I am trying very hard to use all my new stamp sets, but Painted Harvest keeps calling my name and I want to play with it some more. I hope I don't bore you, but it is the coolest set and you can do so many things with it! You can make amazing watercolour looking backgrounds with it, even without using any water, and that's the aspect of its versatility that I wanted to show you today. While I was at it, I thought I would play along with two challenges I haven't played for so long. Freshly Made Sketches has a a sketch challenge of course.
And then, Color Throwdown has such a striking looking palette, I thought it would look gorgeous with this stamp set.
Here's my sample and take a close look at the background:
- The background design was actually made using the larger of the two flower stamps for the two step stampin process, and Memento Tuxedo Black ink stamped off first and second generation. The images were stamped in a bit of a random pattern and definitely overlapped each other. I cannot take credit for this idea. I need to acknowledge the artistic genius of Kim Jolley for this. You should definitely check out her blog.
- The flower itself is stamped with Cherry Cobbler for the smaller, more detailed of the two-step stamping images first, and then Real Red for the larger, more solid image second. I love that the colours that you use for this make it a stamp set that you can use year round. These colours remind me of asters, those lovely fall flowers, similar to chrysanthemums.
- The center and the leaves are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I used this instead of Stampin' Up!'s Archival Basic Black, because it is a water based ink, which is easier on photopolymer stamps and easier to clean off of them. You can't use StazOn cleaner with photopolymer stamps because it can damage them and sometimes that is necessary with the Archival ink.
- I used the Leaf Punch, which can come bundled with the Painted Harvest stamp set for a 10% saving, to punch the leaves and glue dots to attach them to the back of the flower, which I fussy cut because there is not die for that one. I added some Silver Metallic Thread to the back and then Stampin' Dimensionals to mount it on the horizontal panel.
- The sentiment is from the Christmas Quilt stamp set, and I embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder so it would show up on the Basic Black cardstock. And that's all there is to it! I was very please with the way it turned out.
Right now, my heart is with the people of Florida, Texas and the Caribbean, as they struggle to survive the devastation caused by these two incredibly destructive hurricanes. And around the world at this time, there is just so much suffering due to weather and war. I am so grateful that Stampin' Up! is taking a role in helping the victims by matching our donations to the Red Cross dollar for dollar, up to $50,000.
And in my own province of BC, many,many people have been displaced and lost everything in the terrible wildfires that we had this summer. Over 1.5 million hectares of forest burned and the whole big province has only 60 million hectares all together, so it was a massive fire season.
I will be selling packets of my cards, 8 cards for $10, at all my classes and events, with all the proceeds going to the American and Canadian Red Cross for relief efforts for these disasters. I have to do something to help and I like to use my craft to make a difference when possible. If you are in Canada and would like to purchase a pack - the selection is random - I would have to add postage on to the $10, but you can email me or text me at 250-768-7379 and I can send you a PayPal invoice. Again, except for postage, all proceeds would go to the Red Cross for relief efforts.
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.
