Indescribable Gift Meets Butterfly Basics

Inspiration may come from several different sources–a technique, a product, a design or a color combination.

Because color is very important to me, I am constantly in search of new resources to inspire me in this area. I found a wonderful resource in the magazine, Color Made Easy from Better Homes and Gardens.

It was easy to translate the color swatches in the magazine to the Stampin' Up colors to come up with even more fresh color combos to use in card making!


For my card today, I was inspired by this page:

I translated the color combo from BHG to the Stampin' Up colors of Cucumber Crush, Melon Mambo and Whisper White.

I am really enjoying using the Stampin' Blender Pen with my reinkers to give a watercolor look to my stamped images! However, my card today caused me a bit of grief.

I actually colored my stamped image twice; the first time, I stamped the sentiment over the colored stamp only to find out it was not completely legible :(

The second time I colored it, I thought I would have to color it a third time because I got some ink on the white parts!

Luckily, I utilized a method from Jennifer McGuire to get rid of my mistake. I used a craft knife to scrape lightly over the errant ink area and then blended the paper fibres a bit using a white eraser. That method, paired with a vellum cover-up saved my bacon!

The card itself was pretty simple to create. Using my MISTI, I stamped the flowers from the Indescribable Gift stamp set using Tuxedo Black Stazon ink on Watercolor Paper. After a quick pass under my Heat Tool to set the ink, I used Melon Mambo, Cucumber Crush and Soft Suede reinkers with my Blender Pen to color in the stamp.

I used a die from the Circles Collection Framelits to cut out the colored stamp as well as a same sized circle from Vellum.

Using both the die cut and the original vellum piece, I placed both in my MISTI and stamped the sentiment from Butterfly Basics using the Stazon ink again. Using the original piece of vellum with the die cut allowed me to make sure the round die cut did not move while I was stamping it.
I used tiny amounts of Snail Adhesive on the colored sections of the stamped image to attach the vellum piece over top.

I used a non Stampin' Up embossing folder–Christmas Vine by Craft Concepts–to emboss the Cucumber Crush matte. I did this because I needed a larger embossing folder to emboss the matte. This matte was then adhered to a Whisper White matte.

I then angled strips of Melon Mambo stitched ribbon across the matte, securing on the back with Sticky Strip. This completed matte was then attached to a Melon Mambo matte that had been previously adhered to a Whisper White Thick card stock card base, using Fuse Fast Adhesive.

The circular stamped piece was adhered onto the card front using Dimensionals. A RV09 Copic Marker was used to color five rhinestones and they were adhered to the vellum matte.

The Bitty Butterfly Punch was used to cut a butterfly from Melon Mambo card stock and then I used my Wink of Stella pen to glimmer it up a bit! I also inked the edges of the butterfly using Rose Red and a Sponge Dauber.

Finally, the butterfly was adhered to the card front using a dab of Crystal Effects.

Close-up showing the effect of the Wink of Stella pen.

What have you watercolored using the Blender Pen? Leave me a link in a comment below!


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Gardening With Market Fresh: Part Three

Today is the third and final part of my "gardening" series. If you missed them here are Gardening With Market Fresh: Part One and Gardening With Market Fresh: Part Two. It is fitting that my third post deals with a celebration: Lettuce Celebrate!

Using my MISTI and Jet Black Stazon ink I stamped the image from the Market Fresh stamp set on Watercolor paper. I did not need as many colors of reinkers for this image. I used Pear Pizzazz and Mossy Meadow for the lettuce and Real Red and Cherry Cobbler for the banner, blending them with my Blender pen.

I purposely chose red for the banner. Since red and green are complementary colors, using the two together provides the most impact.

I used the Ovals Collection Framelits to cut the stamped image and a Cherry Cobbler matte. The stamped image was adhered to the matte using Dimensionals.

I chose the lovely vegetable printed paper from the Farmers Market DSP pack and mounted it on the same size matte of Real Red to give it stability. The ovals were adhered to the matte using Fuse Fast adhesive and then a bow of Wild Wasabi Seam Binding was tied around it.

The matte was adhered to the Real Red card base using Dimensionals.

Because this was a celebratory card, I added a few red and green sequins to the top of the card and, like with the two previous cards, I added a touch of Wink of Stella to the lettuce to make it look fresh!

So, are you liking the Market Fresh stamp set? Pairing it with the Farmers Market DSP is a no-brainer in my books and I look forward to using both again soon!

I hope you've enjoyed my three part "gardening" series. Leave me a comment below–I'd love to hear from you!

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Gardening With Market Fresh: Part Two

Today I continue my series on "gardening" by using the Market Fresh stamp set. If you missed it, you can view Gardening With Market Fresh: Part One.

While, Part One of my series used grapes as the focal image, my second card uses strawberries.

I started by using my MISTI to stamp my image with Jet Black Stazon ink on Watercolor paper. I then used my Blender pen and reinkers to color the image. I chose to use the now retired Raspberry Ripple rather than Real Red for the berries and for the shadows, I used Cherry Cobbler. The leaves used Old Olive and Mossy Meadow and the banner used Daffodil Delight with Crushed Curry for the shadows.

I used the Circles Collection Framelits to cut both the stamped image and a Cherry Cobbler matte. The stamped image was adhered to the matte using Fuse Fast adhesive.

I chose a black striped paper from the Farmers Market DSP pack and adhered it to a Cherry Cobbler matte of the same size to give it stability. A length of Cherry Cobbler Sheer Linen Ribbon was adhered across the middle of the matte. The matte was adhered to a Cherry Cobbler card base using Dimensionals.

On the back of the matte for the berries, I placed several glue dots and then adhered and shaped a length of Crushed Curry 1/8" Ribbon. The matte was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

As with the first card, I used my Wink of Stella marker to make the berries look fresh and juicy! Check back tomorrow for the third part of my "gardening" series.

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Gardening With Market Fresh: Part One

Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not interested in gardening; I hate to get my hands dirty unless it's with craft supplies! However, as soon as I saw the Farmer's Market Designer Series Paper and the Market Fresh stamp set, I knew I wanted to create with them.

Using my MISTI and Jet Black Stazon Ink, I stamped the image of the grapes on Watercolor paper. I used my Blender pen and reinkers to color the image.

For the grapes I used Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant, leaves were Old Olive and Mossy Meadow, stem was Crumb Cake and the banner was Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango. The darker inks were used in the shadow areas of the stamped image to provide depth.

I used the Window Frames Collection Framelits to cut out both the stamped image and a matte from Pumpkin Pie card stock. The matte was embossed using the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. I inked the edges of the matte with Blackberry Bliss and adhered the stamped image to it using Fuse Fast adhesive.

I cut a matte from a Blackberry Bliss gingham paper in the Farmer's Market DSP pack and adhered it to a Blackberry Bliss matte of the same size to give it stability. I wrapped Mossy Meadow Thick Baker's Twine around the matte and then adhered the matte to a Pumpkin Pie card base using Dimensionals. Lastly, the image on its matte was mounted to the card front using Dimensionals.

The finishing touch for this card was to use my Wink of Stella pen to make the grapes look like they were fresh with dew. I wish you could see them in real life because they really look impressive with the glimmer on them but a photo does not capture the true look of the glimmer.

I think they look good enough to eat! What do you think? Leave me a comment below!

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Remarkable You Sympathy Card

All too often these days, I find myself needing to make a sympathy card. I am ever hopeful that by designing a heartfelt card, it can bring the recipient of the card some measure of comfort.

Inspiration for my card actually came to me while I was working at Walmart.

In the last couple of days, several people have purchased Calla Lilies. We have yellow ones as well as purple ones that are almost black in color. I think that they are one of the most elegant looking flowers I've seen and I thought they would work well for my card.

Though a lot of sympathy cards utilize muted colors, I decided on strong, rich colors for my card.




Though I knew what stamp set I wanted to use as well as what techniques I wanted to employ, it still took me awhile to bring the card to completion as I tried out different matte sizes and embellishments. I also had a hard time deciding what color to use for my sentiment piece.

I remembered that there were a lovely pair of Calla Lilies in the The Remarkable You stamp set. I chose to stamp these on watercolor paper using Versamark and then heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I used Blackberry Bliss reinker with my Blender Pen to color the flowers. The blend of colors from the dark, rich blackberry to the lighter, fruitier pink made me very happy!

I adhered the lilies to a very thin matte of Mossy Meadow using Fuse Fast adhesive. I inked the edges of a slightly larger Mossy Meadow matte with Versamark and then heat embossed with gold. I adhered the thin matte to the embossed matte. Then, using Dimensionals, I adhered these mattes to a Tip Top Taupe matte.

Using a Stampin' Spritzer, I prepared a mixture of Rubbing Alcohol and a couple of drops of Rich Razzleberry reinker. In my makeshift spray booth (an old shoe box) I sprayed some Jute Ribbon to match my card. Once the ribbon was dry, I wrapped it around the matte, adhering it with Sticky Strip and tape.

Earlier in the day, I had rolled out a piece of the now retired Simply Pressed Clay (Why on earth did Stampin' Up retire this product? It's wonderful!) and pressed my sentiment stamp, from the Best Thoughts stamp set, into the clay. This is one of my favorite techniques for using the clay! I then pressed one of the Oval Collection Framelits into the clay to provide a shape to cut out the sentiment when it was dry.

I trimmed the dried clay with scissors, following the outline left by the oval framelit. I pressed the dry clay sentiment into my Old Olive stamp pad, being sure it was well inked on both sides and edges. I then wiped off some of the ink until I was pleased with the distressed look of the sentiment.

Using a sponge dauber, I applied Mossy Meadow ink to the edges and rubbed a little bit over the words themselves to make them stand out more. The sentiment was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

Close up of Simply Pressed Clay sentiment

The mattes were adhered to the Blackberry Bliss card base using Dimensionals.

For the inside matte, I used a piece of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I stamped a portion of the Calla Lilies in the bottom right corner, using Sahara Sand. The edges were inked with Versamark and heat embossed with gold.

I think my card turned out well though I wish I had rolled the piece of clay just a little bit thinner so that it didn't look so thick on the bottom of the card. There's always next time to get it right, isn't there?

Drop me a comment below letting me know how you have used Simply Pressed Clay in your projects!

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