Floral Essence for a Botanical Brights design

Stampin' Up! has changed this years new catalogue to showcase products more clearly and allow you to see lots of inspirational pictures along with much clearer embellishment and tool pictures.  One that caught my eye very early is the Floral Essence stamp set.

I chose to use bold brights to create a botanical explosion of colour and florals and Floral Essence was the perfect choice.

I started with glossy paper/photo paper and dropped ink spots from a re-inker bottle across the paper. I then spritzed it with water in a Stampin' Spritzer.  The colour ran and and was spread out.  I then added another colour and did the same process allowing them to blend. In all I added 3 colours of Melon Mambo, Poppy Parade and Gorgeous Grape.  I took off some of the excess water lightly with a paper towel and also gently used my heat tool to dry the design.  I then added white heat embossed flowers.  Using the Stitched Rectangle dies I created a 'wonky' frame by adding the central rectangle at an angle.  I then stamped with Gorgeous Grape to extend the flowers outside the frame. I did this by eye and lucky placing and they are stamped onto the thick whisper white card base. I replaced the ink spot layer and added the frame on Stampin' dimensionals.

I stamped an additional flower on watercolour paper in versa mark before adding white embossing powder and colouring it using an aqua painter and ink from ink pad lids.

The greenery is created by stamping the leaf stamp from the stamp set and punching it out with the co-ordinating leaf punch and some sprigs with the Sprig punch using Granny Apple Green card and ink.  Some leaves were created by first stamping the stamp on a versa mark pad and then onto Granny Apple Green onto vellum and adding clear embossing powder before heating.

The simple sentiment is embossed in white onto black card. You can also see I added some splatter by putting the marker pen nib into it's lid partially and flicking it outwards.

It's a "here I am guys" kind of card, but fabulous for brightening your day and I'm proud to say it was published in Craft Stamper magazine last month.

I hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by and do visit my online shop to see this and many other fabulous stamp sets and more.

Happy crafting

Zoe x

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Cards for Men at Moving Along with the Times

Stampin' Up! like many stamp companies does have a selection of male orientated stamps, but we all seem to struggle with this type of card.  Today though I'm sharing a card I made a little while ago and saved for my theme at Moving Along with the Times.  We would love you to join in and share your masculine cards. The Design Team have a fabulous selection to inspire you so do pop over to MAWTT and have a look as well as joining in our challenge. Share your card and some of the DT will come take a look at it and leave you a comment.

For my card I've used sponges and ink and the eclectic Stampin' Up! stamp set Enjoy Life. It's a real mix bag of images but it includes a cyclist, the butterflies, foliage and grass and I've added a sun by using a circle punch to create my own thin paper stencil and sponged the sun through it.

I created a mask for the hill by just ripping a piece of paper and using one half to mask the sky and the other to mask the hill.  Once I had sponged the hill I added just the tops of the grass stamp using the mask to limit the amount of image stamped on the cards and where it went.  I've also added the flowers using Stampin' markers to colour the stamp prior to stamping.

You can create a faux watercolour look doing this techniques and add in whatever images you wish.  The cyclist I stamped on a piece of scratch card prior to fussy cutting and adding with just glue dots to raise it only very slightly.

I like this stamp set and enjoyed the smudging and texturing with just ink.  Why not have a go too!

Hugs Zoe x

COMING SOON 

How exciting!!!

Dandelion Wishes Watercolour Wash Card Tutorial

I shared this card a few posts ago, but have had lots of inquiries as to how I created it and so I've made a video to show you what to do.  

You can also see the original Dandelion Wishes post with all the colour details if you missed them in the video and also a version of the card with no embossing is below for anyone who doesn't have embossing tools yet but would still like to make one of these beautiful cards.  

Enjoy the tutorial and come back and share what you make.  

Happy day

Zoe  x

You can buy all materials used for these cards from my online shop 

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Faux Linen Technique for Totally Techniques Blog Hop

Welcome to August's Totally Techniques Blog Hop.  Hello if you've arrived from Kelly Acheson in the USA.  Welcome to the UK.  

We are a small group of Stampin' Up! demos this month as some lucky folk are still on holiday.  Lovely Lynsay Mahon in Canada chose our theme this time and we are showcasing the Faux Linen technique. One I hadn't done before and one that I think you'll find as you visit the other fab blogs that can be done in different ways.  

For my version I chose to use the So Santa Stampin Up set which will be available from 5 September as one of many fun sets in the Stampin Up autumn winter catalogue.  This one is cute and has some fun sentiments to accompany some very cute outline images which are fab if you like colouring.   

The colours I used for the card above include Granny Apple Green, Shaded Spruce, Poppy Parade, Black, Crushed Curry, Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey, Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo.  I've added a matting layer cut with the Layered Squares dies in Granny Apple Green and the sentiment is white embossed onto Poppy Parade Ink.  You will also love the red rhinestones that are just perfect for Festive Projects and any unused will be great for Valentines. 

Here's a link to my video of this fun technique. Faux Linen Technique

This is the card I created in the video.  The colours used are Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Basic Grey, Black, Sahara Sand, Daffodil Delight, Smokey slate, Blushing Bride. 

I used the Layering Square and Stitched Shape dies for the image and matting layer.  The square for the santa 5.5cm square (21/8 ") and the scalloped edge square is 6.3cm square (21/2").  The sentiment banner is 1.5cm x 7cm (5/8" x 23/4").  The sentiment is heat embossed with white embossing powder.   

Pop to my previous post to see another version of this card using the Beautiful Day stamp set, in  particular the butterfly, along with the incoming Buffalo Check background stamp which you have to have as it will change every time you use a different colour. 

From here you are off on a trip down under to see what Shannean has done with this technique. It will be amazing so you're in for a treat. 

Thanks for dropping by and remember if you haven't got a copy of our Autumn/Winter catalogue and you're in the UK, France, Germany, Austria or the The Netherlands then please contact me by email on zoetant@live.co.uk to ask for a complimentary copy. 

More soon Zoe x

Here's the list too of everyone in the hop

1. Lynsay Mahon - Canada

2. Nadine Weiner - Germany

3. Kelly Acheson - USA

4. Zoe Tant - UK You're here

5. Shannean Moncrieff -Australia

6. Barbara Meyer - Austria

Christmas Card Club - WOW Theme

We've got a WOW theme going on at Christmas card club this fortnight.  If you haven't come across that before it does mean wow cards, but in this instance as a theme it means White on White. Which I love tinkering with, but they are not so easy to photograph especially in the sunshine we are so lucky to have at the moment.  Thank you to Christine for this challenge. 

I was inspired by a beautiful card I saw by my lovely friend Shannean Moncrieff down in Australia. She used the Rooted in nature stamp set and dies to create a Poinsettia with the traditional colours that it usually comes in. I've used her clever idea and turned it white and have used my new embossing mat bundle from the Stampin' Up! catalogue, page 221 to cut and then emboss the texture onto the white leaves/petals and I've also heated embossed in silver onto vellum using the coordinating leaf stamp.  You can build the flower really easily and if you have a silicone mat you can put a blob of tombow glue onto it and build the flower on it. Add more glue when required to layer the petals and then allow to dry.  The flower then peals straight off the silicone mat and you can use Stampin dimensionals to adhere it to your project.  

I've added a sentiment from Snowflake Sentiments, also silver heat embossed and some dry embossed lines using my Stampin' Up! Simply Scored Scoring Tool.  A few rhinestones to look just like the tiny  yellow centres of Poinsettia and also some new Stampin' silver pearls.  A couple of matting layers just adds a little more luxury to my DL sized card.  

Don't forget to see the other ladies in our challenge group for more WOW inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and remember  if you have a BIG Stampin' Up! wishlist in July you can get £130 product + £63 ink pads for only £99 with free shipping and become a discount shopper. It's so easy to do.  

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More soon Zoe x

Oops I missed it!

Hi everyone.  Hoping you are continuing to keep warm and safe! I made this card last weekend with the intent of  putting it in a sketch challenge, but the weather and being busy with the children I forgot to submit it, but thought I'd share it with you all anyway.  It's a great one for showing off the Jolly Holiday DSP patterns and everyone seems to love the new colour cherry cobbler with old olive and very vanilla.  Then old kraft now crumb cake cardstock is as popular as ever and provides a useful base for any project. 

Serene Snowflakes stamp set is one of my favourites this season and embossing it in gold shows it off a treat.  I've also used versamark ink followed by cherry cobbler to emboss it in colour on the crumb cake.  This gives a subtle shade of the colour that you use, but gives you the chance to emboss with colour using clear emboss powder.  Pearls add to the opulance for Christmas, some of which are from our retired Pretties kit threaded onto gold elastic cord and some from the new self adhesive basic pearls packs.  Tiny Tags stamp set is as useful as ever with the medium jewellery tag punch and adds just enough sentiment. 

Finally I've 'smudged' some of the edges of the centre section to soften the design.  I believe the technical term is distress, but in my opinion smudged says it all!  You do your smudging with daubers by the way!

Once again be happy and safe.

Hugs Zx

independent stampin' up! demonstrator Zoë Tant

My second version

Well with children off school for the third day, there isn't much time for my crafting although we've made Christmas cards for our friends today.  I'll share those with you when the light is better for a good picture.  Instead for now I thought I'd show you a card I made after one of my techniques clubs.  I demo'd the emboss resist technique with colour washing on watercolour paper and let folk just do their own thing then really so I was left with an image on a sheet and I decided not to let it go to waste.  I've made a larger card and used other stamps from the Just Believe set to add depth and texture to the various layers.  I also added some linen thread, newsprint dsp and early espresso taffeta ribbon along with a trio of neutrals flower brads.  Colours include not quite navy, more mustard, early espresso and old olive.  I'm loving this torn edge that is so popular at the moment and it's so easy to do!

Hope you're all keeping warm and safe.

Until next time

Zx

Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator Zoë Tant

Shelli showed us cardmaking with Stampin' Up! supplies

As the Queen of Stampin' Up! Shelli's projects at Convention are always fun and inspiring to watch.  She showed us how to make this cute little number and we all ooed and ahh'd and then she pointed out how much nicer things look in real life and reminded us that this is a card featured on page 64 of the Stampin' Up! Idea & Catalogue Book along with the stamp set Artistic Etchings.  And like she said ' who would have ever thought of using a key as the body of a butterfly', but as you can see it works really well. 

Everything is filmed at Convention, well most things and thankfully not quite so fully as last year when those of us with ample cleavages felt that one particular cameraman was rather over enthusiastic with his filming!!!

So Shelli was filmed making cards and was surprised to discover that the cameraman wasn't Chris whom she thought is was , but actually John.

She then discussed how much she loved all the european accents.

She also mentioned how much she loved the idea of everyone hugging and kissing to greet each other.  John picked up on this and tried his luck.................!!!!

Shelli didn't even flinch!!!!! Great hilarity for everyone else watching though.

The banner behind her was the theme for Convention

Share What You Love

and Shelli really did.

Come back soon to find out what made me smile!!!!