wedding card

Adding Opaque Details to Embossing Folders with Karin!

September 6, 2023

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! In the midst of the STAMPtember fun, I will still be sharing some inspiration using the other gorgeous products from Simon Says Stamp, and today’s project features the utterly lovely Garden Spires Embossing Folder. I love taking these beautifully detailed embossed images and turning them into something uniquely my own with various coloring mediums. A couple of weeks ago, I shared THIS project using the opaque Karin Decobrush Pigment markers on black watercolor cardstock, and I loved the results so much that I couldn’t wait to try the technique on another project! I recently purchased the Garden Spires Embossing Folder and thought that the delicate flowers and foliage would be a great image to try putting the combination to use again. This time, though, the tiny flowers lent themselves better to putting a slightly different technique. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by running the Garden Spires Embossing Folder through my die cutting machine using a panel of thick black cardstock. My previous project used black watercolor paper, but I have used the Karin Decobrush Pigment markers successfully with plain black cardstock and thought that these images were small enough that I could do so again! Instead of using a damp paintbrush to move the color on my images as I did in the previous project, I simply put the marker tip directly to the black cardstock and added color that way. I used a pale purple for the tiny flowers and two different shades of pink for the taller, large flowers to achieve a little variation. I also used some metallic watercolors to add some extra sparkle to the larger flowers!

Because the greenery on the embossed image was so delicate, I chose to use the Karin DecoGel Sparkle pens to add some super sparkly accents to the foliage and to the flowers. I also splattered some extra little “dewdrops” on my entire card panel with some more metallic watercolors. It’s so difficult to capture in a photograph, but this card is insanely sparkly!!

After I had finished adding color to the background, it reminded me of an outdoor wedding, perhaps at a vineyard, with a large, scenic meadow of wildflowers beneath a starry sky. I decided to use a beautiful stamp from the Big Old Birthday stamp + die set, one that could easily be used for a wedding card or a birthday card! I heat embossed the greeting on some more black cardstock using silver sparkle embossing powder, then die cut it with the coordinating die. I popped it up amidst the colorful wildflowers, then added a few shimmering gems for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for today’s project. I wish you could see how sparkly it is in person… the different elements of shimmer are utterly gorgeous! I hope you enjoyed seeing the Karin Decobrush Pigment in action again. They’re such a fun and unique medium to employ to create really special projects! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

White Wedding with a Pop of Pink!

August 16, 2023

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Wedding cards are some of my favorite cards to make, though at my stage in life, most of our friends are married and have been for quite awhile! Wedding cards, to me, mean that I can be unapologetically free with flowers, sparkles, and basically all things girly, because as I was repeatedly told during my own wedding planning: the wedding is mostly about the bride. (Ha!) My cards today feature some of my favorite things: white on white, sparkles, texture, flowers, and pops of vivid pink. Let’s get started with the details!

When I am working with small images like the ones from Sweet Garden Blooms, I like to stamp and die cut lots of the images before actually starting work on my card. This ensures that I have plenty of little bits and bobs with which to assemble my finished card, and bonus: it usually means that I have leftovers with which to make another project! I knew that I wanted a floral wedding cake, with lots of white on white and pops of vibrant pink, so I stamped the Sweet Garden Blooms using Carnation, Peony, Rose, Taffy, Charcoal, Spring, Dublin, and Lucky Pawsitively Saturated inks onto Hammermill cardstock.

For my first card, I die cut the elements from the Fancy Cake set and the Decorated Cakes die set, both from more Hammermill cardstock, and layered the pieces together with liquid adhesive. I also die cut a circular frame using the Thin Frames dies as a way to ground my cake to my card front.

For my background, I kept things simple, running a slightly-smaller-than-A2 sized panel of white cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Blossom Field Embossing Folder. I also sprayed the embossed panel with some Hero Arts Iridescent White Shimmer Mist to make the background even more festive and special.

I arranged all of my die cuts on my embossed shimmery panel using both liquid and foam adhesive, then trimmed down a sentiment from the Union of Love sentiment card set. I am really loving these sentiment card sets lately; they are perfect for adding a super quick and simple sentiment, especially on a busy and detailed project like this one. I added a few Milk Glass gems to fill in some of the empty areas on the card front.

My second project features the leftover Sweet Garden Blooms flowers. Stamping and die cutting so many small blooms at the very beginning added a bit of extra time onto my project, but it was worth it to be able to quickly create a second card to add to my stash!

Because I didn’t have a ton of the stamped flower die cuts left over, I decided to use the very generously-sized Happily Ever After die as the focal point for my card. I die cut the detail layer from some white glitter cardstock and the outline background layer from some heavyweight vellum. This vellum layer helps to make that super detailed layer pop without adding lots of extra bulk to this delicate card front.

I trimmed down another panel of white cardstock, trimming some cardstock off of the one side, then ran it through my die cutting machine using the Blossom Field Embossing Folder. I oriented this embossed background on the left side of the A2 card front, leaving a strip of flat cardstock on the right for a bit of added interest to the background. I adhered the large Happily Ever After sentiment die cut using clear foam adhesive, then tucked the leftover florals around the sentiment die cut using liquid and foam adhesive. I added an extra sentiment from the Union of Love sentiment card set, popped up with foam adhesive, and a few Milk Glass gemsfor some more sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I love pushing myself to use leftover die cuts to create an entirely new project, and I hope you’ll try it too! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day.

Rediscovering an Old Love-Watercoloring with Distress Inks!

July 3, 2023

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

I’ve been working hard at making a lot of cards lately. So much so, that I am experimenting with different mediums…. basically, just playing and having fun! I will let you in on a secret: I started my love/obsession with watercolor by tapping Distress Inks onto an acrylic block and painting with them. As my style and skills have evolved, so too have my array of mediums, working instead with more traditional “artist” mediums like Daniel Smith, Holbein, and Schmincke watercolor pans or Caran D’Ache and Polychromos colored pencils. However, in my recent organizational endeavors in my craft room, I rediscovered my stash of Distress Ink cubes and couldn’t wait to put them to use watercoloring. The color palette for the Distress Inks are so much more muted and subtle in comparison to my normal bright and vibrant colors that I thought it would be a great way to stretch my color sensibilities! I paired the Distress Inks with the Blissful Bouquet stamp set that I illustrated for Simon Says Stamp to create this elegant wedding card. Let’s get started with the details!

The traditional Distress Inks are quite different from the Distress Oxide inks; the traditional inks are water-based, translucent inks and are marvelous for both inky techniques and watercoloring, while the Oxide inks are opaque pigment inks, great for doing blending techniques. You can watercolor with the Oxide inks, but the effect is quite different. I will share some inspiration using Oxide inks for watercoloring at a later date!

I began by stamping all of the blooms and foliage from Blissful Bouquet onto some Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper using Intens-ified Black ink, which is waterproof and perfect for watercoloring. I then used Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Aged Mahogany, Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage, and Pine Needles Distress Inks to watercolor the images. I simply tapped the colors out onto my ceramic palette, then picked them up as normal with my damp paintbrush and applied them to the stamped images, pulling the color out to a smooth fade with a clean, damp paintbrush.

Once I had the initial layer of color laid down, I went back two and three times with deeper, more concentrated colors to enhance shadows and depth on the images. After I had die cut all of the finished watercolored flowers, I used a black alcohol marker around the edge to create even more drama and keep the die cuts as clean as possible on my planned black background. I am so in love with the muted color palette that the combination of these inks created!!

For the card base, I trimmed down a panel of crisp Pitch Black cardstock to 3.5″ x 8.5″, creating a full-size slimline card front. I splattered the background with some handmade metallic glitter watercolors in coordinating shades to add some artistic interest to the background. When the splatters were dry, I arranged the flowers to create some lovely floral corners on opposing corners of the card front, using Press’n’Seal to pick them up in the desired arrangement and adding foam adhesive to the backs. The additional step of adding the black marker around the edges was totally worth it to keep the drama to the maximum on this intense card front!

I thought these large flowers screamed wedding or bridal shower, so I pulled out some wedding-themed stamps and dies for the greeting! I die cut the large Happily Ever After die cut twice, once from some of Simon Says Stamp’s Metallic Rose Gold cardstock, and once from some more black cardstock, layering them together to add a bit more stability to this super intricate die cut. I also heat embossed a tiny greeting from the Happily A Lifetime stamp set. I arranged the sentiment pieces on the slimline card front, finally adding a few Melanite Magic gems for even more sparkle and drama.

Well, that’s all for my project today! If you haven’t tried using your Distress Inks as watercolors before, I hope you will give it a try. It’s such a thrill to rediscover mediums and bring them new life. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Simon Says Stamp Dear Friend Blog Hop- Day 1 + Giveaway!

May 20, 2023

Good morning! It’s the weekend… hooray! It’s an extra wonderful weekend, because the new Simon Says Stamp Dear Friend release is live, and we are hopping along to inspire you with the fabulous new products! You should have arrived here from Lisa Addesa, and your next stop is Tina Smith.

I am super proud of the fact that I have two new illustrations included in this Dear Friend release: Peony Background and Blissful Bouquet! (I have shared some inspiration using Peony Background HERE.) I love a good bouquet stamp, because how easy is it to stamp and go without having to worry about masking or die cutting each individual piece, but I also love the versatility and freedom of a good bouquet builder. I designed the Blissful Bouquet set to create lush, fluffy bouquets, with uniquely-shaped foliage, sprigs of “filler” flowers, and two large centerpiece blooms- a peony and a dahlia. I have a pair of projects to share with you using this new stamp set, so let’s get started with the details!

I love challenging myself with no-line coloring, but sometimes no-line coloring can be made even more challenging if the images are extremely small. I made sure to size the images in this set so that no-line coloring would be a bit easier! I die cut and stamped a ton of the images from Blissful Bouquet onto Hammermill cardstock (which is awesome for alcohol marker coloring!) using Hero Arts’s Contour Ink, my preferred ink for no-line coloring, then sat down with my Copic markers and went crazy coloring.

I very rarely use yellow or orange while creating, so after my homage to pink and purple on THESE cards, I thought I would switch things up and play with yellow and gray! I love the combination of yellow and gray; it’s so unique and modern, and can be great for masculine cards, but when paired with florals, it can be beautifully feminine, as well. The dahlia is such a sunny yellow; it practically glows!

Once I had finished coloring my images, I die cut a vellum circle using the circular Thin Frames Die from Simon Says Stamp. I ran the circle die cut through my die cut machine inside the Terrace Floral 3D Embossing Folder, which creates a beautifully subtle textured effect on the translucent vellum. I die cut a super pale gray circle frame and adhered it to the embossed vellum die cut, creating an area around which I could “ground” my floral images.

Next, I trimmed another panel of pale gray cardstock down to slightly smaller than A2 sized and mounted it on a full size white A2 card front, leaving a white border around the edge. I arranged the Blissful Bouquet floral die cuts around the embossed vellum circle and adhered them to the circle, then hid foam adhesive behind the solid die cuts so avoid marring the translucent vellum. I die cut a pale gray So Happy For You Both greeting and added it over the vellum circle, as well as a silver heat embossed “congratulations” from the Blissful Bouquet stamp set. The final touch was to add a few iridescent, pale gray pearls to add one last bit of shine and elegance, perfect for a wedding card!

My second card features a festive floral shaped balloon card created using the Blissful Bouquet and the Balloons dies from Simon Says Stamp! Who wouldn’t want a beautiful balloon decorated with flowers and a fluffy silk bow? I kept my no-line coloring an elegant, feminine palette of vivid mauve, jade green, and periwinkle blue. That big fluffy peony bloom makes my heart go pitter-patter. I used Copic markers for these images today, but I can’t wait to try no-line watercoloring with these pretty blooms!

I die cut the sentiment from a panel of coordinating mauve cardstock using the Scripty Happy Birthday die, cutting it twice from the same cool rose colored cardstock and layering the die cuts together to create a dimensional die cut. I also die cut the largest balloon of the Balloons die set from some iridescent white foil cardstock. I arranged the flowers in a swag around the base of the balloon, leaving the bottom bare so that I could tie a silk bow around where the balloon would be tied after filling it up. The iridescent coating on the white foil cardstock is difficult to capture in the photograph, but it picks up the colors of the flowers and foliage beautifully.

After I had added all of my die cuts to the front of the balloon, I created a shaped card by slightly offsetting that same largest balloon die on an A2 card base, allowing the edge of the balloon to overlap the folded side of the card. I adhered the full size, decorated balloon die cut to the card front, creating a festive, elegant, uniquely shaped birthday card!

My last card features the utterly adorable new Caring Thoughts stamp set! I am so smitten with the storybook illustration style of these critters, and the sweet little scenes make it super easy to stamp one or two stamps and have a scene ready to go! I stamped my darling bunny with the butterflies onto some Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper using Contour Ink, then used Karin Brushmarker Pro markers and a damp paintbrush to pick up the color from my glass mat. I prefer this method of picking up the scribbled color from the glass mat to putting the marker directly to the watercolor paper, because this allows me to control the vibrancy of the color a bit more. I can easily dilute the color on my mat, but it is much more difficult once the concentrated color hits the watercolor paper. I added a few black pen lines (the eyes, the whiskers, the details on the butterfly) that got a bit lost in the no-line watercoloring. I die cut the finished vignette using a fluted oval die from Spellbinders.

To accent my sweet purple butterflies, I decided to watercolor some coordinating purple flowers. I die cut the Blossom Vine dies from some more Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper, then used Karin Brushmarker Pro and my damp paintbrush to add vibrant lilac and bottle green to the die cuts.

I arranged the oval bunny die cut with the flowers on a white A2 card front using foam adhesive. For the greeting, I stamped the “hello” from the Caring Thoughts using Obsidian pigment ink, then clear embossed over the top of the stamped image to create a crisp black sentiment strip. I also trimmed down one of the greetings from the Reverse Bold Hello Sentiment Strips and adhered it beneath the “hello” with another double layer of foam adhesive. I love how the bunny looks like it’s nestled amongst a field of pretty purple blooms!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun giveaway information:

We’re giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from the blog comment section. Winners will be announced on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday the 24^th of May. The winner can email Simon Says Stamp to claim his/her prize.

Here’s the full hop list, in case you get lost:

Simon Says Stamp Blog <<YOU ARE HERE!

Emily Midgett <—– you are here!

Today is only Day 1 of this fabulous hop; be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp Blog for more inspiration from Day 2 tomorrow morning! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Colorado Craft Company June Anita Jeram Release!

June 13, 2021

Hi there! Colorado Craft Company has a brand new Anita Jeram release available right now… and it’s so gosh darn cute!! We are celebrating all things adorable with a blog hop, so you should have arrived here from Nichol Spohr and your next stop is Amy Tsuruta. These darling new sets are perfect for people like me, who like the look of sweet little storybook critters, but are terrible at scene building. The new Happily Ever After stamp set has a variety of individual images that are already “laid out” for you, so no masking is required, or you can also use the beautiful (and huge!) wedding scene. Let’s get started with the details on my cute little wedding card!

I started by stamping the little mice sitting by the tree and the wedding cake from Happily Ever After on some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper using Hero Arts’s Contour Ink so that I could do some no-line watercoloring. I then watercolored the images using Schmincke watercolors. I just love the two little mice in this scene; they remind me of my biggest twinkies- waiting patiently for the cake to be cut, but keeping an eagle eye on things so that they don’t miss out!!

I added a pale blue halo around the topmost portion of the scene, allowing the blue sky to fade organically away by adding lots of water to my brush and pulling the color out. One of the things that I love most about watercolor is that you can be super detailed and specific, or you can make just the merest suggestion of a shape, a color, a shadow… and the brain will supply the intended effect. (Usually-ha!) I used a flicking motion to add grass to the bottom of my scene, allowing various intensities of color and going over the same spots I’d already painted a few times as they dried to make the grass look fuller.

Once everything had dried, I heat embossed a greeting from Happily Ever After using Altenew’s Obsidian Black and clear embossing powder. The crisp black with the clear embossing powder helps the sentiment really pop over the soft watercoloring.

Well, that’s all for my project today! To celebrate this latest release, Colorado Craft Company has some fun giveaways:

Colorado Craft Company is giving away one of each of the new stamp sets. In order to be eligible for the giveaway, leave a comment on each blog. The comments will be open until midnight Eastern time on the 16th and winners will be announced by us on the 17th on the Colorado Craft Company blog.

*****(If you can’t find the comment box on my post, click on the title of the blog post, then scroll down to the end of the post, where you should see a comment form.)*****

That’s all for my post today! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping! Here’s the full hop lineup:

Colorado Craft Company- Adrienne Kennedy
Jenn Gross
Bibi Cameron
Jennifer Kotas
Kelly Griglione
Angelica Conrad
Daniel West
Caly Person
Sandy Allnock
Mansi Bhatia
Kassi Hulet
Erin Thompson
Melissa Andrew
Donna Hitz
Nichol Spohr
Emily Midgett
Amy Tsuruta

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wedding card