O Holy Night

Good afternoon - time is flying by so quickly I can't believe November has arrived already.

It's the time of year when most design teams have a review and new calls. I have decided to leave a few of my teams and concentrate more on the ones I really enjoy being part of. 

This lead to an opportunity to join another team. Tanya the owner of Riley and Company also owns Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps and has given a couple of us the opportunity to work on both teams. As I love both company's stamps I jumped at the chance.

Today is my first showcase for Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. I got to chose the images I wanted to work with. I love Christmas and the real reason for the season, whilst I love using cute images at this time of year I love the more traditional styles so when I saw the Mary and Baby Jesus stamp I had to have it

I teamed the stamp with the O Holy Night sentiment stamp. The image was colored with my Copic markers but this time I have also used my Polychromo pencils which has added so much more depth. I love the effect and will be using them more!

Once colored I die cut the stamped images and inked around the edge before removing from the die. This is where I had a happy accident, I didn't realize there was green ink on my mat and I ended up picking it up with the blue I was using however it gave a warmer glow to my image and emphasized the green in the image more. 

I matted my card base with some green card and some blue design paper. Ivy die cuts balanced the image. I die-cut a white flower and colored it to match in with the Christmas roses in the image.

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps have a diverse range of stamps - some for every occasion. whether you need cutesy or more realistic images they carry them. The also have a great range of sentiments and I will be posting more of them over the coming weeks 

Thank you for stopping by and reading my first post for Prickley Pear. You can find more inspiration on their blog and their Facebook page.

Guest Design Team Position

Good Afternoon - While you are reading this I will be on vacation - yes we decided that as it is Spring break we would join friends and enjoy some R&R time Up State.

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would like to do a month long guest design team spot for 2 Paper Divas - I was delighted to accept and over the next 4 Tuesdays I will be showcasing some of their gorgeous floral stamps.

2 Paper Divas is an online stamp company owned by 2 friends - Melissa and Gayla - who stamps are influenced by their love of the mountains, ocean and outdoors they also have a vintage-style flair to some of their stamps. I love all things nature so their stamps are perfect for me to craft with!

So onto this week's showcase. I am using 2 of their stamps on my first card:

Delightful Sunflowers & Bloom Wildly Sentiments:

First I stamped just the sunflower heads 3 times, I then colored them before fussy cutting them and shaping them to give them dimension.

I then die cut a small scalloped oval from out of the center of a piece of design paper adhered a piece of white stamping card under this and stamps the sentiment in brown ink. This was positioned on my card blank which was matted with a coordinating brown design paper - I used the same design paper to die cut the ivy corners. I arranged the sunflowers around the sentiment, placed an ivy corner at the bottom left and trimmed the second one before placing in top right.

A few enamel dots just complete the look.

Ingredients used:

2 paper Divas -Delightful Sunflowers

2 Paper Divas - Bloom Wildly Sentiments

Spectrum Noir Markers

Lili of the Valley - Country Gent paper - retired

ColorBok - Cosmopolitan cardstock

Signature Dies - Ivy Corner

Freckled Fawn Enamel Dew Dots

2 Paper Divas hold monthly challenges - the details are here.

They also have regular features and competitions on their blog 

and for more inspiration using their gorgeous stamps checkout their Facebook page 

Thank you for stopping by and if you like what you see please leave me a comment