Thursday, May 31, 2018

Bride and Groom from Dreamerland Crafts

I had a couple co-workers get married this May. I wanted to make a handmade card. I wasn't sure what I was going to do and then I saw this Kiss the Bride stamp from Dreamerland Crafts. I really wanted this one because the groom really looks like the actual groom (to me! It's the hair! And he is quite a bit taller than the bride too.) But it sold out before I could get it! Ack!

So, I had to get the next best thing, which was this Welcoming the New Couple version.
I used far more alcohol markers to colour this than I thought I would. I used 3 greys in the bride's dress and the groom's shirt, and 3 different ones in the groom's pants. I used 3 more different ones for the groom's shoes. I used 3 browns in the groom's hair and 4 in the bride's because her hair is a little darker than his. Their wedding colour was a steel blue or a grey blue - a muted colour. I tried to match that with the flowers and the bow-tie - three more markers there. There are 3 colours in the skin and one for the pink cheeks and mouth. I used the picture on the front of the stamp packaging as a guide for where to place the shading.
(Click photo for larger image.)
I made this card shape myself for my Brother Scan'N'Cut die cut machine. I actually made that file for a wedding a few years back. I think it adds a touch of fancy to the card. I added the year to the front to personalize it a little bit (besides trying to make the couple look like the bride and groom).

The bride found it hard to find cake toppers that looked like them. They were either not very nice looking toppers or just not the right colours. I tried to make up for that. I hope she thought I did a good enough job!

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Layered Stamps: Altenew Painted Rose

Layered stamps to make photo-realistic images or faux water-colour-esque images is very popular right now. I received a stamp set at Scrapfest Kitchener (2018). So, I tried it out. It's Altenew's Painted Rose stamp set. It includes a single, very large, rose. Each element has 3 stamps to layer in 3 colours.

The first card I made was a birthday card. I used pinks for this one.

I have a MISTI stamping tool to help me layer it up just right. It actually took quite a long time to stamp all of these. I stamped the flower first, masked it, then stamped the leaves. Then I die cut through it and popped up the cut-out part on foam.

Then I tried a yellow combination. This one I made as my handmade mother's day card for this year. The lightest layer is actually Antique Linen distress ink, which is a pale brown with a yellow tone.
I made a subtle background with a script font background stamp. This time, I stamped the flower and cut it out by hand. Then I placed it so I could see where to stamp my leaves. Then I stamped my leaves and just put the cut out flower on top. I also stamped one less leaf set, partly because this card base was smaller than the first card I did, and partly because it takes so much time to do all that stamp layering!
I decided to try some wink of Stella glitter pen on the darkest colour here. I really like how that looked (but it's hard to photograph. You can click the photo for a larger view.)

Do you like stamp layering? You need to have a lot of ink pad colours, to me. (Or watercolour markers that you can colour on to the stamp, but that doesn't seem work as well on clear stamps as it does on rubber stamps, I find.) Do you have any stamp layering tips or tricks to share? Feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments below!

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Bright Cheery Flowers Thank-You Card

I attended Scrapfest with some family and friends this April. (It was the freak ice-storm weekend. We only got to enjoy half of the event.) I had made little purse favours out of 12 x 6 thick, foiled, patterned cardstock. (I'll have to remember to post those sometime!)

As a thank-you for making the arrangements, driving, and gifting little handmade favours, I got this handmade thank-you card!


The layering of the die cuts is excellently done! The colour selection is bright, bold, and cheery! The cardstock matches the patterned paper perfectly!

I was very impressed and flattered to receive it. There's a nice computer typed message inside, matted with matching colours and decorated with some enamel dots. I love enamel dots. How flat they are is perfect for getting cards through the mail or even for putting on the insides of the cards as my friend did here.

Look how well composed this card is. Nice and full of visual interest! 

We got event goody bags too and, in there, we got an AlteNew layering stamp set. It looks suspiciously like this flower, so I wonder if my friend went and bought the matching die when we were at the event. I love die cuts because they have such perfectly clean edges but also give a small amount of tactile interest. My friend got a great deal on a Spellbinders Platinum 6 at the event and she's very pleased with it. You can see how pleased by the amount of die cuts on this card!

There were some other enclosures gifted in my card. I was surprised to get it! If anything, I should be thanking everyone else for letting me drag them off to events like Scrapfest!