Spellbinders and Fun Stampers Journey merge!

Today I'm excited to have a part in announcing some fun crafty news - our friends at Spellbinders are celebrating something extraordinary! Spellbinders and Fun Stampers Journey have merged! Fun Stampers Journey products will be a wonderful addition to the quality products you've come to love from Spellbinders - they're bringing their deeply etched red rubber stamps, many with coordinating dies, and a full line of coordinating cardstock, inks, ribbon, embellishments, and other artsy supplies! 

I got to play with some FSJ goodies for today's post - this card was made using stamps from the Thankful Friends set, along with some of the coordinating dies. I followed yesterday's Geometric Wreath tutorial on Splitcoast to create my card. To make my mask I chose 2 circle dies, using the grid on this removable contact paper to help with placement. 

In addition, I used my grid mat to line up the mask with my cardstock panel. A tip - cut the mask 1/2" wider and longer than your card panel - the overage protects the rest of your card, plus helps it stay in place on your work surface!

I used the cutout ring to help me position the center piece of my mask.

Here's a closer look at the wreath after the stamping was done - I sponged in the acorn areas first with a die cut stencil, covered those areas and stamped the purple leaves, masked them and stamped the orange leaves, masked again, and stamped the pink and brown leaves without masking. After removing all the acorn and leaf masks, I filled in with light tan ink, and stamped and colored the acorns with colored pencils.

This squirrel is a mostly solid image, so I stamped him in a lighter ink and did some coloring with the pencils I had out to give him more depth - so cute!

The stick he is on is actually a strip of inked cardstock, worked between my hands until it softened and rolled.

One more quick card with the same stamp set, and the gorgeous Cozy Knit embossing folder which I know I'll be using a lot - I used the folder on a piece of white-cored cardstock, and lightly filed the raised areas for a little more pop. This was a 6" square piece that I cut down to my smaller card size (3-1/2" x 5-1/2"), so I used the cut off piece for the collar of my little cardigan. 

I left my cardstock in the die to add some sponged color around the sentiment.

I had fun with these FSJ products, and I look forward to exploring their line more in the future - click on over to the Spellbinders site to see what else they have to offer, and be sure to check their social media accounts for more projects from the Spellbinders Team! Remember to use coupon code SBSAVE10 for a 10% discount on your order!