nests of winter designer series paper card

nests of winter designer series paper card

I had some left over foliage frames dies from a previous card design from the Winterly Tree Tops Bundle that I just could not let go to waste so this is the card I designed around that fun frame die!

Measurements:
BASE: Granny Apple Green
scrap for sentiment piece
Basic White layers (2) 4″ x 5 1/4″
Nests of Winter DSP scrap for bird fussy cut

Color one of the Basic White layers with Granny Apple Green ink and Garden Green ink and individual Blending brushes for each color.
Starting off the paper in a circular motion color different portions of the Basic White layer until the entire surface is covered and the colors are blended together.
Spray the colored layer with water from a Stampin’ Spritzer. allow to dry – where the water droplets hit the ink it will lift the color and lighten the area creating a very cool splatter background!
Cut the other Basic White layer with the foliage frame die from the Winterly Tree Tops die set.
Adhere the frame over the splattered blended background.
Adhere the frame die to the Granny Apple Green card base.
Die cut the rectangular sentiment piece from the Peaceful Season die set and stamp the “thinking of you always” sentiment from the Winterly Tree Tops stamp set in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and thread a 5 inch White Diagonal Trim ribbon from the Petal Pink and White Diagonal Trim Combo Pack through the openings and cut the edges in a diagonal.
Pop up the sentiment piece on Stampin’ Dimensionals and place in the lower right-hand corner of the card base.
Fussy cut the chickadee bird from the Nests of Winter Designer Series Paper and adhere above the sentiment piece.
Finish the card off with three white Iridescent Adhesive-Backed Discs and the card is done!

What a difference that background makes on the card!

Try this background today and combine it with stamps you have to create your own card – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

more color mondays – flirty flamingo, mambo melon, and highland heather

more color mondays – flirty flamingo, mambo melon, and highland heather

Today’s More Color Monday color challenge features Flirty Flamingo, Mambo Melon, and Highland Heather. This non traditional Christmas card has a gorgeous background made with a window sheet and Stampin’ Blends markers.

Measurements:
BASE: Highland Heather 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
scrap for the sentiment word die and
sentiment piece.
Basic White layer: 4″ x 5 1/4″
Glitter paper: scraps for dies

Draw squiggly lines on a window sheet with Flirty Flamingo, Melon mambo, and Highland Heather Stampin’ Blends.
Spray the window sheet with alcohol.
Place two 1/4 sheets of Basic White cardstock and allow the ink and alcohol to sink into the paper.
Allow to dry.
Die cut the word Christmas in Highland Heather and four trees from the Peaceful Evergreens dies in Berry Burst, Old Olive and White Glitter Specialty Paper.
Adhere every other tree to the alcohol background and pop up the other two on mini Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Adhere the word to the top of the layer.
Adhere the alcohol layer to the Highland Heather card base.
Die cut the large sentiment piece from the Peaceful Seasons dies in Highland Heather cardstock.
Cut 5 inches of ribbon.
Stamp the sentiment in Versamark ink and then sprinkle in White embossing powder.
Heat the powder with the Heat Tool until the embossing powder is melted.
Pop up the sentiment piece and place in the lower right-hand corner.
Apply Iridescent Adhesive-Backed Discs to the sentiment piece.
I think non-traditional Christmas colors are so exciting and different.
Try some different colors and see what you can come up with. Now go and make some artwork of your very own – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

adventurous sky masculine birthday card

adventurous sky masculine birthday card

Masculine cards can be difficult for some people – flowers and butterflies are traditionally “girly” cards but not always but making a card for a guy can be a little trickier!
This is one of my go to masculine card sets and it looks beautiful in hues of blue green like Pool Party and Coastal Cabana!

Measurements:
BASE: Coastal Cabana: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
Basic White layers: (2) 4″ x 5 1/4″
scraps for die cut plane and clouds

Color one of the Basic White layers with a blending brush and Pool Party and Coastal Cabana ink. I brushed from the outer edges of the paper inward so the darker ink color is on the edges of the paper.
I stamped the clouds where i wanted to place the popped up clouds and colored a little darker around the edges of the clouds with the Coastal Cabana ink.
I stamped the larger cloud image four times in Coastal Cabana ink on Basic White cardstock scraps and die cut them out.
I stamped the large airplane and colored them with Pool Party and Pretty Peacock Stampin’ Blends and Balmy Blue for the propellors.

I colored the whirling propellor blades with Balmy Blue Stampin’ Blends markers and then colored it with the color lifter to give it a see through appearance.

I popped up the clouds except for the one behind the airplane and popped the airplane up on Stampin’ Dimensionals as well.

Stamp the bottom of a die circle from Spotlight on Nature die with the Happy Birthday from the Adventurous Sky stamp set. Adhere at the top of the Blending brushed layer and cut off the top of the circle die.
Adhere the blended layer onto a Basic White layer with just a small border. Then I adhered those layers to the Coastal Cabana base card.
I love this “high flying” masculine happy birthday card – what do you use for your masculine cards. There are some great Designer Series papers like Country Woods and some great masculine stamp sets – need help designing some masculine cards just let me know!

Now go out and create some masculine cards of your own -one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

nests of winter suite card – new mini catalog products

nests of winter suite card – new mini catalog products

Today’s blog features the Nests of Winter Suite of products – one of the coolest things in this suite in my opinion is the frame die of foliage. Today I am using the negative space of that frame die to create a background for the card!

Measurements:
BASE: Pecan Pie 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
Mossy Meadow layer 4″ x 5 1/4″
Basic White layer. 3 3/4″ x 5″
scrap for sentiment piece
Basic Beige scrap for birds stamp

Stamp the double birds in Tuxedo Black Memento ink on Basic Beige cardstock.
Using the Cherry Cobbler watercolor pencils – color the berries.
Color the bird with Balmy Blue watercolor pencil.
Color the bird’s belly with the Crushed Curry watercolor pencil.
Color the branches with Pecan Pie watercolor pencil.
Using a water painter color each colored section starting with the lightest color and then brush the water painter until it paints clear and paint the next darkest color until all colors are watercolored.
Die cut the frame from the Nest of Winter and use the negative die space for the mask, place the mask in the center of the Basic White layer and with a blending brush color the outside edges of the Basic White layer over the mask with Mossy Meadow ink.
Turn the mask 180 degrees and without reinking the blending brush brush the remaining color over the edges of the mask which will result in a lighter color bledning over the mask.
Adhere the Mossy Meadow layer onto the Pecan Pie card base.
Adhere the Basic White layer onto the card base slightly tilted.
Die cut the largest circle from the Stylish Shapes die set and stamp the sentiment in Mossy Meadow ink and drag the blending brush across the edges to just give the edges a little color.
Adhere to the lower left hand corner of the card.
Pop the double bird image up onto Stampin’ Dimensionals and layer in the upper right hand corner of the card.
I added two cork embellishments around the sentiment and the card is complete.

Sometimes using the negative space that might easily just get tossed in the trash produces a beautiful unexpected background! Try using those negative die spaces and see what you can create – one die, one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

peaceful seasons card – new mini catalog goes live

peaceful seasons card – new mini catalog goes live

Happy New Mini Catalog day! Hope you all got your personal copy in the mail – I will have extra copies with me at my upcoming library classes coming this Monday 9/9 at the Margaret M Schontz Memorial Library in Conneaut Lake from 1-3pm or at the Greenville Area library on 9/17 NOTE the new time I moved the class earlier to accomodate people that do not want to drive home in the dark when we have the time change this Fall so the class will be 3 hours in length and you can come early or whenever you can get there if you work 4:30 – 7:30pm that way everyone will be able to come when they can! I will also be hostessing a September to December Mini Catalog Open House on Friday, September 13th from 12:30pm to 3:30 pm with lots of new samples and mini catalog products available to see. There will be FREE make-n-takes and prizes for all those that RSVP and extra prize drawing entries for those that attend and bring a friend that is new to me!

Today’s card truely shows that the creative process is not always straightforward and linear – LOL – I had an idea in mind for this card and it developed into something more as the card progressed!

Measurements:
BASE: Cherry Cobbler 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
scrap for the tag medallion die and word die
Basic Beige: 4″ x 5 1/4″
scrap for word matte die
DSP: 3″ x 5/14″

I originally started with the tag medallion die being cut from the Basic Beige cardstock but changed my mind.

I embossed the Basic Beige layer with the Distressed Tile 3D embossing folder and mounted it to the Cherry Cobbler base.
I stamped e merry wor dimage from the Peaceful season stamp set in Cherry Cobbler on the Basic Beige tag medallion die.
Then I decided there was not enough contrast and the tag would be lost on the embossed layer so I will save that for another project!
I die cut another tag medallion in the Cherry Cobbler cardstock and stamped the Merry in Versamark ink and sprinkled the gold embossing powder from our metallics embossing powder collection over the wet, sticky ink.
I heat set the powder with my Heat Tool and the heat melts the embossing powder to a shiny brilliant gold embossing!
The slits on the side of the tag lend itself well to looping ribbon through and I cut about an 8 inch piece of the new Cherry Cobbler and Gold satin ribbon and folded it in half and pushed it through the lower slit and behind the tag and through the top slit. I added Stampin’ Dimensionals to the back of the tag and added it to the card front center.
I added three Gold Textured Adhesive-Backed Dots to the card front and this made a sweet simple card but I decided I wanted to add more texture and color.
First I added Ink with a small blending brush and the Cherry Cobbler ink below where the tag medallion was resting on the card front and but the tag back on the card.
I still wanted a little more so I cut a 3″ x 5 1/4″ piece of the Cherry Cobbler Seasons of Elegance Specialty DSP and lifted the tag medallion one more time and added this to the card base.
LOL I pulled up everything one more time and using my Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Blend marker I opened the brush tip marker side and taped the side of the marker on the edge of my bone folder while holding the tip about 2-3 inches above the card. Tap the bone folder on the side of the marker this will cause the marker tip to spray a fine mist of ink over the card surface. Now I am done LOL! Not always a straight line but I am happy with the outcome!
Sometimes adding just a little bit more is the answer if you are not satisfied with the original design. Do not be afraid to experiment and add a little something to your next project! Now go and create some artwork of your very own – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie