my card.  The sentiment is from a Unity Stamps set called Life Touches and I heat-embossed it in dark red directly to the card front.

 

 

When my panel was completed, I trimmed it down with Stitched Rectangle dies, added a layer of dark red paper behind it then mounted it to an off-white base card.  Doesn’t that brick background beautifully compliment the spray of roses?  I just love it and can’t wait to make more cards with it!

 

You’ll be amazed at all the projects made by the Inspiration Team!  The blog hop lineup includes not only our team but Unity Stamps’ team as well!  Waleska is next on the hop!
Amanda
Angeline
Camille
Donna
Echo
Gaylynn
Heather
Karen 
Lisa
Mandi 
Maria
Noelle
Robyn
Sharon 
Shemaine 
Stephanie
Brutus Monroe
Berina
Heather
Jess
Lauren
Marie Nicole
Sharon White
Waleska
Unity Stamp Co

The Leaf Effect

We’re collaborating with Winnie & Walter again this week and the team has created some pretty fabulous cards and projects using their products!  My card today features their very cool die called The Leaf Effect Cutaway!  I paired it with one of my favorite Brutus Monroe sets, Conservatory of Quotes and I love how the leaf cut-outs accentuate the beautiful leaves on the stamp!  How did I make this?!  Well, I’m glad you asked!

To begin, I folded a piece of textured gray cardstock to make my base card, then laid The Leaf Effect die on it and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  I removed all the cut leaves then set them all aside.  On a piece of white card stock, I stamped a script stamp all over with Raven Detail ink then attached it beneath the leaf-cut panel.  Using bits of foam tape, I reattached some of the cut leaves to create interest and dimension.  I’m thinking it may be too busy, but it’s definitely “interesting” and “dimensional”!

On a piece of watercolor cardstock I heat-embossed the floral image in black, then painted it with distress oxide inks which I’d tapped onto my craft mat and watered down.  When it was dry I fussy-cut the image then mounted it to the card base with more foam tape for lift.

Finally, on a scrap of white card stock, I heat-embossed my sentiment (also from Conservatory of Quotes) in hot pink to match the pink blossoms.  I trimmed the ends and adhered it to the flowers.  Winnie & Walter’s Leaf Effect die is pretty darn awesome and I can’t wait to use it for fall cards!  Please visit their website and enjoy perusing their many wonderful products!  And check out Brutus Monroe’s blog to see what the team has created as well!

A Rose is a Rose…

I’ve been a part of the Brutus Monroe team for almost two weeks now and having so much fun creating cards with their great stamps and products!  But I wanted to branch out a little and make something different!  I walked around AC Moore yesterday, looking at the bare wood items meant for crafting with but just wasn’t inspired.  Thankfully, when I got home I came across this old frame which I’d tucked away to DIY back to life and had my AHA! moment!  Beginning with the frame, I tapped the Sidewalk ink pad all over the front of it and noticed it stayed wet on the smooth surface so immediately sprinkled on some clear embossing powder then heat-set it!  The color is fairly light, so I rubbed on more Sidewalk over the embossing and then set the color with my heat tool.  Voila!  I love the textured surface it made!

Notice that beautiful embossed background!   First I spritzed Brutus Monroe’s  Vintage Tapestry embossing folder with Wagon Surface Spray and then Sidewalk Surface Spray and ran a piece of watercolor cardstock through my Cuttlebug.  The colors are divine and I can’t wait to get more of them!  The photos don’t show it, but I also brushed Wink of Stella glitter all over the surface after!

 

At this point I’d decided to use the rosebud and leaves from Stampendous’ Rose Garden set which I stamped out, colored with Copics and die-cut, then added Wink of Stella clear glitter to the buds.  Now what to do with the mat??  I used my favorite script stamp and Raven Detail ink  to stamp it onto the mat; bummed that my script overlapped a little in some places, but that’s ok!

Next I used the I Love You stamp from Conservatory of Quotes and heat-embossed it in white onto a strip of black paper, then adhered it to the embossed panel.  The final step was to place my blossoms and leaves then put it all together!  Just look at all the different textures going on!  This came together fairly quickly and I’m really pleased with it!  Be sure to take a peek at the Brutus Monroe website to see the many fabulous products they have!  I’ll be adding to my stash, for sure!

Altenew Academy + Brutus Monroe = Awesome!

I recently purchased an online class from Altenew Academy called One Layer Wonders and it’s been great!  The card I’m featuring here was Day Four- Building A Multi-layered Bouquet and involved some masking, drop shadows, and other fun techniques!  I definitely need to buy a T-ruler so that my hand-drawn frames are even, and I definitely need to work on my shading but this was so much fun!  To create this card, I stamped out Brutus Monroe‘s Conservatory of Quotes arrangement onto a piece of Bristol Smooth paper using their AWESOME Raven Surface ink!  I’ve always used either Memento Tuxedo Black for my Copic-coloring or Versafine Onyx Black for all my other coloring/watercoloring but Brutus Monroe’s Raven does it all!!  And it’s a deep, dark black!  Oooooo….I love that!

Anyway!  After stamping the image, I “painted” a wash of water all around the blossoms and then using Distress Oxide inks (Iced Spruce/Worn Lipstick/Carved Pumpin/Fossilized Amber) which I’d smooshed onto my craft mat then spritzed with water, I loosely painted swashes of ink all around and over the image, letting the water move the colors.  I let the panel air-dry then added some accents of color with Copic markers.

When my coloring was finished I decided to put the sentiment into a hand-drawn “label”; first I stamped the sentiment directly onto the panel, drew lines around the perimeters to create the box and colored it in with a black Sharpie.  I then heat-embossed the sentiment over it with white and using my gray Copics, drew “shadows” beneath it to make it appear to be lifted.  Such a cool thing to do!  I also used a Sharpie to draw the frame around the image and added a sprinkling of black jewels.  A pretty patterned paper was attached to a vanilla card base and I mounted my top panel to finish my card.  I’m really looking forward to my next class and will share that project with you soon!