Fluttery Floral Greetings

Hello crafty friends! This is Julia, and today is my last post as a member of the Seven Hills Crafts Design Team.

Don't worry, I still love Tara and her store dearly, and will remain a loyal customers and pop into the blog from time to time when she invites me back, but I had to take a step back from all of my DT commitments. Those of you who follow me know that I love to make videos and I'm part of several design teams, but this has become a bit too much for me to handle with life and work getting very busy for me. All is good, but sometimes some change is needed, too :)

For my final project, I decided to combine the butterfly shape by Paper Smooches with some gorgeous floral stamps by Waffle Flower. I always wanted to decorate a die cut shape with some stamps -- mostly because I just don't do well with patterned paper and like to create my own patterns.

I started out by outlining the butterfly shapes on card stock by simply drawing around the die with a pencil. Since I wanted to only cover the bottom of the butterfly with patterns, I needed to know the approximate dimensions (I only had limited space since I was working on a small scrap piece of paper). I used various inks to stamp out the floral images, trying to balance them out across the shape, before die cutting the butterfly with my Big Shot.

Next up, I embossed the frame from the Wplus9 Sunshine die set into the card front. It partially cut through, so I adhered a piece of black card stock to the inside of the card front to make sure everything stayed where it was supposed to. Next up, I sprayed the die cut butterflies with a mix of water and perfect pearls so they would sparkle and shine.

The sentiment is from one of my favorite sets by Paper Smooches. I made sure to use my anti-static tool first on the black card stock to ensure that the white embossing powder would stick to the Versamark only. After the heat embossing had set, I used a dry baby wipe to rub off the white "haze" you get from the antistatic tool.

Of course, I could not help myself and I had to add a few dots. On the black card stock, the white gel pen and Stardust pen pop perfectly with lots of contrast, and the black Glaze pen added a few accents to the stamped florals  on the butterflies themselves.

I certainly was inspired by my crafty friend Keren Baker, who always has great card designs and from whom I got the idea to have the butterflies hang off of the card partially. Looks great, doesn't it?

Thank you so much for all the kind comments you've left me on the projects I've shared here, and I hope to see you around in the crafty online world!

Butterfly Duets Die	Uplifters	Loved	Sunshine Layers Die
Raspberry Jam Shadow Ink	Versamark Ink Pad	Hero Arts Ultra fine Embossing Powder	Clear Design Ultra Clean
Scrubber Pad

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Using Negative Diecuts to Great Effect

Colorful greetings, crafters! Today I am using some fantastic stamps and dies by Concord & 9th. Actually, I am mostly focussing on the negative die cuts from the butterfly die that is so wonderfully intricate it's a pure joy to use:

Since I wanted the colors on this butterfly to shine, I selected to go with some black card stock as a base here. I started out by adding some Stick It to a piece of paper and die cutting it with the butterfly die. The adhesive side would be on the bottom to attach the pieces to the card. I used the outline of the butterfly on another project and the negative pieces here: I used my Copic markers to create a gradient following the color wheel and kept my colors light so they would shine against the black.

To add my pieces to the card, I die cut the butterfly again from some sturdy card stock and used the outline as a placement help – I just laid it where I wanted the pieces to go and then puzzled them in. Since my butterfly didn't have a body, I grabbed a few pearls in different sizes and glued them where the body would go. Of course I needed a nice and bold sentiment, and I heat embossing the words from the Classy stamp set in white embossing powder.

The black mat was cut using my all-time favorite Sunshine Layers dies by Wplus9, and the card base itself was covered with a piece of grey paper which I had run through my Stitched Mats dies to create the stitched border.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you got inspired!

Flutter & Floral Die	Being Classy	Sunshine Layers Die	Stitched Mats: Rectangles	Hero Arts Ultra fine Embossing Powder
Stamp Shammy

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I Dig You

Hi crafters! Popping in today with a quick card featuring the cute gnomes by My Favorite Things. I colored my little gnome with my ZIG clean color real brush markers (that's a mouthful!) and realized that the blending isn't quite as easy as I had thought. At least I didn't wait long enough before adding more color when the first layer was still wet so the colors feathered a bit.

The rest of the card was rather easy to accomplish: some Gansai Tambi watercolors for the background and then the embossed sentiment on the black card stock. I am happy that I though of running that tiny black piece of paper through my die cutting machine with the same die I used to cut the panel so the scalloped edges would match up.

Thank you for stopping by today. Cheers!

You Gnome Me	Sunshine Layers Die	Watercolor Stripes Background Stamp	Wet Cement Shadow Ink	Clear Design Ultra Clean
Scrubber Pad

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Lots of Layers, A Fox, And A Kite

Howdy, crafters! Today I have layers for you. And patterned paper! Gasp! Yes, I know! Me, the one who loves to look at patterned paper but is way too scared to use it. I kind of did chicken out by embossing a Wplus9 die on my card base instead of adding another layer of paper, though :)

The fox was colored with Carbothello Chalk pastels, which are a bit difficult to use in smaller areas, but if you have a paper stump, you can blend colors out quite easily. I added a few white dots, just for interest, and now my fox looks sort of like a mushroom, lol.

I kept the rest of the card as simple as I could so the focus would remain on the fox and the kite. For good measure, I added a few sequins for additional sparkle and shine, too.

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

More Stories	More Stories Ellements	Sunshine Layers Die	Timeless Tags 2	Scrubber Pad
Clear Design Ultra Clean

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Intense Colors on Kraft Paper with Chalk Pastels

Hello crafty friends! Today I have a project for you featuring Stamping Bella's "I'll always have your back" with Carbothello pencils on kraft paper. I am enjoying my chalk pastels very much, and they are just fantastic on kraft because they get quite opaque with each layer.

The chalk is very soft so the tip of the pencil doesn't stay sharp for very long. When you try to get into small areas, or try to add fine detail, this can be tricky. One thing to keep in mind is that with this medium, you can actually add lighter color on top of darker color. That means that you should blend from light to dark because otherwise you'll end up covering up the dark with the light. Of course you can go back with the lighter color to smooth out transitions, though.

Since the chalk pastels become quite opaque with each layer, be careful with stamped lines you color over. You won't be able to avoid coloring over some of them, and I used a fine tip pen to draw some lines back in. Also, you can erase some of the color with a clean eraser if you color outside of the lines. Just make sure to clean off the eraser once an area picks up too much color so  you won't smudge it around.

Another important aspect of this medium: you need to set it. I do it by spraying it with hair spray. If you spray it with water (as  you might to with Perfect Pearls), these Carbothello chalk pastels will start running. If you don't do anything, you will smudge them eventually by just brushing over them. It's great if you still work and want to blend colors, but it's very depressing when that happens to a finished piece.

So, I hope you liked today's project and got inspired! If you would actually like to see the coloring process, hop on over to my blog (link in the sidebar) and watch the video!

I'll Always Have Your Back Stuffie

Sunshine Layers Die

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Very Vintage Florals – Use Your Old Stamp Sets Again

Hello crafty friends, today I am using an oldie but goodie set by Wplus9 called "Very Vintage Florals". I know we always look to  what's new and exciting from our favorite brands, but it's good to remember some of the older sets that we used to cherish and love. This is one that is just timeless and can be used for modern, fun, or elegant styles.

I started out by stamping the frame with Versamark on my prepped card stock and then poured gold embossing powder on top. There is a matching die for this shape, but I don't have it, so I fussy cut it by hand.

I stamped the sentiment in black Versafine ink and set it aside to dry. Then I grabbed the floral images from the stamp set and stamped them in various colors so they'd be partially covered by the frame later.  Once I was done, I embossed the Wplus9 Sunshine Layers die into the front of the card for addition interest and then used my Stabilo Carbothello chalk pastels to color the outside of the frame.

You could use a different color medium, or skip this step entirely. I just wanted an additional pop of color and the chalk pastels go on easy, you can blend them nicely, and with one or two spritzes of hairspray it's fixed and doesn't smear.

Hope you liked today's project and look through your stash to find some of those older sets you haven't shown a lot of love recently.

Very Vintage Florals

Sunshine Layers Die

Hero Arts Gold Embossing Powder

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