Etched in Ombre

I love trying out new techniques, but then I also have a set of techniques I like to keep going back to as part of my card making. As part of an event that Stampin’ Up! held in April for Demonstrators, we had to make a swap with the stamp set ‘Etched in Nature’. I loved the sketchy nature of the stamps, but wanted to make a card focused around the butterfly.

Heating embossing with white and then blending over the top is just a gorgeous look, no matter what stamp set or colours you use. It picks how the detail on the butterfly really nicely – isn’t it gorgeous?

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the stamp set used on this card has since been withdrawn (perhaps only temporarily) due to quality issues. Stampin’ Up! believes in only selling items that continue to meet their high standards.

The background is blended from Misty Moonlight, Magenta Madness & So Saffron to create the gorgeous ombre effect seen. My inspiration being a sunset in a tropical location – just as the sun is disappearing below the horizon.

And to pop the sentiment away from the background, I use my ever faithful white embossing on black with just the most beautiful sentiment “When being together is more important than what you do, you’re with a friend”, which I think is very poignant given the past 12 months the world has been through.

What is one of your favourite techniques on a card? Tell me in the comments below.

Best Wishes,

Details below are for the colours and products used in my project today. Please remember, if you purchase from my store to add the host code (displayed in the top right sidebar) for orders under £150.

Details below are for the colours and products used in my project today. Please remember, if you purchase from my store to add the host code (displayed in the top right sidebar) for orders under £150.

Colours Used:

Supply List:

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Blended Butterflies

Welcome to my Butterfly Bouquet spotlight week – this week will feature 7 video tutorials posted back to back to spotlight this early release collection from the 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue. The collection is made up of several components – Stamps, Dies, Designer Series Paper (DSP) and Specialty Paper.

It’s time to get a bit messy / creative as today I have been blending with brushes using a mask. I was inspired by this idea following a craft session making tomorrow’s box. A leftover section of tomorrow’s project works really well as a mask, but needed to be a little bigger so I set off making another. Using the dies from the Brilliant Wings set (which forms part of the Butterfly Bouquet collection), I used the largest butterfly to make my mask – be sure to make it large enough that you don’t risk blending off the mask like I did (see my video).

On Monday, I used my blending brushes with three colour – Magenta Madness, Misty Moonlight & So Saffron, so I stuck to that colour choice for today’s project too. They go together so well, so as they say “why fix what isn’t broken?”. The colours blend beautifully together and get a lovely sharp edge thanks to the mask.

Finishing off the card with some contrast by heat embossing a sentiment in white onto black cardstock gives it a great finish, with some matte black dots of course! I love it…and the best thing about it? You will never get two cards the same because of the blending technique used.

In my video I did a bright version and a more subtle version, which did you prefer?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

Supply List:

Happy Saffron

Welcome to my Butterfly Bouquet spotlight week – this week will feature 7 video tutorials posted back to back to spotlight this early release collection from the 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue. The collection is made up of several components – Stamps, Dies, Designer Series Paper (DSP) and Specialty Paper.

One of the best creative techniques I have learnt whilst stamping / crafting along with others, is the tone on tone technique. I love how just having one colour ink and the matching card stock creates such a subtle, but beautiful decoration on any project. Inspiration for today’s card was taken from the colours featured in the Designer Series Paper (DSP) in the Butterfly Bijou paper stack.

So Saffron is such a gorgeous colour, I’m not a massive fan of yellows but the subtle nature of So Saffron gets past my yellow barrier and I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work with that pretty large butterfly or the Natural Touch Specialty Paper.

As the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set does not feature any sentiments, I have teamed today’s project with the Pretty Perennials stamp set. I cannot stop using this large happy stamp and fussy cutting it to sit on my projects. You’ll see that it features a few more times this week!

As always, if you like my projects and enjoy my videos, please pop over to my Youtube channel and subscribe to keep up with my crafty makes. You can also find me on Instagram or Facebook.

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

Measurements:

  • So Saffron Cardstock = 57/8 x 81/4 inches
  • Natural Touch Specialty Paper = 3 x 3 inches
  • Basic White Scraps
  • Die Cut Butterfly from Butterfly Bijou Designer Series Paper

Supply List:

Bright Birthdays

As part of the joining offer during Sale-a-Bration, you can earn a FREE set of Designer Series Paper (DSP). When I say set, I mean 5 PACKETS!!! of yet to be released paper from the upcoming Annual Catalogue in June. That’s right, you can get them ahead of everyone. Even demos can no longer get their hands on these, as the pre-order time period is over. So if you join my team before 28th February 2021, you can earn the paper that made this card.

Of the five packs, I chose to go with the Brights collection. I usually fall into the trap of sticking to the Subtles or the Regals, so took a bit of a lane swerve. I love the colours that I chose, they go together so well; Pacific Point, Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green and Daffodil Delight.

I wanted to match the stamping to the strips in the background, so used the same technique seen yesterday on my Simple Sunday series by using Stampin’ Write markers to colour sections of the sentiment. Which I think stamped rather well!

Have you seen the joining offer and been tempted? Ask me how before it’s too late!

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

Colours Used:

Supplies:

Fabulous Patterns

Layered cards are my new “go to” when I hit a crafty block, you don’t need much inspiration around you to make one. You just need some nice paper and a sentiment to bring a beautiful card front together. Or as I chose for this card, an excuse to use some paper that I hadn’t used in a while – Playing with Patterns.

I love Playing with Patterns, the paper designs and the rest of the suite are really fun, bright colours that suit a number of happy occasions. In the past, I’ve used it for birthdays and as a card to remind someone how fabulous they are – which is also the sentiment being used today.

After choosing three patterns that I felt would go together best, I layered up the card finishing it off with some resin dots, popping some of them where I felt they lined up with the pattern of the card. You could go one step further here and colour in the sentiment letters, but on this occasion I chose not to.

Are you a fan of layered cards?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

Colours Used:

Supplies: