Glorious Rose and Gold

It’s been wickedly hot here in Vermont the last few days and will continue to be so for the rest of the week!  We don’t own a pool so I’m keeping cool in my stamp room!  Sometimes I have no idea which direction my creativity will take me and today was like that.  I sat at my desk wondering what on earth to work on, so began searching through my stamps for something I haven’t used much.  I came across this wonderful striped background stamp called Cabana Stripes by Echo Park Paper Co.  One of my favorite design combos is stripes with florals so that’s what I decided to do!

Upon further searching around, I came across one 12X12 sheet of this beautiful soft rose cardstock and it inspired my color choices for this card!  Rose and gold!!  So feminine and so elegant!  This called for Altenew‘s Beautiful Day set!  I began by heat-embossing the outline images in gold onto Bristol Smooth card stock, and chose Zig colors of soft pink, peach, flesh and ochre.  (I’ve been using my Copic markers so much lately, that I forgot how much I love Zigs!)  When I finished coloring, I used Beautiful Day dies to cut them out.

Anyway, setting the blossoms aside, I inked up Cabana Stripes with Versamark and stamped it onto another piece of Bristol Smooth paper, then added gold embossing powder.  I LOVE that the stamp didn’t adhere 100% so it left these wonderful “distressed” looking spots with no color!  I just bought Tim Holtz’ Tattered Rose distress oxide ink, so tapped some onto my craft mat, spritzed with water then tapped my panel into the ink.  After drying it, I trimmed the panel down with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies and adhered it to my base card upon which I’d used Stampin Up’s Manhattan Flower embossing folder.  I think that nicely compliments the blossoms and adds even more texture!  Next I arranged my die-cut pieces and mounted them with layers of foam tape.  Lastly,  I gold-embossed the simple yet sweet sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s Super Sentimental set onto a strip of the rose card stock and tucked it in along the left side.  Voila! A combination of stamps from a variety of companies to create one gorgeous card!  Now…who’s birthday is coming up…?!  😀

 

 

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Simon Says Stamp’s Beautiful Flowers Doubled!

Aaaaand, I’m BACK with yet another card using the wonderful Beautiful Flowers by Simon Says Stamp!!  This time in shades of pink on a warm yellow background!  I stamped the image several times on my card stock, arranging the blossoms to form a background.  And then the fun began!  It takes me so long to color with Copics, adding layer upon layer of color, blending, shading, adding more color, doing more blending…it’s so relaxing and so satisfying!

Unfortunately, my markers occasionally leaked out too much ink and made a blob!!  Argh!!  But I was too committed to stop and start over!  OH well…

It’s amazing to me how beautiful the backside of Copics coloring is!  I did end up making color copies of both the front and back so I can use them in more cards and not waste this gorgeousness!  😀

To create this card, I used my Gina Marie Stitched Rectangle dies and cut the panel down then cut a smaller panel from the center.  To make the frame above, I used yet another die (the next size smaller) to cut the center out of the inside die-cut.  Does that make sense?  I attached a piece of white card stock behind the frame after stamping my sentiment and a teeny bit of the Beautiful Flowers stamp.  I had adhered the larger panel to a layer of green then onto a soft yellow base card.  I then popped the frame up with a piece of fun foam.  I really love that beautiful frame on this card!

I definitely got creative with THIS version!  After cutting my panel down with the Stitched Rectangle die, I also die-cut the center, then cut it down AGAIN, using several sizes of the dies!  I stamped the blossoms all over the white card base in black ink, then layered on my die-cut pieces to form a “window” which features the sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s Super Sentimental set!  So how’s that for a double whammy?!  🙂

Copics and Penny Black Sweet Perfume

I’ve been using my new Copic alcohol markers and learning a little more each time about how they blend.  This image is called Sweet Perfume by Penny Black and after stamping it with gray ink I really enjoyed coloring it with Copics!  

Part of the fun of coloring these gorgeous flowers is to choose my color scheme!  I decided to leave to leave the smaller blossoms “uncolored” by just adding shades of gray.  I like how they recede into the background and let the larger blooms have the spotlight!  I’m still working on blending and need to add some lighter shades of markers to my collection in order to transition from light to dark more effectively.

 

Once I finished coloring, I trimmed down my panel with a Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle die, then dug around in my paper stash and found this zig-zag paper which is from a Simon Says Stamp package!  I often save bits from my mail and this piece coordinates perfectly with my card!

The final touch was to heat-emboss the sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s set, Super Sentimental (which by the way is SUPER versatile with SO many sentiments!!) onto a scrap of the packaging paper, add a layer of the gray card stock behind it, then lift it with a piece of foam tape and add a little green jewel!  I think the colorful flowers are balanced nicely with the soft gray card stock, don’t you?

Segrid, the Viking Girl!

I’m so pleased to be a guest designer for Brutus Monroe this week and having fun playing with this adorable set called Dragon Kisses!  How cute is this little Viking girl?!  I named her Segrid, meaning “a beautiful victory” and could just picture her with a Viking ship waiting nearby!  I stamped her out onto a scrap of white card stock and colored her with my Zig markers, then gave her a coat of Glossy Accents glaze.

Setting Segrid aside to dry, I then took a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and did a little masking to create the distant treeline and water with Broken China and Peeled Paint distress oxide inks.  I stamped the pine trees in the foreground with Stampin Up’s Wonderland using shades of green and then black.

When that was finished, I stamped the sentiment from Super Sentimental stamp set near the top, then trimmed down the panel with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies, added a layer of white card stock for contrast, then a layer of red before adhering it to an embossed card base of black.  I placed Segrid atop the card, using foam tape to lift her up.  I think she’s pretty darn cute!  Go forth and conquer, little warrior!!

More Beautiful Flowers

I just can’t seem to stop playing with this fabulous set, Beautiful Flowers by Simon Says Stamp!!  It’s so elegant and so versatile!  For this card, I chose to heat-emboss the image in gold but left the flowers uncolored.  I added a rich green background using my Zig markers by coloring heavily with Olive along the edge of the image, then blended it outward with Yellow Green.  I decided to extend the color to the top of the panel with vertical brushstrokes and really like how it looks!  

After coloring, I trimmed my panel down and added a frame of gold which I made using two sizes of stitched rectangle dies.  I stamped the spray of blossoms onto a piece of white card stock using gold pigment ink, and when it was dry, I adhered my framed panel to the front.  Finally, I heat-embossed the sentiment in gold.  I can’t wait to mail this to just the right person!  🙂  

Brutus Monroe Dragon Kisses and Super Sentimental!

I was incredibly honored and thrilled to be invited to guest design for Brutus Monroe using their super-cute set called Dragon Kisses!   I LOVE this grumpy-faced little dragon and made my first card featuring him!  To begin, I stamped him onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock using Versafine Onyx Black permanent ink, then masked in order to sponge the background using Broken China and Peeled Paint distress oxide inks.  I removed the mask and colored the dragon with Zig markers.  I wanted him to stand out even more against the soft background so I coated him with a glaze of Glossy Accents.

I added a little shadow beneath him with a gray Zig marker, then decided to create a little gray “cloud” behind him using Iced Spruce distress oxide ink.  Finally, I trimmed down the panel using Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies, adhered it to another die-cut panel of black then to a white card base.  I stamped the sentiment at the top and finished the inside next.

The Dragon Kisses set has a stamp that says “Because I miss your face” and I masked off all of it except “Because I” so I could add the larger sentiment “Miss your face” which is from the AWESOME Brutus Monroe set called Super Sentimental!  I cut that panel down using Gina’s Stitched Rectangle dies again, and adhered it to the inside.  I think this card is SO cute and I had a lot of fun creating something other than my usual flowers!  🙂

Speaking of Super Sentimental, how perfectly do these sentiments fit with the adorable dragons from Dragon Kisses?!  I mean, c’mon!!   I stamped the sentiments on the four corners of a base card of vanilla card stock, then set that aside to work on the dragon couple!  I stamped them onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock using Versafine Onyx Black ink then colored them with my Zig markers.  I fussy-cut them out then coated them with a glaze of Glossy Accents, and set them aside as well.  Using Gina Marie Designs Stitched Circle dies, I cut a large circle of Bristol Smooth then smooshed it into puddles of distress oxide inks of Fired Brick, Carved Pumpkin and Fossilized Amber to denote “flames”!

When that dried, I attached the dragons using bits of foam tape to bring the lady-dragon forward!  My last step was to randomly stamp the little trio of hearts from Super Sentimental all over the base card before adhering the circle.

Don’t tell him, but I may tuck this card aside for my hubby!  AND!!  Brutus Monroe will be giving away a $100 gift card to be used in person at the store or online when their Facebook Fan Page reaches 1000 followers!  So be sure to hop on there and join!  I’ll be making out MY wish list!!