Sweet Swirly Bird Stamp Set

I’m having fun experimenting with Stampin’ Up’s new Swirly Bird stamp set (and the matching dies, of course!) This stamp set has so many possibilities!

As you know, the first thing I do with any new toy, er, work product, is play … randomly stamping images on scrap paper, trying different colors, etc. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t!

Here’s a group shot after play time:

Very simple cards! Here are more detailed looks:

First I stamped the solid round base in Ranger/Tim Holtz’ Distress Ink Spun Sugar, then topped it by stamping the swirl in Abandoned Coral. The smaller daisy, from the same set, was stamped in Imagine Crafts’ Kaleidacolor Bouquet, using the pink/orange colors. (Tip: Using the Kaleidacolor rainbow inkpads gave me easy access to several colors at once! I’m a long-time fan of these rainbow pads.)

The leaves were stamped first in Hero Arts Lime Green; my old (very old! Very, very old!) Marvy Matchable Bottle Green was used to stamp the veins. A dot of Ranger Stickles was added to the center of the daisies.

Simply changing the colors gave me a different look — a softer, pastel feel:

I used a very old gold inkpad to stamp the swirls (You can barely tell it’s gold!) and added the smaller flower using ColorBox Stephanie Barnard bubble gum pink. The base leaves were stamped in Hero Arts Pastel Mint and the stem in Hero Arts Lime Green.

And a matching envelope:

(I added a bold base for the pink swirls)

Switching it up, I went for blues: (starting with this discontinued bluebell card stock from Paper Source.)

I stamped the solid base in Hero Art’s Unicorn White pigment ink, then over-stamped used Stephanie Barnard’s Blueberry for the swirl and the smaller flowers. (I did a second generation stamping on a few of the smaller flowers to get a slightly lighter shade.)

The leaves were stamped in various greens, toped by that Bottle Green vein.

Fun, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Make Your Own Coloring Cards

Here’s a belated Fabulous Finds Friday…

It’s no secret that coloring books are hot, hot, hot!

And what stamper doesn’t love to color? So putting them together is a natural fit. Luckily, there are plenty of stamps that make it  easy to create coloring cards — a perfect gift for all ages. I recently made a gift packet for a 10-year-old girl and it was such a fast and easy project — just stamping the images with water resistant black ink (I alternated between  VersaFine Onyx Black and StazOn Jet Black, both from Imagine Crafts) and mounting the images to fold-over cards (I used 4-Bar note cards.)

Here are a few:

I found some great images from Dare2BArtzy and Hampton Art Stamps (check out the Color Me collection by Angela Porter!) There are many others out there.

As you can see in this photo, you can use a variety of coloring tools…

For my gift, I bundled a bunch of (uncolored!) cards, coordinating envelopes (with a single image stamped on the front) and a pack of colored pencils. I’m going to get several sets ready for Christmas! This is also a great travel gift, especially if you include a few postage stamps.

Thanks for stopping by … now go color something!

More Topiary Frenzy

In my last post, I went crazy using Vertical Greetings, a nifty new topiary set from Stampin’ Up. I was all about the white embossing on blue.

But had to experiments a bit more, using mostly what was left on my desk.

Still playing with the white embossing:

And trying out two-tone embossing:

(embossed with Ranger’s Lime Green and Tea Rose powders.)

A little different, embossed in gold on vellum:

(Using TapeTastic tape to hide some boo-boos. Not my favorite, but hey, that’s what experimenting is all about!)

And my favorite use, tags:

I stamped the topiary and the sentiment in Ranger’s Wendy Vecchi Archival leaf green, then gold embossed a pot, cut it out and added it on top. This was fast and easy, especially since I had pre-embossed and cut a bunch of pots!

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

 

Fabulous Finds Friday: Pretty Topiary Set

I was attracted to this pretty topiary set (Vertical Greetings) from Stampin’ Up! for two reasons: I love the three topiary designs and I  was intrigued by the vertical greetings.

You know how I work … when I get a new set, I go all out, stamping with wild abandon, playing with different papers, inks, powders … figuring out how it all works. This set is no exception. Here’s what happened in my first play session:

Although my first impulse was to emboss the trees in gold, silver and copper, I soon fell in love with the images embossed in white on blue card stock. I combined the card card stock with some dry embossed pieces I had left over from a previous creative frenzy:

(Cuttlebug Swirls embossing folder)

(Lifestyle (now owned by We R Memory Keepers) Crafts Whimsy embossing folder; all the dry embossed pieces were adhered with Plus Extra Strong Glue Tape.)

(Cuttlebug embossing folder; sequins from Lawn Fawn)

And one more:

Pearls are from Eyelet Outlet.

Stay tuned for more!

 

More Gel Printing

Let’s jump right in … here are some more results from my gel printing extravaganza!

As I mentioned in my last post, I used the 3×5 inch plate from Gel Press.

Here’s the big picture:

It’s so fast and easy to make a batch of cards once you have the backgrounds done! For many of these, I added some stamped images to the backgrounds to provide more interest, mostly using Imagine Crafts’ StazOn ink. And then I just added various sentiments.

I trimmed my selected panels and attached them to a 4-bar sized card (4 7/8 x 7 inches, folded in half.)

The card below is a little different. Instead of using the gel print itself, I used this piece to “off-stamp.” I stamped on the wet paint using Art Foamies, then off-stamped on a piece of card stock. I added a sentiment (from docrafts, black embossed and fussy-cut) and some Robin’s Nest Dew Drops.

As you know, not every print is a winner. But even the “fails” can be used. For example, for this one below, I over stamped with StazOn Jet Black, then cut the piece into tiles, edged the tiles with black Sharpie and mounted them to a folded card front. I decided it needed a frame, so I made some score lines. Easy. And now it’s one of my faves.

Some of the fails (and you know there were a lot!!!) I turned into tags:

The pieces were mounted to card stock.

It’s amazing how quickly these cards and tags came together, which is one of the advantages of making a big ol’ stack of backgrounds to have handy!

Thanks for stopping by.