Unity Stamps In This Together

As I write this blog post, it’s officially been about four weeks since Vermont’s Stay at Home order in the face of a global coronavirus pandemic.  What an unprecedented, unsettling and bizarre time this is and it’s impact affects us all.  Since I’ve quit working and have so much extra time to spend in my stamp room, I’ve made a concerted effort to mail out many cards to encourage my family and friends.  It’s a small thing but if one of my cards brings a smile and a moment of joy then goal accomplished!  A number of stamp companies have created special sets that feature nurses, doctors, essential workers and sentiments that express our gratitude and admiration for them.  Other stamp sets are filled with beautiful images and encouraging words, like this one from Unity Stamps called In This Together.  

The beauty of this set is that it’s a digital stamp which means after my purchase, the company sent me a file in an email which I then downloaded to my computer.  I printed out the images onto regular card stock and then colored and cut them out. I just bought a laser printer so that I can print the images onto heavier card stock and watercolor paper and can’t WAIT to create watercolor cards with this set!  

In the meantime I spent a very happy hour or so coloring this beautiful blossom with Prismacolor pencils, adding many layers of color!  I had a panel of watercolor paper upon which I’d tried out my new Tim Holtz Alterations Collection-Mixed Media 2 die.  Some of the pieces didn’t pop out but I didn’t mind the look.  I layered it over a panel of lavender card stock, mounted my fussy-cut blossom using foam tape and then adhered it all to a base card of white card stock.  The final touch was to sponge a little lavender ink around the sentiment which came with the set and attach it to the panel along with a few iridescent sequins.   

This is another card using In This Together; this time I printed out the panel with both the blossom and sentiment all together.  I colored the flower with Copic markers, adding many layers of many colors as I always do, then added an array of dots inspired by Alex Syberia!  See her gallery of “dotty” cards here!  

I felt my card needed just a little extra “something” so pulled out a small embossing folder and added this lovely raised detail to the bottom left and top right corners!  Perfect!  

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these and will be inspired to use your stamps to create encouraging cards as well.  Thank you for visiting!  

Advertisement

Stampendous Hummingbird Vine & Small Hellebore

Welcome to my blog!  I’d like to share two cards I recently made using brand new stamps from Stampendous!  The larger blossom stamp is called Small Hellebore and the floral spray is from another set, Hummingbird Vine!  I didn’t intend to combine them originally, but they just seemed to be made for each other, so here they are!  

I actually colored the floral spray while visiting my Mom a few weeks ago and later colored in Small Hellebore.  I searched through my patterned paper scraps and found this beautiful brown, pink and green paisley print and although you can’t see much of it, I think it beautifully enhances the colored image, don’t you?  I embossed an ivory card base with the lovely Floral Tapestry embossing folder by Sizzix then attached the layered panel and finally, mounted the larger flower with some bits of foam tape.  I stamped the sentiment in brown ink directly to the card base.  

Here’s a close up shot of my water-bespeckled blossom!  I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color it because they’re so juicy and inky and water-reactive!  In retrospect, I can’t believe I didn’t add my usual spatters of paint!!  

Can you see my mistake on this photo?!  I’d stamped the sentiment (from Unity Stamp’s My Condolences set) onto the inside panel, but it was crooked so I flipped it over and stamped it on the other side, not noticing that the first one shows through!  Argh!  But don’t worry!  I’ll redo this inside panel which shows a larger portion of that pretty patterned paper I used on the front!  

In case you’re wondering if this is the exact same card, I assure you, it isn’t!  I decided to make two of these because I liked how the two stamps paired so nicely!  The background on this card is a piece of patterned paper from Simon Says Stamp’s June 2018 Card Kit!  I stamped a few Small Hellebore over it and attached it to my white card base.  Again, I used the same patterned paper behind my floral spray panel and mounted the larger blossom in the same manner as well.  

So….an interesting thing about THIS card!!  I didn’t see that a brown ink pad had dropped onto my layered panel until AFTER I took pictures and then began my editing!!  I couldn’t believe it!!  My beautiful panel, ruined!!  But I decided to go with it as it does look as though I did it on purpose to add shading!  But, ARGH!!  Oh well!  I stamped the sentiment onto the front and called it a day!  I hope you enjoyed this and be sure to go check out all the beautiful stamps by Stampendous!  As always, thank you for your visit to my blog!  

Unity Stamps My Condolences

How beautiful is this image??!!  Several stamp companies have recently offered us beautiful rose images and I was torn between this one by Unity Stamps and another by a different company, but this one, My Condolences stole my heart!  It’s the perfect size to mostly fill a card front and the addition of the simple phrase is all that’s needed!  

I stamped the roses directly onto a folded A2 card base of Stampin Up’s Crumb Cake using Crumb Cake ink.  As you can see, I stamped it out several times to fill in the background.  

Then I began coloring with my Prismacolor pencils!  I used many shades of reds, pinks, orange, coral, greens, grays and white, plus a little white gel pen for accents.  I’m not very good at the gel pen accents but I like how they add a little “sumthin sumthin”!  

After adding lovely gray shading in some of the nooks and crannies, I just heat-embossed the sentiment with white powder.  I really, really love this card and was a bit surprised at how beautifully it turned out!  

I made this crazily colored card while stamping with Jackson (aka Bubby!) one evening! 

 I showed him heat-embossing and he had fun watching the powder melt on his dino images, and then I showed him how to do paint spatters!!  He’s five but he’s been stamping with Nina since he was a wee tyke!  Just look at that concentration!  Spatters are the BEST!! 

A happy stamper, right here!!  

While Bubby was spattering, I actually cut my multi-colored roses out of that gorgeous spattery background and mounted them to a background I’d made a few weeks ago but never used.  It makes for a very colorful card, indeed!  The sentiments are from Pink Fresh Studio’s Let’s Flamingle set!  

This is the very first card I made with My Condolences; I heat-embossed it in white onto a panel of Canson watercolor card stock then colored it with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and a water brush to move and blend the ink.  When it was (almost) dry, I added spatters which got a little blurry.  OH well!  

I trimmed the panel down and attached it to a base card of Stampin Up’s Crumb Cake card stock then stamped an envelope for it.  This image is so intricate looking, yet so simple to color and create something really special!  Thank you for your visit!  

More Mixed Media Canvases!

Welcome back! As promised, here’s Part Two of my Mixed Media Canvases series!  I can’t decide which of the canvases I like the most!  But why choose just one?!  I love them all, each for their own beauty and style!  The style of this canvas is definitely vintage/feminine and a little shabby-chic!  This time I began with an 8X10 hard canvas board, and coated it with a layer of tan craft paint.  I then tore up some patterned papers and glued them down with Mod Podge.  You can still see the striped piece toward the bottom and the vintage book page near the center top. 

Again, I forgot to get my camera set up in order to make a video and now I have to try and recall what on earth I did to make this!  Yikes!  I think that, after applying the torn pieces of paper, I just started using stencils and stamps to embellish the background.  In this section I stamped out Tim Holtz’ Flower Garden blossoms and heat-embossed them with Brutus Monroe’s Coffee Grounds embossing powder.  The butterfly ephemera was given to me by my crafty friend, Theresa!  The sentiment is also by Tim Holtz and I heat-embossed it in white. 

I found the scroll-y die cuts in my stash, and added them with more Mod Podge, then smeared paint over them.  In the center of the frame is another piece of ephemera from Theresa.  I stamped and embossed Vintage Note from Stampendous over it.  I love the white against the dark frame, don’t you?  

The larger white die-cut has a coat of Martha Stewart Pearl White craft paint, then some gray rubbed over it, and finally, another word stamp partially impressed onto it.  I painted my blossoms with Gansai Tambi watercolors.  

Along the top and sides, I stamped Lace Borders from Stampendous, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and added another stencil impression with pink paint.  How about that lovely textured paper in this picture?!  I didn’t really know it had that texture till I smeared paint and ink over it!  

I really like the dimension that the raised frame die-cut adds.  I can’t wait to make some DIY gesso this weekend and add more texture and dimension to my next canvas!  

I’m sharing this canvas even though it’s not mixed media.  I got a wild hair idea to pull out my alcohol inks and ended up making this instead!  And I’ll write yet another post with more pictures to share the process for it!  Thanks again for stopping by!  

Inspiration

As a stamper and card artist, I find inspiration in some unexpected places!  Like, at the Dollar Tree!  I found this gorgeous plate there last week and just love the artists watercolor style!  I had to have it, so it came home with me!  I knew right away that I’d use Brutus Monroe’s Pumpkin Faces set to make my card; it comes with TEN various sized and shaped pumpkins plus ten faces to add on!  Now, I like scary pumpkins as much as anyone, but how wonderful that I can use this set for an elegant card!  

I stamped and heat-embossed the four pumpkins in silver, masking in order to layer them.  In retrospect, I wish I’d used dark gray ink instead.  Using the plate as a guide, I colored the pumpkins with a variety of Zig markers in shades of green, gray and brown, adding water to soften the ink.  My leaves and vines are from an old CTMH set called Grapevine and I think they beautifully complement the design.  I stamped them with Bundled Sage oxide ink.  

At this point, I realized that Brutus Monroe’s Hit The Brick background would go perfectly so I inked it up with Bundled Sage oxide and gently maneuvered the stamp to fill in the space above the pumpkins.  That’s the beauty of flexible cling stamps!  I trimmed my panel with a Stitched Rectangle die then mounted it to a panel of dark gray.  On a piece of vanilla card stock, I stamped more of the vines and leaves with Bundled Sage again and attached it to a base card of Jurassic card stock.  

When my card was complete, I made a coordinating envelope with more vines and leaves.  I’m pretty happy with my card and hope you like it too!  Now, I’m off to Dollar Tree to buy more of these plates!  And you should head straight to Brutus Monroe to check out these pumpkins!  😀

Cozy Country Christmas

Can I just say I’m in love??!!  I’ve been playing with my spankin’ new Unity/Brutus Monroe Hit The Brick background stamp and having SO MUCH FUN!!  I have so many ideas of ways to use this one!  Yesterday I laid out three panels of watercolor card stock, then covered my Brick stamp with a heavy layer of Ranger’s Distress Resist Spray and stamped it onto the stock.  The card above is the first one I did, and the spray was so saturated on the stamp that it lost some of it’s detail.  The second one was a better image and the third one was perfect!  BUT!  There was no way I was going to waste this one and here’s what I made!

So, here are my three panels after stamping out the Hit The Brick background, as mentioned above.  Not a great picture but you get the idea!

I sponged on these colors: Suede Surface ink, Terracotta Surface ink and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide.  The Resist Spray is VERY resistant so the shiny parts didn’t take the ink very well.

My finished panel; I didn’t love it but was hopeful I could make something beautiful with it!

I decided to cut out the center of my panel with Oval Stitched dies and create a “window”~ but what to place in my window?  After trying out several stamps, I settled on this one by Stampendous called Cozy Cottage which I stamped on a separate piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper using Gathered Twigs Distress ink.  I then “painted” over the lines with a watery brush to create the soft sepia look and added a little color using Distress Markers.

Then I realized that this would make a great shaker card!  I’ve only made a few with much angst and frustration, but this one came together beautifully!  I attached a piece of acetate to the backside of the window, then built a wall of foam tape going all around the back of the sponged panel to hold in the “snow” which is actually Ultra Thick Clear Embossing powder!!  I added a few sequins and micro beads as well!  Can you see them?  Anyway, I got all the pieces and parts in the correct order and voila!  A shaker panel!

I found the perfect patterned paper to attach the panel to, then mounted it to a card base of Brutus Monroe’s Lunchbag card stock!  The final touch was a few sprigs of Tim Holtz’ Holiday Greens holly touched up with a bit of Gathered Twigs distress oxide ink and three little “berries”!   Now, isn’t this a lovely scene framed by that amazing Brick background?!

Unity is still holding their awesome giveaway!  You have until October 1st to comment on any of the blogs which participated in the blog hop for a chance to win!  Here’s the link to their blog with the lineup!  On October 2nd, they’ll choose the lucky winners!  I hope it’s you!!