Pressed Flowers

Hi Everyone~!
How are you doing today?  We are bracing for another winter storm but so far, it is late.  Maybe it got lost? Maybe it stayed in Canada?  Who knows! I don't mind as I have several errands to run and don't want to be slowed down by yet another dump of snow.

Naturally, all that has me thinking about spring again!  It's pretty hard at this time of year, not to wish for the sight of green grass and flowers. Today's blog post are all about flowers!  There is a great sketchy-sort of flower design stamp in the Annual Catalog Hostess Stamps section called "Pressed Flowers". They are fun to work with because they almost look hand painted, which of course makes me really feel like an artist!  Here we go:

I used one of my favorite techniques on my first card, stamping and then embossing the finished stamped product. I love the additional texture it adds.  I also used Stampin'Write Markers to color my flower stamp, Night of Navy for the flowers and Mossy Meadow for the stems. That is a simple and awesome way to multicolor a stamp. I also used the "Darling Label" punch from the Punch Box Tin featured in the Annual Catalog.

My second card employed another favorite technique. I did all my stamping of the leaves, flowers and burlap-like border piece, then stamped the entire piece with the Crackle Paint background stamp. It's a little scary to stamp over your work, so test the saturation of the ink by stamping on some grid paper first and see how dark your ink is. If it's too dark, stamp off first on the grid paper and then stamp your project.  This card features the much loved and soon-to-be retiring Tranquil Tide and Fresh Fig inks. Boy have they gotten a work out over the past two years, from everyone!

For this card, I went a more vintage route with "burned edges" using some Soft Suede ink and a dauber. The sentiment is from the "Around the Corner" stamp set, also in the Annual Catalog and the swirly border is from the "Lovely Lattice" set, a Sale-A-Bration freebie. There's still time to get some freebies, one with every $50 purchase, until Midnight, March 31st! Did you notice the embossed background Merry Merlot card stock?  I used "Quilt Top" embossing folder!

Lastly, I wanted to show you a card that my downline team member, Sherry Heis made, for a recent swap we participated in. Her card reminded me of this set in the first place and inspired me to see what I could come up with. She put a ton of layers and work into her card and framed the flowers with a light stamp of Soft Seafoam ink using the Bokeh Dots stamp (a huge favorite of mine).

This is the magic of stamping!  A fairly simple stamp set can make projects look so different through the use of color, layering, texture and design. All those elements combine in a way that is pleasing to look at and so satisfying to create!  For most of us hardcore stampers, the process is just as valuable as the end product!

You can purchase this stamp set with our "Stampin' Rewards" program. Once you have a $150 order, your own or a combination of other customers, you start earning 10%  of the total back in money to use on any products, but especially valuable to purchase "hostess stamps" with.  These stamps are priced at about half the regular price to reward those with larger orders.  With Sale-A-Bration winding down, you still have time to benefit even more from a large order!  Take stock of your adhesives, envelopes, reinkers, cardstock, etc and see where you have some gaps. Maybe you have enough restocking to do that you will get to that $150 threshold and be able to earn SAB freebies as well as purchase some hostess stamps!   If you've been following my blog for awhile now and haven't jumped in, just contact me and we'll start a conversation about the best approach for you. I can help you work within a budget, focus on a specific project or just diving into this super fun hobby. Believe me, no brilliant art skills are needed to stamp. You just have to like to "put things together" and create something out of a bunch of supplies, tools and ideas.  And, did you know it's perfectly okay to copy what someone else thought of?  That's why there's Pinterest and blogs like mine!  We want to share our ideas to inspire you to try it as well and perhaps come up with some of your own.

Thanks for stopping by!  Your interest in my work is so appreciated and keeps me wanting to make more!
Happy Stampin',
Sarah