Concord & 9th Feature Friday #4...

Hi again!  Second blog post for today!  This is the last Feature Friday for my guest design gig with Concord & 9th and I want to thank Angie and Greg for the great month of features and for the opportunity to use some amazingly designed product, and to be able to share that with you, dear reader!

This week we used the Bloom - Fill In stamp set and I think it might be my favorite set from the whole month!  I love layered stamps for starters and this one is so versatile that it will remain in the rotation long past the Christmas stamping season!  In fact I mixed it up a little already here today.

For this first card, I stamped with Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink - mostly because, of all the inks I own, it gave me the prettiest grey color.  I used the MISTI to allow multiple re-inking and stamping and still have the image crisp and clean.

Then, using the matching die, I cut out one of the floral spray shapes on the card panel, and popped it up with dimensional tape and adorned it with layers of flowers and leaves, some painted with ink and some left white.  I filled in the berries with Nuvo drops and added a stamped, white embossed sentiment on the bottom.

This next card came about as a bit of an experiment.  I used my Caran D'ache water soluble crayons to color on the stamp.  Then I spritzed the stamp surface with water and laid a piece of watercolor paper on top and held it in place for a few seconds.  When you lift it up after having been in contact with the wet stamp surface, the color has transferred in a very loose, indistinct way.  I cut a portion out of the middle of the dried card panel, with another die in the set and then, referencing the actual stamps and using a fine tipped black pen and marker, drew back some of the extra lines and leaves plus a few more of my own.  

This next card is another one made using the same technique with the water soluble crayons.  I can't tell you how much I love that messy, mooshy blended color.  For this card I die cut more flowers and fern stems from watercolor paper (because: tougher, thicker and exactly the same color as the rest of the project) but left them plain and uncolored.

On top of the flower petals I adhered a stamped, embossed sentiment. 

These last two cards were fun.  I used a regular die ink pad and dragged it from top to bottom across the whole stamp and stamped that down, then repeated it after dragging the ink pad from left to right with straight, even swipes, and stamped that down. I was going for a kind of fabric/linen look and I think this technique nailed it.

I filled in the blooms with the coordinating stamps using gold embossing powder above and colored embossing powders below. 

Again, this was a fun month of play and this week in particular, produced some cards I really love and  am proud of.

Please be sure to click through to the Concord & 9th blog to see what Natalia and Meghan created as well!  Their projects these last 4 weeks have been so inspiring to me!  

Thanks so much for stopping by again today and come back again soon!