Tag Archives: Wetlands

Wetlands Retiring Stamp set

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I can’t believe that Wetlands is retiring; I’ve been playing with Stampin’ Up! product for almost three years now and this one has always been in the catalog. But no more. It’s not in the upcoming one. So for $17 (or $22 for wood mount) you can snap up this one. It really is timeless. The sentiments are fabulous and the images are great – I think my favourite is the birds rather than the main goose. Stamp sets are guaranteed to be available until May 22 but other things are as supplies last.

Liz Bailey Stampin' Up! Demonstrator - Wetlands

I did a watercolor wash of crumb cake over watercolor paper and then stamped the sentiment in early espresso. After a little time with the heat tool (my first attempt was onto damp paper and it bled rather unattractively) I stamped the birds, also in early espresso. I really like the effect. I mounted the watercolor paper onto a early espresso card base. Simple, easy and perfect. Let me know what you think.

YEAH! The Clearance rack has been updated with items that are up to 60% off – you don’t want to miss this. I’ve found, though, that currently the reduced price doesn’t show in the main listing of the clearance rack and you have to click into each item to see the price. e.g. the Birthday Bouquet cardstock pack shows as $7 but if you click on it, you see that the price is really $2.80. I’m sure they’ll get it fixed soon, but seeing as these items are as supplies last, you might not want to wait for that and start snagging bargains right away.

I hope you enjoyed today’s project. Please use the Stampin’ Rewards code to get five FREE handmade cards; the current Stampin’ Rewards code is A2XGZS79 (if your order is over $150, don’t use the code, you get the rewards, but you still get the free cards). Click here to go to my online shop or here to join my team. To sign up for Paper Pumpkin, click here. For more details on my Customer Loyalty Programme, click here.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

 

Chalk Lines and Wetlands

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This week’s challenge at Less is More is for a one layer card and the theme is At Sea. One layer cards are tricky and having looked at the Design Team’s inspiration, I’m not as happy with my card as I was. But they can’t all be my best card can they (by definition!)?

Stampin' Up! Chalk Lines and Wetlands

I decided to use my favourite birds from the Wetlands set and I’d been wanting to play with Chalk Lines some more before it retires. So first I stamped the birds in early espresso (as part of my plan to use brown more often) onto a card base of soft sky. After making sure it was really dry, I rubbed the embossing buddy over the card to remove static and stamped the image from chalk lines in versamark. A sprinkle of clear embossing powder and a blast of the heat gun gave me what looks like a wavy sea to me. I dithered about adding a sentiment but after hovering the sentiment from Watercolor Wishes (no, it’s not quite worn out yet!) over the card, decided to add it. It’s also in early espresso.

I used my beloved envelope liners framelits dies and the soft sky backgrounds DSP that retired last year but I’m still working my way through some of the colours!

I’m planning on offering a paper and ribbon share so that you can get a taste of all of the new goodies without having to take out a loan. I think I’ll take a share myself so that I don’t have quite so much DSP to use up – I don’t seem to be good at using an entire pack.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

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I got the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack as a Sale-a-bration freebie and have barely used it. Actually I rarely use vellum – I should work on that! This card started as a potential design card for the CAS Colours & Sketches challenge this week – a colour challenge of chocolate chip, tempting turquoise and blushing bride. I used an aquapainter to get the card fairly wet and then added a pale wash of blushing bride at the top and tempting turquoise at the bottom. After using the heat tool to dry the paper, I stamped the image from Wetlands in chocolate chip. There seemed to be something missing so I added the sentiment from Watercolor Wishes to the bottom in more chocolate chip. I just couldn’t get this card to cooperate and be sufficiently CAS for the design team so I put it to one side.

Stampin' Up! Wetlands and Watercolor Wishes and Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack

After playing with various mats, I decided to try the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack as a mat/background. Apparently after going to the opera last night and a pedicure tonight (on top of work) I was tired and couldn’t cut the vellum the right size. After the second failure (!) I decided to cut a quarter of an inch off the card base to fix the issue! I used fast fuse to fix the watercolour paper to the vellum and also to the card base of soft sky. The tempting turquoise was just a bit too loud to work with the washed out colour that I’d put on the paper.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Perpetual Birthday Calendar reused

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I was using the tree image from the Stampin’ Up! Thoughts and Prayers set last month to make a sympathy card – the set has a lot of sympathy and get better type sentiments. I really like the tree image and decided to use it for other cards too. I’ve made a number of cards with it lately in addition to the aforementioned sympathy card –  a thinking of you and another birthday card. It’s amazing what a change in colour can do to the feel of a card.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday Calendar, Wetlands, Thoughts & Prayers

This time I decided to use the big April image from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar, a splodge for want of a better description. I first stamped it as the sky in pool party on very vanilla and then the ground in pear pizzazz. I stamped the tree image over this in early espresso. Originally I was very against brown on cards, especially birthday cards (I wore brown in primary school; my school uniform colours appear to have had a long lasting effect!) but I am getting rather fond of a touch of early espresso here and there.

I also used early espresso for the sentiment. You don’t recognise where it comes from? It’s from the Wetlands set. I mounted this on a piece of early espresso that is just 1/8 inch larger than the very vanilla. I really like the skinny early espresso mat. This went on a pear pizzazz base and the envelope is lined in the pear pizzazz backgrounds DSP. I may have to challenge myself to have a week of card making without using pear pizzazz!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Sponged Wetlands

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Here’s the other card using the Stampin’ Up! Wetlands set that I made when trying to make a clean and simple card with birds on it for a challenge earlier in the week. In the end, I entered a different, cleaner card. I had a lot of fun making this one; it’s always great to get the sponges out. Especially since I was so bad at art!

Stampin' Up! Wetlands

I started with a piece of whisper white card stock and punched out a 1 inch circle. Using a scrap of card, I masked off the horizon and the sun. I sponged the sky with so saffron ink and then moved the sun and lightly sponged that in more of the so saffron. I then took the calypso coral and ran little streaks of it across the sky, including across the sun to suggest clouds in front of the sun. I then used so saffron sponge to soften the sky. I stayed with the subtles family and used marina mist for the water, giving extra attention to the path from the sun. I also sponged a little so saffron on that path as well. The birds are stamped in memento black ink – when deciding where to put them, don’t put the stamp too close to the paper as I did. You end up with a very smudged image. I had to start again! I glued the card stock to a base of marina mist. The envelope is lined on the outside flap with the backgrounds DSP also in marina mist. Just glue the DSP to the flap and use the envelope flap as a guide for cutting with your paper snips.

I definitely recommend getting out some sponges and playing with the backgrounds. It’s a rewarding and you feel like an artist. It’s probably best to do this just before you wash your hair – I find that it’s the best way to get the ink completely off your hands!