Distressed Backgrounds and Specimen Entomology Slides

 

Hey friends!  I'm sharing a couple of cards with you today from the August new release at Creative Worship Stamps.  I was so excited to see this month's release included the Entomology Elements stamps and Specimen Slide dies!  This is a theme I always enjoy.  

I created an couple of inky background panels using Uncharted Mariner, Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap and Pine Needles Distress Inks.  For this first card, I repeat stamped one of the butterflies over a panel in Pine Needles to make "patterned paper" then layered with another of the darker papers I had inked.  I cut the Specimen Slides from heavy watercolor paper and inked them, then layered over hymnal paper.  I stamped a sentiment from the Wordfetti Mash-Up stamps inside one of the labels and a different butterfly, which I watercolored - fun!  

My next card uses the same papers and process, with the addition of stamping the Vintage Elements stamps behind the slide.  I layered with the die cut silhouette flower and bird.  

I'm giving away one Entomology Elements stamp set on my Instagram page HERE and hope you will enter to win.  Check out the rest of this month's release at Creative Worship stamps for more inspiration.  xx, Autumn

Grungy Little Entomology Tag Book

 

Hey friends!  I'm happy to be sharing the new release products by Creative Worship Stamps this month and what a fun collection it is!  I was eater to play with the new Entomology Elements stamp set and paired it with the Specimen Slides dies for this grungy little tag book.  It's small enough to send in an A2 envelope, but still packs a lot of fun.

I assembled the book by folding a sheet of watercolor card and using the Tag & More dies to cut a folded double tag, by putting the fold just inside of one of the cutting edges.  Then I decided I wanted a third flap, so I cut a third tag and adhered it with washi tape on both sides, but upside down.  It would probably be just as easy to do this with all three tags, ha!  Leave it to me to make something complicated.  

I used a combination of Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge and Cracked Pistachio to ink the tag trio for a worn, rusty effect, tapping each color onto my kraft mat and spritzing with water before dipping the elements into the watery ink.  I stamped butterflies from the Entomology set in a repeat pattern across the front and back tag.  

I used the same inks to watercolor the butterflies and cut them with the coordinating dies.  And filled in the background with partial stamping using my Faith Definitions 1 stamp set.

For the cover I switched gears and added a mushroom from the Vintage Nature Elements set, layered over a piece of torn eyelet fabric I stained with the same inks.  I finished with bakers twine for the bottom facing tag and sari ribbon for the top.  

The Tag & More dies are designed to work with a monthly release of tag, ticket and sentiment stamps.  There's the Spring Collage with a flower tag, the Summer Collage, with a butterfly and this month the Autumn Collage with a maple leaf.  I'm so happy to see this product line offering so many versatile options, and love just using the tag and ticket dies on their own!  I do hope you've enjoyed this project and will check out the new release and join us in this month's Instagram hop at @sewpaperpaint.

Vintage Floral Mixed Media Cards

 

Hey again sweet friends!  I've been stamping away in my art room and having some good old inky fun.  Today's cards feature the gorgeous Vintage Floral Collection.  These stamps are such fun to play with!  I shared another batch of cards with them on THIS post.  

For this first pair of cards, I used a stencil brush to blend Crushed Olive Distress Ink over a book page through the new Lovely Lace stencil.  I just loved this look so I made two cards.  I colored my focal flowers using Crushed Olive, Pine Needles and Speckled Egg.  I layered with another book page dipped in watery inks and a piece of card dipped in the same then cut with the new Decorative Edges dies.  Love these fun dies and their flexibility!  I added a little half ticket to each to make a more dynamic layout using the Butterfly Tag & Ticket stamps and Tag & More coordinating dies.  

My next card features the same flower and a butterfly from the Vintage Floral Collection, stamped over an inky background stamped with the Flower Burst Background stamp.  

I used the same colors as before and made another panel with watercolored stripes using a flat brush.  I tucked it beneath the first panel, cut with the Decorative Edges dies and sandwiched a textured panel stamped with Typed Thoughts.  Fun!  I hope you've enjoyed these projects, Autumn

Vintage Butterflies Distressed Mixed Media Cards

 

Hey everyone!  I hope you are having a great (and creative) summer!  Today I have a couple of fun cards to share with you using the totally gorgeous Vintage Butterflies Blooms Stamps & Dies by Creative Worship Stamps.  

I was trying to try some new color combos and this one was created with Worn Lipstick and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.  I used texture paste through the new Lovely Lace stencil, then stamped in Brushed Corduroy with the branch stamp around that.  I sprayed it with water repeatedly to diffuse the stamping.  I added another torn layer with more stamping using the little berry bundle, then another inky layer unstamped.  I pulled some pieces from my leftover pile and cut them into little tags, topped with the awesome tag topper in the Tag & More Die Set.  These were stamped with my Faith Definitions 2 stamps and the Vintage Snippets stamps.  I finished with a sentiment from Typed Thoughts.

My next cards were stamped repeatedly from the same branch stamp in the Vintage Butterflies Blooms Stamps using Archival ink in Coffee.  I stamped them as a pair so I could overlap stamping.  I found the branch works great going all in one direction for a row, then turning it upside down for the next row.  I dipped the panels in watery Antique Linen Distress Ink, then very loosely watercolored the petals and leaves with Tattered Rose, Wild Honey and Crushed Olive.  For the green berries I used a marker.  

I then cut my cardstock in half vertically to make two top-fold cards.  I used the new Decorative Edges Dies to cut the bottom of the cards and colored panels.  I found a scrap of textured card and used oval dies to cut "relief panels" then sponged the edges with Wild Honey and stamped the floral motif from the set in Tattered Rose in the middle.  I layered with watercolored butterflies and sentiments from Typed Thoughts.  I just love these pretty panels and stamping my own backgrounds always gives me such a thrill!  I hope you will try it too.  Hugs, Autumn

Embossing Resist and Mixed Media Card Making

 

Hey friends!  I'm back today to share a fun set of cards using an embossing resist technique I learned from Tami Bastiaan years and years ago.  I started by making an inky background with Distress Inks in Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo and dried that panel thoroughly before clear embossing the entire Typewriter Keys Caps Alpha stamp set onto the panel. 

Then I went in with lots more Vintage Photo over that and it resisted the lighter clear embossing, showing the pink through!  So fun!  I did not iron off the EP like Tami has done, but I did cut it into a mini file folder with my paper cutter.  I layered it over a background made with the same inks over my brand new Faith Definitions 2 stamp set I designed for Creative Worship Stamps!  If you've enjoyed Faith Definitions set 1, you will love this set and how well it works with various holidays/events, let alone your journaling.  Take notw how I first stamped my definitions in Wendy Vecchi's Tree Bark Archival Ink onto my Bristol panel, then dipped it in the inks.  The oil in the Archival inks acts as a bit of a resist too and I love how the ink pooled around the definitions!

To finish out the card I layered a die cut Polaroid Frame, stamped with the Vintage Snippets stamps.  

I made a second panel with a different background stamping the Flower Burst Background Clear Stamp in WV Fern Green Archival Ink with the same ink dipping.  I used the numbers strip from the Typewriter Keys Caps Alpha stamp set and the Polaroid Frame die, this time stamping it with the Faith Definitions 2 and staining the center cut out with Peeled Paint DI.  Both cards feature watercolored images from the Hope Blooms Stamp and Die Bundle and the birthday sentiment from the Wordfetti Mash-up sentiments.  

My next card uses the same embossing resist background technique with the Typewriter Keys Caps Alpha stamp set.  I added more inks over the piece using Distress Inks in Seedless Preserves and Wild Honey.  I overstamped with my Faith Definitions 2 stamp set.  I layered onto a wadded up panel stamped with the Vintage Ledger Page stamp.

I layered with an inky panel using the same colors and white embossed a sentiment from Timeless Hymns.  I layered over a little ticket from the new Spring Collage Tag set.  Finally I added a butterfly from Vintage Butterflies Blooms.  I hope you're inspired to try this resist technique and enjoy it!  xx, Autumn

Bold Blooms Floral Stamped Cards

Hey again friends!  I'm back today sharing a few floral makes using gorgeous Creative Worship Stamps.  For my first card, I had a blast coloring the Sunflower Background Clear Stamp using a fun process of repeat stamping with my stamp platform and coloring in between stamping.  This gives a no line similar effect, but also allows you to stamp different layers in different colors on the same image, like I added a final layer of Vintage Photo stamping to the flower center only.  The base layers were colored with Fossilized Amber and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.

I fussy cut my flower and then stamped a gingham panel with the Texture Tiles 4 Clear Stamp Set, which I layered over a card based stamped with little flowers from the Hope Word Art Clear Stamp Set and a sentiment pair from the Choose Faith Clear Stamp Set.  I love these words!!!

My next card was a fun experiment!  I masked off portions of the Bold Bloom Stencil using stencil tape (or washi).  For the leaves, I sponged both Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn to get the blue green I was going for.  Then I clear embossed very quickly.  

I wiped the ink off the stencil tape and repositioned it to mask the leaves and then inked with Worn Lipstick, not in the same position, but in the corners of the panel, clear embossing each flower before it could dry.  It dries quickly! I dipped the leaf side into a light pool of Peacock Feathers DI and then splashed on some watered black gesso.  Next, I colored the Dahlia Background Clear Stamp using the same repeat stamping method described in the sunflower card above.  I used Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral.

I made a tag from repeatedly stamping "hope from my Faith Definitions Stamp Set.  I love the black and white for contrast here.  Then I fussy cut the butterfly from the Botanical Collages Clear Stamp Set, colored with the same blue green.  I finished with the "praying for you" from the God is Near Die Set.  FUN!  

Last but certainly not least, I'm sharing my Easter card design.  I had this idea to create a light background panel and clear emboss the script from the Easter Innies Clear Stamp Set, then add darker layers of color over that.  My hope was the light background colors would show through instead pure white.  Here is the before panel, which in all honestly I like better than the after, but only because I got a little heavy handed with the brown ink.  I added some Victorian Velvet through the Diamond Floral Layering Stencil Set and splasnes of watery white gesso to try and lighten it back down.

Nevertheless, I finished it with a watercolored image from the Blooming Tulips Stamp & Die Bundle and another snippet from the Easter Innies.  

I'm glad I persisted because I really love the finished card and those torn layers of cardstock at the bottom.  I trust that you and yours had a lovely Easter celebrating our Risen Savior!  He is risen indeed!  xx, Autumn

Distress Master Board Mixed Media Cards

Hi friends!  I'm thrilled to be sharing a few more cards with gorgeous Creative Worship Stamps today.  Last winter I made several master board sheets to use for future cardmaking.  You may remember my sharing one of the cards made with this sheet HERE, using my new Snowdrops stamp & die set.  

I was in the mood to play with some collage images from the incredible Vintage Floral Collection stamp set.  I had stamped a bunch of images from this set using a friend's stamps.  I didn't buy the set because I was afraid the linework would be too dark, but when I saw the images stamped out I was immediately in love!  They are larger images than I thought and are perfect for collage layers.  I pulled out the remaining 3/4 panel master board I had created using Distress Oxide Spray in Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo, which I had stamped with the Texture Tiles 1 stamp set (music and splatters) and sponged through the Lots of Dots stencil using Speckled Egg Distress Ink.  The other pieces I had premade included a Vintage Photo stained panel stamped with the Vintage Snippets (ruler), so I could cut it up and use bits and pieces as needed.  The final panel was also made with Distress Oxide sprays in Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge.  I used the Stitched Circles dies to cut some layers from this sheet.

I lightly watercolored a few of the images from the Vintage Floral Collection stamp set using Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks and cut them out.  For this first one, I cut the Vintage Snippets ruler panel into a tag shape and added a grommet and twine bow, which I layered over a torn coffee filter stamped with the same set.  All of the sentiments on these cards are from the Typed Thoughts stamps. 

This next card has the tidbits of rulers sticking out beneath each end of the Stitched Circle layer, a strip of the DOX paper and another strip of Vintage Snippets stamped coffee filter.  I stamped another panel with a different image from Vintage Snippets onto a lighter Vintage Photo stained piece and tucked a loopy twine bow beneath the focal flower.

My final card has more coffee filter and an inky panel that I made by  spraying DOX sprays through the Messy Blocks Stencil onto one panel, then doing a stencil mono print with the residual ink onto another panel inked with Vintage Photo, thus the reverse pattern.  This is such a cool stencil and the large spacing make it perfect for stencil mono printing.  

Are you new to Mixed Media?  Want to learn more about how to use the fun products mentioned here?  Korin has created an amazing class for $19.95 called Mixed Media Master Sheets.  Find out more HERE!  I've been doing this stuff for years and years, but really enjoyed her perspective and know you will too!  Thanks for stopping by today and happy stamping, Autumn