Wetlands

I recently purchased the "Wetlands" set from Stampin' Up.  I just love it!  When I first saw this set, my son had just been involved in a study of the Piping Plovers that have returned to nest at Wasaga Beach.  This species had been extirpated from the Great Lakes area for over 70 years, so there was a lot of environmental excitement when they successfully nested in the area.  The little sand pipers in the Wetlands set reminded me of them.  The set contains some terrific sentiments as well as a wonderful Canada Goose, the sand pipers, and a very versatile grass stamp.  My love of watercolours continues, so I created a watercoloured background before stamping on the goose and grass.  The sand pipers were a perfect accent on the envelope.

 

I double matted the finished watercolour piece, first with black and then with a craft coloured piece of cardstock.  I trimmed the mat with my hand held Purple Cow mouse, using the deckled edge blade.  Next I burnished the edges of the cardstock with some bronze metallic ink.   I mounted everything on a black card base.  I used some natural jute twine from May Arts to tie a multi-strand simple knotted embellishment.

Until next time,

Stretch Your Stamps 2 - Day 1

As you know, I'm in love with Online Card Classes.  I'm currently participating in a new class called, "Stretch Your Stamps 2" and I'm having a great time.  There are tons of terrific ideas.  Here is a card that I tried after watching Shari Carroll's wonderful video.

 

I created the card using a Hero Arts background stamp called "Large Fabric Design".  I applied random blotches of Distress Inks to my craft mat and gently squished the stamp into the ink.  Next I sprayed the stamp with Sheer Shimmer Spritz and stamped the image on Strathmore 140 lb watercolour paper. When the ink had dried, I cut the watercolour paper into 1 inch squares.  In order to give the squares more definition, I inked the edges with some Dark Moss Colorbox Chalk Ink.  I mounted the squares on a panel of Neenah white cardstock.  I added a bow made from some seam binding ribbon which I had died with Vintage Photo ink and scrunched before allowing it to dry.  I glued several die cut "hello" pieces together, which were cut from watercolour paper and a dark brown piece to form a shadow effect.  I finally mounted the panel on some Candy Necklace Bazzill cardstock.  As a finishing touch, I painted a few woodcut butterflies with some Distress Stain Picket Fence and mounted them on the card.  I was pleased with the finished result - hope you like it too!

Until next time,