So last night I was stamping, with the intentions of doing some cards for today (Fabulous Floral Fridays), and then I wasn't really stamping at all -- I found myself sorting through all my SU sets and putting the retired ones into a pile to be ebayed or saved on a shelf because I just can't quite let them go yet. Well, after I got them all sorted, I decided that it would be fun to stamp with the retired ones (or rather, soon to be) since there were so many that I just know I am going to miss so much. All I can say is SU better have one freaking AMAZING catalog to replace this one . . . so anyway, I started to stamp and just let it flow, no restrictions and I came up with four cards, which all surprisingly involve flowers in some way, so I thought I would use them all in today's post as a farewell to some pretty awesome sets. No challenge today. I hope you enjoy them!
BLOOMING WITH HAPPINESS -- This set is just too pretty! I am sad to see it going. I started off this card by looking for some paper that would work with the flowers in the stamp (aka, looked similar). I found this Rob & Bob paper that I have had hanging around with me since El Paso (I think I may have been secretly hoarding it) -- I watercolored the flowers in the image after stamping it in staz on timber brown. The ribbon (pink) is from Hobby Lobby and I thought it added just a little touch of sparkle that made it pretty. I also used stickles on the flowers, as well as my trusty glaze pen by Sakura to make the flowers look "cool." The layout is my version of SC 126 and this card can also be filed under WT 115 because it is using the soon to be retired stamps. Stitching on the side and bottom were done with my white gelly roll pen. The ribbon behind the sentiment (brown) was already stitched ribbon. I used lots of sponging on this card which is not super typical of me, but I like how it works.
BECAUSE OF YOU/TINY TALK -- This next card was inkspired by a layout done by reneejul1 on splitcoaststampers. She was the featured stamper a week or two ago, and I have had this layout she did on my desktop since then. My panel on the front is a little bigger than hers was, but all in all, a similar layout. The patterned paper is by Bo Bunny and is called Harvest Blooms and is part of the Shabby Princess collection. I thought the flowers on the paper matched well with the flowers from SU "Because of You" so I colored them to match. The background is sponged lightly with timber brown staz on ink. The sentiment comes from another soon to be retired set SU "Tiny Talk." I went over the flowers with my glaze pen so they almost look embossed was well as watercolored. The ribbon is burgundy polka dot ribbon and matched just too perfectly not to use! I think this is my favorite card that I stamped last night.
BURST INTO BLOOM/TINY TALK -- This Bella image has literally been sitting on my desk, colored, all week long. I was waiting to feel inkspired to put her on something, and nothing was making me feel that way. Finally, last night I just decided to go for it, inkspired or not. I decided to try the technique lovers challenge "Wet Watercolor" -- I had never done this before, so I did not know exactly what to expect. I found my paper to be very absorbent and I had to "mist" it multiple times. The stamps I used are from a soon to be retired SU set called "Burst Into Bloom." I followed Beate's tutorial on SCS, but my results were not quite as pretty as hers. Maybe next time? Anyway, after the back panel was done, dried, smoothed out, I added a sheet of acetate over it to make it look more professional looking and then added black diamond stickles on the centers of the flowers just for fun. The sentiment here is from SU "Tiny Talk." The corners were faux stitched. On the ends of the sentiment oval, I used brads to adhere it to the card. It is kind of busy looking, but I like the brightness and I think it still works in spite. It was fun to play with this technique and I look forward to trying it another time. Hopefully the results will be more perfect -- not that I am a perfectionist!!! *innocent smile*
CUTE AS A BUG -- This was my final card of the evening which I completed at about 2 am. I was so tired. I decided to do simple crayon resist, but then the only white crayon I could find was this fat (think little little kids crayons) and broken piece of one. So I used that, but the results of the resist are not as awesome as I would have liked them to be. I resisted on the bees faces and wings. Then I sponged yo yo yellow over the whole piece. The bee on the scallop, I redid like 4 times -- I kept smudging it, or stamping it weird, or it just was not good enough. Anyway, this one turned out okay. He was stamped in black staz on and watercolored in using the ink pad and my aquapainter. Thankzzz was stamped in the corner, and the ribbons and primas were added and that was about it on this one. I was tired and it looked decent so I just stopped. The primas are secured with black brads in the center of each. The bees all have frosted lace stickles on them to add some glitter. I made faux mini eyelets using my paper piercing tool and by going around the holes, but I did not think about how it doesn't really work when you mount it on black. LOL! Oops. What can I say, I was tired. I think this card turned out cute though!
Comments