I've not had much time to make anything to blog recently - we've had a few household disasters that have taken a lot of time at weekends to sort and we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes on a brand new (and improved) website. But I was so excited by a couple of the products in the new collection from The Greetery that I just had to get crafty yesterday.
I really, REALLY love the Diamond Ribbons Die and Stencil - more girly than the sort of style I usually go for, but they are just so elegant they grabbed me from the first peek I saw! They mix and match perfectly with each other so you can get different looks and they are are also designed to match with the Bitty Botanical Stamp and Stencil which creates gorgeous flowers that fit perfectly in the gaps!
For my first card I wanted to borrow Betsy's idea of monochrome cards - these would make BRILLIANT sets of cards to gift to people - just change up the colour of flowers and ribbons each time. I will be making some sets myself when I get a bit more time. For this first one, I used yellow - inking my white card stock super lightly with Antique Linen oxide inks before stamping the stems of my flowers with Shadow Creek ink and stencilling the petals with Lemonade Stand ink both from Altenew using my cube collections.
I die cut the ribbon and the circles from the ribbon die, plus one bow from yellow card (sorry it was from my scrap drawer so unlabelled but I think it's Concord and 9th's buttercup). I finished the card using a small sentiment from The Greetery's Little Lables Stamp and Die set using the two yellow inks to shade it to match the base.
For my second card I made a simple Mother's Day card for my aunt. For this I started with white card and added a blue ribbon die cut (winter lake card from Altenew). I then die cut a circle from the middle so I could leave that white, added speckled egg shading to the remaining card and die cut lots of the same bow to add to all the cross over points. I stamped the flowers just to the circle element using my stamp positioning tool to line it up and stencilled the flowers with speckled egg to match the base (with a little pencil for added detail to the centres)
I added a circle of the same blue behind the flower focal centre before popping it on the card. The bows needed a little lift so I added a dot of liquid pearls to each. The Mother's Day sentiment is from For Mom by Colorado Craft Company.
When I cleaned the stamp after this second card, I sprayed it with ink and it reminded me of watercolour stamping techniques which I thought would be fun with the little flowers so I had a play with that too as I was on a roll!
I used two different shades of green aqua markers to colour the leaves directly on the stamp and then did a couple of fine mists with a spray bottle (I don't have a fancy craft one I just use the ones you can get from chemists to decant cosmetics for holidays and they work fine) before stamping onto white card (not watercolour card, just 300gsm normal white card). There was still a lot of ink so I got a second generation print straight away too for a softer second look (you'll see the difference below)
I used more aqua markers and a brush to gently pop some watercolour ink through the stencil - I added colour the back of my acrylic block and used a damp brush to apply it, going back in with the tip of hte marker for darker colour in spots. Again I did the same thing but with more water on the second for a lighter look. Don't add toooo much water or it will pool too much - a little spread is good for the watercolour look though, we want loose looking colour.
With the stronger coloured flowers, I used the matching die (currently sold out but we're hoping to restock before Easter so get your requests lodged!) to cut out the flowers in one pass (love it!!!) I cut an oval from some green card and popped it up on foam over a cream base card. I die cut the same card with the Let's Have a Word Congrats Die also form the Greetery and popped it in the aperture. I then used the flowers to create a pretty spring wreath aroudn the edge - the watercolour look works so well for this look so I'll be making more of these too!
For the softer finish on the second genertion one, I just used the ribbon stencil with oxide inks in antique linen with the spots in crushed olive to complete the panel - not sure what I will turn this into yet - a simple sentiment on the front somewhere I think.
Hopefully that's given you a tonne of inspiration to use with your new stash - or we have a few sets left if it inspired a purchase - come and show us what you make on our socials!
Happy Crafting!
Tara
