Bright Butterflies

I’m still entirely smitten with Wendy Vecchi’s brand new Signature Archival inks, Rosey Posey, Morning Glory, and Peachy Keen, the newest release from Ranger Ink. Here’s a card that features custom pattern paper I made, using stamps from Wendy’s Country Flowers Stamp, Die and Stencil Set.

I stamped the solid butterfly in Peachy Keen, the butterfly outline and tiny blossom in Rosey Posey, and the berry branch and dots in Morning Glory; then diecut using a set of nested diamond dies,  and matted on a piece of soft blue cardstock. The sentiment is from Wendy’s Birthday Bash Stamp, Die and Stencil Set. Accents of Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls add a little extra shimmer and texture.

Be sure to check out the INK... STAMP and MAKE ART with Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group for lots more ideas, tips and techniques using these gorgeous inks!

Did She Say, "Tropical Grunge"?!

Not yet... but I'm about to, lol! This week we're celebrating a bunch of fun new releases from Ranger and I have to say my favorites are the three beautiful new shades of Wendy Vecchi Signature Series Archival Inks. On Wednesday, I used Morning Glory, Rosey Posey and Peachy Keen in their glorious full strength boldness; yesterday I diluted them with rubbing alcohol to get a fabulous pastel effect; and today I'm going for (...you guessed it...) Tropical Grunge by adding plenty of Jet Black Archival to my funky collaged background effect.

The glorious bird images are from a collection of German Scrap that my friend Gail gave me a couple of years ago, and I have frankly just flat-out HOARDED them until now. I'd be more embarrassed about that if I wasn't positive that I saved them for exactly the right project!

I made four slightly oversized ATC-style backgrounds by quite randomly tearing and gluing on bits of vintage (but bright white) sheet music, architectural drawings and Hindi text paper, scattered with some coordinating tapes from Wendy's two Washi Assortments. Then I used a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool with Domed Foams to apply the Peachy Keen, Rosey Posey and Morning Glory inks directly to the paper, blending them a bit at the overlapping edges. 

Then I used the stencil from Wendy Vecchi's MAKE ART Country Flowers Stamp, Die and Stencil set to add parallel lines in Jet Black and small dots of Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls. I also stamped the hearts from WV's Merci and More set in black. Finally, I inked the edges of each card lightly with Rosey Posey and then a bit more dramatically with Jet Black before giving them all frames of soft orange cardstock and wordfetti sentiments from an older Tim Holtz Big Chat Sticker Collection. Be sure to visit the @wendyvecchi and @ranger_ink Instagram feeds for more inspiration; as well as the INK...STAMP and MAKE ART with Wendy Vecchi Group on Facebook!

Hey Santa Claus!

We're still celebrating that Jolly Old Elf himself at Jingle Belles, so here is my Santa-centric card this week:

This "tall" journal card from Authentique is a couple of years old, but still perfectly adorable AND happens to be exactly the right size for a very fast slimline card. I added a sentiment and some little cardstock circle icons from the same collection and filled in with star enamels and Eyelet Outlet Heart Pearls. A skinny red mat and a soft snowflake base complete my design.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful card at Jingle Belles as well as the inspiring readers' gallery!

Softly, Softly

Yesterday I showed off three bold, beautiful, brand new shades of Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink from Ranger: Morning Glory, Peachy Keen and Rosey Posey, to be precise. And in fact, today's project shows off exactly the same shades, but this time in pastel mode:

A few weeks ago, I did this fun post on the Ranger Blog, in which I "watercolored" with some of Wendy's Archival Inks using a waterbrush filled with isopropyl alcohol, and I really loved the effect. The only drawback to that process is that if you also stamp the images in Archival Ink, you have to be a bit careful not to smudge the stamped lines. You can use dye or hybrid ink, or you can emboss using a dark shade of Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powder. But then I started wondering about embossing in White EP. Would the Archival colors stain the embossed lines? Would there still be enough contrast to be interesting? Since the answers  to those questions turned out to be, "Just a little bit" and "YES!", respectively, I merrily began "smooshing" each color onto my craft mat in turn, and softly painting the flowers from Wendy's MAKE ART Floral Doodles stamp set. When I got to the leaves I added Prickly Pear to the Morning Glory to get a fun new shade of green; then I took the rest of the smooshed Morning Glory and used it to make a splattery background on my Simon Hurley create. Stark White Cardstock. I finished off with a strip of Wendy's Washi Tape and added dots of shimmery Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls to the flower centers.

I still have one or two ideas for these beautiful new inks, so stay tuned!

Shades of Summer!

There are three absolutely luscious new WendyVecchi Signature Series Archival Inks making their debut today from Ranger, and I was lucky enough to be given a chance to test them out a teeny bit early. Please welcome Rosey Posey (the vivid pink of my dreams), Peachy Keen (the perfect peachy orange), and Morning Glory (which really is exactly the same color as one of my alltime favorite flowers)!

The first thing I do with any new ink is make a swatch for the collection it belongs in. Ranger Ink (the hint is in the name, lol) is extremely good about making the package color accurate, so what you see really is what you get! But... until you've stamped, stenciled, spritzed, or dabbed a new color yourself, it doesn't really count, does it? The next thing I like to do is see what sort of tones I can get on various paper types. I smooshed each of the colors onto my Craft Mat separately, and spritzed them with a bit of rubbing alcohol, then layered them onto both Wendy Vecchi Perfect White Cardstock and also some Glossy Alcohol Ink Cardstock. It's fun to layer the same color of ink, undiluted, on top... after the smooshy panels dry, of course. As you can see in the photo below, the matte surface (on the left) absorbed the colors a bit more, so you get a softer effect. Whereas, on the glossy surface (on the right) the colors are bolder, but there's less contrast between the wet and dry applications. After I had made my own experimental prints using all three inks, I sliced them into strips and made quilt-inspired panels, similar to this card from a while back.     

Once I had funky quilt-inspired panels I could've done pretty much ANYTHING with them, but I decided to pair the largest sentiment from Wendy's MAKE ART Merci and More Stamp, Die and Stencil Set with the outline butterfly from her Country Flowers set, again using the Morning Glory, Rosey Posey and Peachy Keen inks. And just like that, a pair of thank you cards are added to my stash!

Be sure to visit the Ranger Website and Blog all week to see the newest items from Tim Holtz, Dyan Reaveley and more; plus the @ranger_ink and @wendyvecchi Instagram accounts are always full of inspiration!

The End of the (EO) Rainbow

It's the last few Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Cards, which just happen to be Red, White and Blue... and feature lots of wonderful EO brads and tapes, which are listed below!

RED: Oven Mitt from the Cooking Brads set, a Lobster, Fire Truck and Ambulance from the First Responders, Toolbox, Cardinal, Ladybug and Mini Ladybug, Santa and Mrs. Claus, plus a Candy Cane Brad. All atop strips of Heart Washi and Foil Red Stripe Tape.

WHITE: Ghost Brad, Coffee Cup, Toilet Paper, an Egg Brad and a Fried Egg from the Bacon, Egg and Toast set, sweet white Kittens, as well as Sneaker and Water Bottle brads. The tapes are Owl Washi and Music Tape.

BLUE: Wide Calendar Tape and Cat Face Washi set the scene for a blue Peppermint Candy, cute Cars, a Safety Pin, Fishing Lures, a Beach Umbrella, a Bluebird, Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap, and a blue Gecko from the Reptile set. 

Be sure to visit the EO Online Store and look out for the Eyelet Outlet booth coming to a Tradeshow near you this summer!

Welcome, Gnome!

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash the challenge is called "There's GNOME One Like You" and if you suspect that we'd like to see a gnome or two, you're absolutely right!

I stamped and colored Lawn Fawn's Gnome Sweet Gnome, then popped him into a little sunny day scene I made using ancient cloud paper, Dare 2B Artzy Grass Die, flower stickers from approximately the year 2001 (srsly!) plus some Eyelet Outlet Sun and Cloud Brads, yellow Dot Enamels, a Mini Ladybug and a Mushroom Brad (sadly, the latter are discontinued). I may have gotten slightly carried away with mats (there are FOUR, and they were all from the scrapbox) but I really like how this came out!

I'm also linking up with Lawnfawnatics Challenge #127: Summertime Fun!

I hope you'll visit SOS to see what our awesome crew have made to inspire you, then start making a Gnome of your own! ♥