Spellbinder new arrival - Buzzworthy collection!

It's always fun to explore the possibilities of a stamp set! You might have seen some other designers playing with the new Buzzworthy collection from Spellbinders - this is a bee and garden themed collection of stamps and a fun honeycomb stencil! 

The Sweet as Honey stamp set is full of lots of small stamp elements, so I thought a wreath concept would be fun...
To create the wreath, I used the corner of my MISTI, positioning the stamps for each ring of the design, and then rotating the panel in the same corner to repeat the stamping 4 times. 

I used colored pencils to color the panel, brushed a little light ink over the background, then centered one of the small sentiments from the set on a popped up die cut.

For a second card, I stamped the peony image on my panel, then stamped a second image on a clear label sheet. I have the Avery sheets which have a frosted coating on them - a little rubbing alcohol removed that nicely. Contact paper would work as well - even packing tape for a smaller image. I cut the image out from the clear sheet, and laid that peony over my first one as a permanent mask.

For the stenciling and stamping around the image, I just needed to make sure I used water-based ink. I kept a paper towel handy to wipe the excess ink away from the mask, and it kept my peony perfectly white! I'll have to tuck this idea away for a future tutorial, I think!

You can see the shine on the label sheet here... The stamp set is below - it's a beautiful cling set with indexing on the back of each image! I love that about the FSJ sets.

Sweet As Honey cling set

Here's the stencil - a nice fit with this set as well, and so many ways it can be used.

Sweet Honeycomb stencil

Remember that through Oct. 25 all clearance items are an additional 15% off - they have added everything from jewelry to dies, stamps and paper, a gel press, and even machines in there, so go grab a good deal this week!

Hope you're having a good week - I'm feeling quite a bit like myself again (5 weeks post surgery), and trying to find balance in a new normal yet again!

Impression Obsession - Old is New

With such a huge collection of wonderful stamps from so many artists, sometimes the older stamps in the Impression Obsession catalog find their way out of the spotlight. We don't want them to be forgotten, so we like to feature them regularly. We hope you're inspired! 

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is called Duo Texture Stenciling so I thought I'd try that out with this large Cover-a-Card Camellia stamp. I already had a slimline panel cut to 4" x 8.5", so that part was easy. I stamped in Versamark Clair ink, connected one petal line with a black Ranger embossing marker, and embossed with black powder. 

For the stenciling inside the image, I used Mist hybrid ink - this is a great "no line" ink, as it darkens just slightly when dye ink is used over it. I thought that would allow this delicate stenciled pattern to show through nicely - the stencil is Airy Flowers from A Colorful Life Designs, and it's one of their 6" x 9" designs... these are great for slimline cards, half sheets of cardstock, 5" x 7" cards, and much more! 

I used stencil brushes to ink inside the flower, masking the top line so I didn't get ink beyond my outline. You can see below how the stenciling shows through the ink.

Keeping the stencil in place, I used modeling paste outside the image to carry on the design to the top of the panel. When I had the area covered, I dabbed the paste lightly with a paper towel to add a little texture - that also removed any streaks left by my palette knife.

The sentiment I used is from my line, and it's HERE. 

Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - see the I.O. blog for all the details!

Seasons Greetings, Deer!

I'm not usually a big fan of card kits, but there have been a few times I've looked twice because there was one element of the kit that I wanted, usually the die set ... can you relate? A couple of years ago Spellbinders put out a card kit with the most adorable reindeer die set. I don't subscribe to the card kits, but occasionally they'll come out for sale after the month has passed... and I waited and kept checking for that particular kit, which never came. BUT! Spellbinders has finally released that die kit as a standalone set! I'm so happy to have it now. Here's the project I made:I cut a pillow box using a steel rule die - I love steel rule dies for the variety of things they can cut, and Spellbinders has been keeping them in the clearance section, so prices are pretty great. Check those out if you like to cut unique tags or make your own gift boxes - there is a really fun variety there. Just saw this too - through Oct. 25, all clearance items are an additional 15% off! They have added everything from jewelry to dies, stamps and paper, a gel press, and even machines in there, so go grab a good deal this week!

Here's an image of the reindeer set - there are several optional pieces that you can mix and match for different looks! So cute. 

Season's Greetings, Deer Etched Die Set

I used a blender brush to add color to the die cut pieces (the tag and larger die cut pieces are all watercolor paper), and added a little more shading and some spots with colored pencils. The stamp used on the tag base is from a recent ebay purchase rescue - it's a retired stamp from All Night Media. 

That's all I know! Cheers, deers!

Paper Teapot - please vote!

My friend Kelly over at Paper Bead Rollers is having a little contest - the challenge was to make a teapot using paper beads! Here is the link to view the entries and vote, if you'd like to pick a favorite! I've shared this before, but now there are some other entries in the running! 

The teapot bead is actually built of 5 different beads, which are all rolled strips of paper in different sizes and shapes. I still haven't made anything with this large bead - it's about 1-1/4" high - it will either become a pendant or an ornament. Right now it's sitting on a shelf with my Funkos!

New Impression Obsession release - Slim Scenes day 2!

Welcome back! I had to pull out a card that was "out of the box" today - of course you can use Slim Scene stamps to make scenes...! So I wanted to use the Snowy Night background in a different way.

I should have taken pictures as I went along! I never know if things are going to work or not. It would have been helpful to document the inks I used as well! You'd think after 14 years of blogging I'd have it together! I started with yellow ink as far right as I could stamp, then orange, pink, and red. Of course the colors combined as I layered. If you want to recreate this look, work from light to dark and keep your colors all warm or all cool so you don't end up with muddy layers. I love how the snow spots filled in with the lighter colors underneath! I added a little more splatter with diluted white paint.

Here are the images I used today, and that sweet stitched label die is HERE:

3235-LG Snowy Night

E13285 Brush Border

C20394 Artful Soul

So here are the fun hop details!! Check for a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog. Then click, hop, and comment! We'll choose 3 random commenters to win a $25 Gift Certificate - so the more you comment through our Slim Scenes Hop the more chances you'll have to win! More inspiration here:

Angela Bode 

Anna Wight 

Dina Kowal <<<<<< you're here!

Giovana Smith 

Ilina Crouse 

Jeanne Streiff 

Laura Williams 

Laura Fulcher 

Lee Ann Barrett

Lynda Pleckan 

Vicki Garrett 

If you missed yesterday's hop, you can still comment on those posts as well.

Thank you for stopping by!

New Impression Obsession release - Slim Scenes!

I'm so excited to be introducing IO's new line of Slim Scene stamps along with the team today! The full winter line is available NOW - go peek! I'll wait. 
I shared this card on Stamp Junkies the other day - it's my favorite and I just couldn't wait! To make this slimline scene I first stamped the Town images on plain paper and ran them through my Scan N Cut - after they scanned, I replaced the paper with a stencil blank and cut out perfect masks from reusable stencil material! Yay!

I stamped the open image on watercolor paper, masked, and then stamped the Bare Treeline images, once grey and once in black. The rest of the coloring was done with watercolor paints, with some light pencil shading. 

Here are the images I used today:

3233-LG Town

3231-LG Bare Treeline Duo

B13738 Sure Miss You

So here are the fun hop details!! Check each morning of the hop (October 15th & 16th) for a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog. Then click, hop, and comment! We'll choose 3 random commenters to win a $25 Gift Certificate - so the more you comment through our Slim Scenes Hop the more chances you'll have to win! Here are all of today's links - go be inspired!! 

Angela Bode 

Anna Wight 

Dina Kowal <<<<<< you're here!

Giovana Smith 

Ilina Crouse 

Jeanne Streiff 

Laura Williams 

Laura Fulcher 

Lee Ann Barrett

Lynda Pleckan 

Vicki Garrett 

All comments for both the event days will be open until Monday November 2nd at midnight CT. All winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 3rd on the IO blog.

I'll be back tomorrow with another slimline card!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Pastel Metallic Effects

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast uses PanPastels to create a faux metal finish - you can find the tutorial HERE! 
If you're unfamiliar with PanPastels, they are a compressed pastel medium with tons of pigment and very little binder. A little bit goes a long way with the colored pans, and the same is true with the metallics! The pans are available individually or at a little discount in sets of 3 or 6 - I've got the set of 6 here grouped with some of the pearl and blending mediums.

Instead of an embossing folder I used a background die to make an impression in my black cardstock (this is done by running the die through the cutting machine with a silicone pad instead of a hard plate):

DIE448-YY Puzzle Background

 The impressed lines remained black when I applied the PanPastels, which gives a neat antiqued effect. The tutorial uses an embossing folder, which looks nice too! 

This sentiment was a perfect "fit" - it is a new one in the Fall release. You might be able to see in these closer pictures how the die cuts all but the corners of the pieces so you can cut a full panel and keep it together as a background if you like - but the pieces are also very easily separated with a craft knife so you can cut a panel up into a puzzle. I actually cut out the center of the gold layering panel, and used that center piece to cut a few edge pieces for my accents. No sense in all that good mirror cardstock being covered up!

Be sure to check out the Splitcoast gallery for other examples of this technique... I'm joining some other IO designers in showing off dies today, so you can find their links and inspiration on the I.O. blog! 

Speaking of IO, we are excited to reveal a new line of stamps designed just for slimline cards this week - come back tomorrow and Friday for lots of ideas using the new Slim Scenes stamps!

Cheers!