Dandelion Wishes and Bokeh Dots

There are so many beautiful stamp sets and Designer Papers in the new Annual Catalogue this year, that sometimes I just look at the array in front of me at I don't know where to begin, I love them all so much, or I want to use them all at once, but a moderate sense of good taste restrains me in the end. I've been playing with a lot of the new products over the last week and having a great time doing it, and I promise that I will work up a Top Ten list soon. I'm just having too much fun to do it right now! I'm researching...gathering valuable data....before giving you my considered opinion!

The stamp set I'm highlighting in this post is one I am drawn to because of my middle daughter, Kris, and her daughter, Cedar, who both absolutely love dandelions. It's called Dandelion Wishes.

Besides the great images of the blow-away dandelion seeds, I love the sentiments and the fonts on the script! 

• On a card base of Sahara Sand, I added a panel of Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper. This is seriously beautiful DSP that will give you major anxiety over cutting into it and deciding which side to use!

• On my main panel, I stamped a rectangular area with one of the cool background stamps from the Bokeh Dots set. I used Soft Sea Foam ink here, but I wished I'd used something a little darker so that you could see the great texture and design in these images.

• I used some Petal Pink cardstock to stamp the sentiment on and then punched it out with the Everyday Label Punch. But because I wanted some kind of a backing for the sentiment, I trimmed away the end bumps and about 1/16" of an inch all the way around then mounted it on the same shape punched from Basic Black cardstock. For some added texture, I cut a small piece of cheesecloth, fraying a bit and mounted it underneath the sentiment with glue dots before adding it to the card front.
• Some Share What You Love Artisan Pearls add a finishing touch.

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.

Product List

Dandelion Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146747] $27.00	Dandelion Wishes Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146744] $38.00	Bokeh Dots Clear-Mount Stamp Set [148113] $20.00	Bokeh Dots Wood-Mount Stamp Set [148110] $27.00	Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper [146913] $15.00
Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $11.50	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $11.50	Petal Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146985] $11.50	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' Pad [147102] $10.25
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.00	Share What You Love Artisan Pearls [146927] $8.25	Everyday Label Punch [144668] $23.50	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25
Glue Dots [103683] $7.00

All the Good Things for Freshly Made Sketches

From the start, the DistINKtive stamps have really been calling my name, as I think that it is brilliant that they can actually create a stamp that can do what these stamps can do! Not sure what the DistINKtive stamps are? Here's a video explaining it all:


            

I mentioned on my Facebook page that I was going to show everyone a sample today, and the DistINKtive stamp set that I purchased is called All the Good Things. It consists of some Koi fish, a bonsai tree and some great sentiments. There are some really great reasons that this stamp set caught my eye, beyond it being a DistINKtive set, and I'll let you know why after I show you more about my sample.

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for my layout, which was a natural for this image:

Without further ado:

• There was a bit of a learning curve for this stamped image to turn out the way I saw All the Good Things images in the Annual Catalogue sample that caught my eye originally. I experimented with various techniques until I found one I was happy with. Here's what the image looks like when it is simply stamped with one colour - Cajun Craze in this case:

• It looks amazing, but not as striking or realistic as the catalogue sample. That took a little more work. I tried stamping it in Crushed Curry, using sponge daubers to add some Pumpkin Pie and Cajun Craze to the stamp pre-stamping. I had the stamp mounted on the Stamparatus, because I wanted some black added and I thought I could add that next, stamping over the coloured image. The trouble was that the black and the coloured images are the same areas on the image and the colour gets covered up, even when I stamp off the black ink a bit first.
• Then I tried first stamping the black using StazOn ink and watercolouring the Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Pumpkin Pie afterwards using an Aqua Painter. I tried with the black full strength and again, stamped off once. The former was the most satisfying result and the one I elected to use for this card.
• Once the Koi was stamped and watercoloured, I watercoloured the background with some Soft Sea Foam ink. I added another sentiment at the bottom, as per the sketch. (The other sentiment is part of the Koi stamp) and I thought that some of the Japanese characters from Artistically Asian would look great with this set and help to balance the empty space at the top.

• I used the Seaside Embossing folder to add some texture to the background panel of Soft Sea Foam along with some opened up 1/4" Copper Trim, to pull out the colour of the Koi.

Now, on to why I was drawn to this set. Back in 2011, my hubby, dug a huge hole in my backyard and filled it with water (and all sorts of equipment, rocks and plants) and bought some goldfish and some Koi from the local supplier, and we were the proud owners of a Koi pond. Here's how it looks today:

And the Koi were a little shy today, likely because we have had a few visits from a Great Blue Heron trying to catch some lunch. That's why we have a net covering the pond, trying to protect our non-too bright fish from predators! But here's the best photo I could get. They are really getting large now.

• So, I thought a Koi stamp would be so appropriate to use for my hubby, who really enjoys looking after his fish and has a name for all his Koi at least, and some of his goldfish!

I hope you'll give DisInktive stamps a try. They are so much fun to work with!

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.

Product List

All The Good Things Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146558] $26.00	All The Good Things Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146555] $37.00	Artistically Asian Clear-Mount Stamp Set [141781] $25.00	Artistically Asian Wood-Mount Stamp Set [141778] $35.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25
Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $11.50	Soft Sea Foam 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146988] $11.50	Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad [101406] $12.00	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad [147087] $10.25	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad [147086] $10.25
Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad [147085] $10.25	Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' Pad [147102] $10.25	1/4" Copper Trim [144179] $8.00	Iridescent Sequin Assortment [144212] $6.75	Aqua Painters [103954] $22.50
Stamparatus [146276] $67.00	Seaside Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [141481] $11.25	Big Shot [143263] $136.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

Getting Ready for the 2018-19 Annual Catalogue Launch

Saturday is my 2018-19 Annual Catalogue Launch, and it's been so much fun so far getting ready for it! I've been making samples to decorate with, updating my display board, coming up with games to play, gathering door prizes and designing Make & Takes, and so far it looks great. I still have a lot to do, but I'm on track with it.

I thought I'd share with you some of the catalogue projects I've been CASing to display at the event, and since I just got my order from the new catalogue yesterday, I have some more to add to them.

Here are the annual bookmarks I make with the new In Colours on one side and a catalogue guide on the other!

My favourite suite, Rooted in Nature is well represented. There are some gorgeous samples in the catalogue and I wanted to CASe them all!

Another of my favourite suites, Tranquil Textures, shown here! With my love for the beachy look, I wanted to make a whole bunch more, but I had to give equal time to other stamp sets!

Elegance and pastel prettiness with the Serene Garden and Delightfully Detailed products.

This chest needs more stuff. I'm working on that tonight, but this is the Share What You Love Suite!

Then I need to do some baking and treat preparation. With our new In Colours, I predict there will be some Blueberry treats, and some fresh Pineapple, and maybe a pink grapefruit punch or something. Also, in honour of the return of Mint Macaron, probably some macarons!

And study up on the new Colour Refresh, because I'm sure there'll be a bit of a quizz/game on that!! But the great door prizes will be totally worth it!

I have 2 whole boxes of newly retired products for you to check out and save money on and you should SEE the paper I'm adding to my collection! Whoa!

Here's is one sample we'll be doing as a Make & Take: 

Well, if that doesn't tempt you I don't know what will! Hope to see you on Saturday, June 9 from 1 - 3 pm! IT'S FREE!!  Have a great weekend!