from my ink pad to yours: To a Wild Rose

November 18, 2019

Inking Up Painted Poppies with a Color ChallengeHi

Hello stamping friends. I was so fortunate to be able to attend Stampin' Up!'s Onstage Local in Lansing last weekend. Even better, I won one of my favorite new sets, Painted Poppies, and got to break it in today with this week's Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge.

Holley is this week's hostess and did she ever challenge me! Real Red + Early Espresso + Mossy Meadow with Sponging for dessert. I had in mind a sketch I used here and here and came up with this beauty:

I made masks of the 4 outline images by stamping on on of those post it notes are stick on the whole back. All of them fit on one sticky note and took less than 5 minutes to trim. Trim inside the lines to avoid getting a halo effect.
Pretty basic Blends coloring. These alcohol markers are great for avoiding streaky marker lines. I used the color lifter to put a few highlights on some of the petals.
I haven't done much sponging lately and it isn't something I usually use on this sketch. I decided it would be fun to sponge teh mat layer and see what happened if I tried to get a variegated or ombre look on that layer. It's subtle but you can see that the upper left corner is lightly sponged white the lower right corner is much more heavily sponged.
The skinny white seam binding is another preview product. I'll get a whole new roll tomorrow but for this I had to scrimp with some from my unfinished Onstage make and takes.
Red Rhinestones finish this off.

I was a little surprised by how much I liked this color challenge so I used the same colors to finish a lonely unfinished swap card I had assembled but not yet colored.

This uses To A Wild Rose along with Swirly Frames. I colored a little more on the circle frame and it ended up looking something like a slice from a log.
I added an Early Espresso marker plus the Neutral Blends, Soft Suede Combo and Crumb Cake Combo. The light Crumb Cake is used for the light stripes and to outline the images.

Here are some of the shots of earlier and other versions:

Is To A Wild Rose on your wish list. You are in luck! There will be an extra 5% discount on that bundle (the stamp set with the matching dies) on Wednesday - Friday, November 20-22, 2019.

Here's this color challenge duo together:

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Check out the Stampin' Up! catalogs link at the top of my blog. If you don't have regular Stampin' Up Demonstrator and would like hard copies of any of our current catalogs please feel free to email me at [email protected]

***If you don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I would love to help you with your stamping journey and have you shop with me! You can click on "Shop with Chris Smith" at the top of my blog. Clicking on any of the items in the product list below will also bring you to my shop.

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the June host code, TFEMWDXN, I will send you the free gift of product that will be featured in my November projects. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 10:59 PM in Painted Poppies, Swirly Frames, To a Wild Rose | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 21, 2019

A One Layer Wonder

There is a really happy looking Color Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers today: Poppy Parade + Call Me Clover + Mango Melody with birthday or thank you greetings for dessert. Here is what I came up with:

I started by stamping the circle image and greeting with Swirly Frames and To a Wild Rose (this set is available June 4) in Tuxedo Black ink ...
and then masked this to add my roses, also in Tuxedo Black …
and then masked the roses so that I could add the leaves, once again in Tuxedo Black.
I colored everything with Poppy Parade, Mango Melody and Call Me Clover Combo Blends.
Popped a few Call Me Clover enamel dots around my greeting…and it COULD have been done...

Except I picked up a Mackenzie Childs catalog that for some reason my daughter in Brooklyn has mailed here. Well, she knows I like their style so that’s probably why it comes here. Anyway I decided that these roses needed some Mackenzie Childs' style checks...
so I got out a ruler and and drew some. I filled them in with a black pigment Stampin’ Write Journaler which I’m pretty sure is retired. Then I took a photo in case I messed the next part up. (And I almost did!)

If you are familiar with the checked style of Mackenzie Childs, you know that they aren’t just black and white checks. There is shading in the white part of the check. So I got out my light Crumb Cake Blends and started sketching “shadows” into the corners of my checks.
But you know what happens when you use a alcohol based marker with a pigment marker? They blend! Luckily I caught myself and sketched very carefully after slightly messing up the top white square. And then I decided to add some Crumb Cake shadows around my greeting and roses. This is still pretty subtle. On first glance most would probably not even notice. But I do and I like it!
Please note that I used a clear acrylic ruler that has 1/4" lines. This made it easy to line everything up at keep it (mostly) straight.

Questions? Leave me a comment and I will get back to you quickly!

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the May host code, 44ZE6BPN, I will send you the free gift of product that will be featured in my June projects. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 06:25 PM in Swirly Frames, To a Wild Rose | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 09, 2019

...To Be Your Friend

Blessed - and grateful ...to be your friend. (the inside message)

A few days ago I was working with stripes as "dessert"for my color challenge. I did not intend to start off with such bold black stripes and had originally thought about softer gray stripes. Here is the card I made to finishing up my gray stripe card base.

I made the card base by scoring the fold line and masking off the back of the card. Then I mixed a little Smoky Slate refill ink with Whisper White Craft and made some stripes across the card front with a sponge dauber. Not quite satisfied with those I used the edge of the dauber to make some skinny stripes between the bolder stripes.
While it didn't work with the bolder colors I was working with earlier, it DID work with some To A Wild Rose pieces I had sitting on my desk. My demonstrator friend, Tracy, had made a few while we were experimenting with Merry Merlot and the new In Color, Rococo Rose. (Hint: it's a snap to whip up a little stack of these if you precut the shapes and stamp them up with the Stamparatus!)
You could add a few pearls or something but I kind of liked the straightforward look of this and decided to leave it be.
Don't you love the depth of color with Merry Merlot and Rococo Rose - and the bold "Blessed" font?

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

If you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 07:20 AM in To a Wild Rose | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 02, 2019

Introducing the 2019 - 2020 In Colors

Today I have some cards featuring Stampin' Up!'s 2019-2020 In Colors: Rococo Rose, Terracotta Tile, Pretty Peacock, Seaside Spray, and Purple Posy. These colors will be available in various forms in early June.

First let's take a look at the card using the retiring set, Foxy Friends. I've got a little puzzle for you.

I used Pretty Peacock on the trees and Terracotta Tile for the fox, which is punched out with
The greeting...is from a retiring set too. I think. As I write this, though, I just can't find it. Leave me a comment if you know what it is from.
I initially stamped the trees on a full 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of cardstock. When I thought it needed something more I stamped stripes on either side of the front of a Whisper White card. I trimmed off 1/2" from either side of the tree and fox panel.
Can you see what I used to stamp the stripes?

On to my set that is carrying over: Tropical Chic.

This is pretty much a "case" of a card I did earlier with this lovely set.
I used the baby wipe technique for the two-toned leaves: Rococo Rose with Pretty Peacock.
The border piece is stamping with these two colors on Rococo Rose card stock.
I added a piece of Pretty Peacock that was die cut with one of the Delicate Lace dies.
The pearls are from the Share What You Love Artisan Pearls.

And on to my 2019-2020 Catalog preview card: To a Wild Rose, featuring ALL of the new In Colors.

This lovely set has three layers of stamping for the rose and for the leaflet. I've used it successfully with regular blocks and also with the Stamparatus. It is helpful to mark a petal on each flower layer so that it is easier to line it up. Do you see the somewhat pointy, angled petal approximately in the 7 o'clock position? I used a fine point Sharpie to make a little dot just outside that petal. That makes lining things up so much easier! The outline is 1st generation stamping, the darker petal color is 2nd generation stamping and the boldest rose stamp image was done with 3rd generation stamping.
I used just two of the three leaflet stamps with Pretty Peacock ink and 1st and 2nd generation stamping for the leaves.
The blended background is done with Seaside Spray, Purple Posy, Rococo Rose, and Terracotta Tile. I blend the refill colors with Whisper White Craft refill before applying them to the card stock with sponge daubers so the light colors are exceptionally light.
I used a fine line stamp from Artisan Textures and the Purple Posy ink to add just a hint of texture to the background.
I used Pearl Basic Jewels for just a touch of bling.
This set and it's matching ides will be available on June 4.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.

Chris

f you place a $150 or greater order please don't use the hostess code. You will still receive the gifts but you will also get your own hostess benefits.

Product List

Posted at 05:03 PM in Foxy Friends, To a Wild Rose, Tropical Chic | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 16, 2019

Color Challenge Trio

We are in that home stretch for Stampin' Up!'s 2018-2019 catalog. We know what is retiring, what isn't, and demonstrators have had a peek at what is coming in June. I'm not sure I can pull this off every day between now and June 4th, but today I have a card from all three categories. There is so much that I will miss when products retire, much that I'm relieved to have sticking around, and even more new designs that I'm excited to put into play. Here is today's trio:

The retiring set: The beautiful Floral Frames Bundle with the Striped Scallops embossing folder.

Check the Floral Frames link on the right for more cards with this stamp set/bundle.
Colors are Very Vanilla, Lovely Lipstick and Mint Macaron. I'll share more about this challenge later. The colors, the Lovely Lipstick enamel dots and the Rectangle Stitched dies aren't retiring.
I just purchased the embossing folder in the past few months. Many of the stripes are covered by my stamped panel but the scallops give a more interesting texture than regular stripes. My Home to Roost card on the side bar shows a little more of the stripes.
The leaflet on the left is cut with the coordinating dies.

The bundle that is staying round in the upcoming catalog is Rooted in Nature, as is the Layered Leaves 3D embossing folder:

Same colors as the previous card.
The Faceted Dots are retiring and I will sorely miss these. I think that I'm on my 3rd package. They come in Basic Black, Blackberry Bliss, Grapefruit Grove and Mint Macaron. If you've been following my April Palette, these have a fairly important roll. Mint Macaron and Grapefruit Grove are major players in the palette and Blackberry Bliss does well standing in for Fresh Fig.

Finally, I made one more card with today's color combination when I got an exciting package of stamps, bundles and accessories from the new catalog.

How could I resist when the To a Wild Rose set so perfectly played into the Karen and Lela's color challenge, "Lovely Vanilla Mint Macarons with roses for dessert".
The rose, leaves and greeting label are all cut with the coordinating dies .
The Country Floral 3D embossing folder will make a comeback in the new catalog too! I have lots of samples with this if you check my Country Floral Gallery page.
The Scalloped Lace is also new. I'll have to give you a better look on a future project. It has just the right amount of body and the perfect amount of sheen on the scallops. It had to be on my first order.

I would love to have you check out this color challenge.

A note about the retired list. All current bundles will be listed as retiring since they will only be available separately in the next catalog. Also, all clear and wood mount stamps will be listed as retiring since there will be no wood mount (other than background stamps) or clear mount stamps in the future. Those that are carried over into the new catalog will be cling stamps - with a new order number. I apologize that this makes the list a little confusing.

You should be able to order retiring stamps until at least May 24th. Other products are only while supplies last.

I so appreciate your time as you visit my blog. Let me know what you think and come back again soon!

Chris

If you place a minimum $50 (US) order using the April host code, TSED6YGC, I will send you the free gift of product that will be featured in my May projects. US customers only. Customers placing an order smaller than $50 will still receive my thank you card.

Product List

Floral Frames Clear-Mount Bundle

[148406]

Rooted In Nature Clear-Mount Bundle

[148353]

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]