Embossed cherry blossoms

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that we spent much of last week on Pensacola Beach, where the beaches were free and clear  of oil and tar balls.  No sooner had I posted when I turned on the news only to find out that overnight a bunch of oil had washed ashore and that while the beaches were still open, the water was off limits for now because of the oil.  I feel like a jinx!

On to better thoughts….I really love it when a card comes together on the first try.   When I set out to make a card, my usual process calls for a series of samples – testing out the image, coloring and sketches before I decide on the final version.

I had this particular sketch and image in mind and as I started putting it together somehow all the test pieces worked perfectly the first time.

I stamped the cherry blossom (from Stamp Francisco) in versamark and embossed it with a sepia colored embossing powder from BMuse. The image was colored with SU pink markers and an aqua brush for a water colored look.  The pale blue background was also color washed with bashful blue ink.  The sentiment, from Flourishes, was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa.

Here is a close up of the chocolate cardstock.   This piece  is embossed – or debossed really –  with the Leaf plate from the LetterPress Holiday – Thanksgiving set. 

A note about the white cardstock.  For this card I used Cranes Lettra cardstock.  I purchased this specialty paper  to use with my Letterpress kits.  The paper is made by Cranes specifically for letterpress.  It is 100% cotton and has a wonderful softness to it – like, well, cotton!  Since it is 110lb weight it is stiff enough for a no layer card and perfect for letterpressing because the plates deboss, or engrave, so well in this cotton paper.

So – why did I use this paper for “regular” stamping instead of saving it for letterpress?    A few reasons.  I had the top piece left over from another project and I wanted to see how well the paper did with regular stamping, wet embossing and watercoloring.

I am happy to report stamping and wet embossing worked perfectly.  With the watercoloring, I first started with a blender pen and did not get good results, so I switched to an aqua pen and achieved the results you see here.  I’m thinking that because the paper is 100% cotton it works well with a wash of color and water, and while it is not watercolor paper, it held up well.

Since the main panel was the Cranes Lettra paper I decided to make the base card with the same paper.  It is heavyweight, but very soft and because of the high quality that goes into making this paper the overall card ended up “feeling” like a high quality card.    The paper is expensive, but is perfect for no layer cards and letterpressing.

Thanks for stopping by today!

a hybrid scrapbook page

My previous post showed a card with a photo of one of the blooms on our dogwood tree.  The trees are so beautiful – this is their first bloom.

The hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 pretty much wiped out just about every tree we had.  However none of the trees hit the house when they went down, so I’m grateful that this was the only damage we suffered.  Since then we’ve replanted some of the trees – adding  palms, crape mytle and a few fruit trees.  Last summer we planted two young dogwoods, knowing that we would have to wait until this spring to see them bloom.  This past week both young trees were filled with the prettiest pink blossoms.   I thought I would create a scrapbook page to remember how pretty this burst of color looked.  The trees were planted last year on our 21st wedding anniversay…we didn’t plan it that way, it just happened to be the day.  Orvil commented that the trees will always have that nice memory! 

Here is the page I created.  It’s a hybrid page – my first!!! 

I started by created a blank 8 x 8 page in a soft light lavender color – it looks a little more purple in the photo but IRL it’s actually more pink.   Then I typed the words “dogwood blossoms” and “dogwood” in white typeface several times and placed them randomly around the page.  I changed the font size and opacity on a few of  them  so that it would look more like background paper.  Here is a look at the page at this point:

I printed this page out and them stamped the dogwood image (From Stamp Francisco) on two of the corners in versamark.  The effect is very soft and subtle.  Here is a close up of what it looks like.

The dogwood photos themselves were printed on premium glossy photo paper and attached using double stick tape.  The text was computer generated.   The green background paper is from Basic Grey.

I’m happy with how this came out and will put this in my “simple pleasures” scrapbook.

Thanks for stopping by today!

a fuchsia square

For some reason I am drawn to square cards.  Don’t know what it is about them – maybe the symmetry – I just seem to make more of them!

This card is for this weeks clean and simple challenge at SCS – the challenge was to make a square card – right up my alley.

I stamped the image,  from Stamp Francisco,  in Palette Noir and colored with copics.  The sentiment, from PTI, was stamped in Memento Bamboo Leaves.  The textured cardstock is from Bazzill and the ribbon from SU.

I decided to leave off any more embellishments – I tried flowers, brads, rhinestones and buttons but they all seemed to distract from the delicate  look of the fuchsia blooms, and besides this is supposed to be a clean and simple card!  So after all that time I ended up with just the ribbon and let the main image speak for itself. 

Along with square cards, I am being more and more drawn to doing clean and simple cards.  There are some incredible talented people who can add layers and embellishments and create drop dead gorgeous cards – I don’t know how they do it!  When I  try to do something along those lines, my cards just seem to be too busy distracting.   I envy those designers who can pull together those embellished cards!

So – thanks for stopping by today!  I hope the weather is getting better in your area, it looks like its going to close to 60 here and warmer temperatures next week.  Take care!

A little break from christmas!

I’m taking a (very) short break from making holiday cards  – this card was created for two different challenges at SCS this week and  I wanted to use this particular image, so it turned into a thank you card!

Basic Grey Euphoria paper was the color inspiration.  I pulled the bright pink from this designer paper for the dogwood blossoms.  They were stamped in palette noir and colored with copics using the hydrangea and green grass collections, with the background done with the sky collection.  I stamped a few extra blossoms and added them to the original image to make the entire  image larger.

The dogwood blossom is from Stamp Francisco, the sentiment from Flourishes.  A Martha Stewart punch was used for the scalloped with ice blue rhinestones added.

Thanks for stopping by!

A few recent challenges

I’ve been able to participate in more of the challenges at SCS and I’d like to share with you these cards that were made specifically for the challenge.

First is a sketch challenge…this particular sketch provided an opportunity to dip into my stash of designer paper.  It’s a personal goal of mine to actually use my supplies and not hoard them and doing challenges is a great way to achieve this goal!!

Basic Grey was used for the background (Perhaps on the top, Indian Summer on the bottom).  The image (stamp francisco) was stamped in Palette Charcoal on Flourishes Classic White Cardstock.  A variety of markers, pens and inks were used to color the image, including Ancient Page, copics and SU.  The blossom of the flower was stamped and popped up to give a little more dimension.  Chocolate pearls were added at the corners and bottom.

Next is a card made for a “clean and simple” challenge, which required the use of brads or eyelets and I was able to use both!

The image (Savvy Stamps) was stamped in Palette Burnt Umber and colored with prisma pencils and odorless mineral spirits.  The eyelets are used as a way to “hange” the picture.  the background paper is from Basic Grey  – Urban Prairie and the sentiment is from Flourishes Summer Blossoms set.

Thanks for stopping by!