Tuesday, March 4, 2008

More Dreamy Flowers

I think I mentioned a couple of posts back that I am in Love with the Afternoon Tea Designer Series Paper in Stampin' Up!'s Occasions Mini Catalog.

These are my creations using the Afternoon Tea and Live Your Dream stamp set. They are both elegant yet bright & fresh to give you the feel that Spring is right around the corner. I used SU!'s textured cardstock along with the DSP to give these cards an even more polished look.

For the card to the left, I layered the DSP on Chocolate Chip cardstock and then mounted that onto the In Color Groovy Guava card which I made using the textured cardstock. To stamp the multi-color flowered, I used a Chocoloate Chip Stampin' Write Marker for the stem, leaves and flower center. The 2008 In Color Collection does not include markers, but not to worry. I used a re-inker with a blender pen to brush the color on the flower petals. I then carefully outlined the edge of the flower petals with Chocolate Chip to get the variegated look around the edges. I mounted the flower on Chocolate Chip and punched holes in the corners with the 1/16 inch hand-held paper punch so I could knot a bit of natural hemp as an accent at each corner.

A couple of tips: Breathe on your colors before stamping when using this technique to ensure the inks are still moist. When making several cards using the same design, be sure to clean your stamp thoroughly in between stamping so your colors are not muddied. Also, color light to dark as I mentioned above: first apply the Groovy Guava to the petal then the Chocolate Chip around the edges. A good feature of the blender pen is that you can also clean that thoroughly on a scrap of paper in between uses.

The blue card to the right is similar with just a few changes. The DSP is layered on Blue Bayou cardstock and mounted on a Soft Sky textured cardstock base. I used blender pens to brush on Wild Wasabi and Blue Bayou ink. I used re-inkers again since these are both 2008 In Colors. I did not add a variegated look to this image since I used a darker color for the petals. I did however, stamp the little butterfly from Live Your Dream set using Soft Sky ink. I cut him out and then pressed him into a Versamark pad and sprinkled him with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. I don't think you can really see the sparkly little butterfly well in this picture, but I think you can see that I did not adhere his wings to the card. I tried to get adhesive mainly on his tiny little body so I could pinch his wings up when he is displayed. This adds a bit of texture and interest when looking at it. To further embellish, I slipped a bit of Blue Bayou Double-Stitched ribbon through a Hodge Podge Hardware buckle and wrapped that around the flower base. I then adhered all of this to the card and, to add balance, punched two holes to the top right side using the 1/16 hand-held punch again so I could push through two matching brads from the hardware kit. These kits come in three colors in the catalog: Aged Copper, Antique Brass, & Pewter. I believe I used Antique Brass here. There is a gorgeous Styled Silver set in the Occasions Mini Catalog. You can see a sample of the Styled Silver a couple of posts back here on my blog.
Well, thanks for visiting. I'm off to work this morning. Have a wonderful day & happy stampin'! EdieB

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Both of these are just beautiful!! Thanks for sharing!!