Stamp Off Birds and Branches in Soft Pastels

 Welcome to another Stamp Off Challenge with Susan,

Buffy and me.  Today, we are using our new, SU Soft

Pastels Assortment, found on page 126.

I decided to use Birds & Branches stamp set on page 108,

with the coordinating Birds & More Dies (page 162).  I wanted to

try something with the two step stamping process.  Hopefully

as you can see, everything on this card is colored with the Pastels,

except for the first layer of the bird.

I rubbed blue Pastel across the background and then stamped the

branch with VersaMark.  I used a dauber to apply Mossy Meadow.

I repeated this process on the sentiment.

On a separate piece of card stock, I stamped the bird background

in Daffodil Delight.  Then I inked the detailed bird stamp in

VersaMark and stamped it on to the bird.  Finally, I used 

sponge daubers to add the Poppy Parade and Mossy Meadow

Soft Pastels to the bird.

I cut out the focal image with a die from the Ornate Layers

on page 164.  Finally, I attached the bird with dimensional and 

layered everything on the card base.  

Thank you for stopping by for our challenge.

Please click on over to see the lovely cards created by

Buffy and Susan!  

Hand-Penned Petals Bundle

 

You will continue to see samples from the Hand-Penned

Petals Bundle (set on page 105, dies on page 159).

It is so attractive, enabling you to make those

WOW cards with relative ease.

In this example, I stamped the set, stamped the colors on

the petals and then cut out the flower cluster.  Next, I took the

outline die and cut out a gold foil detail overlay.   It was 

glued over the flowers and set aside while I used a Blender

Brush to add some color to the background.  The white

background layer was run through the Subtles 3d Embossing

Folder (retired).  I layered everything on to some gold foil

and a Pale Papaya card base.

 

I've been busy harvesting and processing my cherries.  My two

little cherry trees are COVERED and have been picked at 

least 6 times.   I pick 4-6 pounds of cherries each time.  

I have been heating the cherries with a bit of water, to help

them release their juice.  Then I simply mash them with a

potato ricer and pour the juice into a bell jar.  I am adamant about not adding any sugar or "polluting" my fruit with other ingredients.

My freezer is  getting pretty packed, but it will be delightful to have cherry juice for the coming months.

Penned Flowers Stencil with Art Gallery

 This wasn't the plan for this card, but I like the way it

ended up.  I think that we need to call this process

Creative Drift.

I had a die cut from the Penned Flowers dies (page 159) out 

and was going to use it as a focal point or frame for a sentiment.  

As I looked at it, it occurred to me that it would make a dandy

stencil for a card background.  I used a blending brush to 

blend the die cut image on to a piece of Pale Papaya.  I filled the

entire layer and also blended the edges.

The sentiment comes from the Art Gallery set (page 13)

and was cut out with the coordinating Floral Gallery Die.

I tried to add ribbon or linen thread behind the sentiment,

but just didn't like the look.  I did like the Mossy Meadow

fern from the Field Flowers dies (page 160) layered

behind the sentiment.  I finished off the card by adding some

Genial gems and layering it on a Very Vanilla card base.

I glued the die cut that I used as a stencil,

to the inside of the card.