EEP! I'm so excited for today's post! Have you heard the news that the amazing and wonderful Betsy Veldman is launching her new stamp company called The Greetery? I was over the moon when I heard the news and even more excited when she asked it I would help with her first launch! I've got a lot of cards and photos to share with you today using a few of the new products; BotaniCuts Succulents dies, Terrarium Dies, Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You + Basics Dies! Before I dive into the specifics of today's designs, let me first give you some important information; you can find The Greetery blog HERE and the STORE will be going live at 10 AM ET on Friday, April 26th. There's a few other designers participating in today's festivities so you'll definitely want to head to their blogs to see how they've used these incredible new products!
I had so much fun working with all of these amazing new products; as I mentioned before I have a lot of photos and a lot of samples because they are just THAT fun! This was actually the last design that I made in the series, but it was so easy and fun, but I love how it turned out. To begin, I created an ombre watercolor panel and then dry embossed it with an embossing folder that I felt would highlight the amazing new Terrarium Dies. This is the smaller of the two and fits so nicely on a card front.
I also die cut the BotaniCuts Succulents dies out of watercolor paper. I assembled them without any paint on them at all. There are two sizes included in the set, and each succulent consists of 4 pieces. Once you get each piece designated to its rightful spot, they come together so quickly, hence the reason why I have so many samples! LOL! Once they were all assembled, I spritzed them lightly with a spray bottle and simply added a wash of a few different colors of green paint. I also added some purple to the tips of the smaller one for a little bit of contrast.
Once they were all painted, which took me just minutes, I added some black paint splatters to both the background panel and the succulents. While the paint was drying, I got to work on the sentiment and the terrarium.
In my other samples, I kept the succulents within the designated confines of the terrarium shape, but for this one, I decided to get a little crazy and just design it without realism as a factor. I die cut the smaller terrarium out of specialty gold paper as well as once from white cardstock. I glued them together using liquid glue and allowed them to dry.
The "thinking of you" sentiment is from the new Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You set and is stamped in black on one of the new Basic Dies. Once I had all of the elements created, it was just a matter of assembling it all together. I added the embossed background to a standard top folding A2 cardbase using foam squares. The succulents are arranged with foam squares as well. The terrarium is adhered to the card using 1/ 8 inch ScorTape on the bottom edge. I bent it over the top of the succulents and added some liquid glue to the perimeter of the hole at the top and held it in place with craft tweezers to dry. This gave it a very strong bond and keeping it's shape. the sentiment is added to the card as well. A trio of sparkling clear sequins finish off this first design.
This photo gives you a little peek into what I have left to share with you. As you can see, I kept everything quite cohesive in my designs. Sometimes I see myself creating a collection of cards like a fashion designer creates a collection for a fashion show; most likely too much Project Runway! ha ha!
This next design just showcases the BotaniCuts Succulents WITHOUT the terrarium. I love that they are so powerful on there own; so many possibilities. The layout for this design was actually inspired by the back of the packaging that the sentiments came in. I wanted to give a nod to Betsy and her vivid imagination when it comes to both designing product, but also her great Graphic Design skills! Can we just talk about The Greetery logo? I mean, c'mon! It is pure genius if you ask me!
To begin this design, I actually just created a long blended panel using Distress Oxide inks in the colors that I wanted to showcase in this design. Once it was done, I simple die cut the pieces for both the large and small succulents. Once they were assembled, I spritzed them with water and Shimmer Spray for some added detail. I love all of the variation in colors that you can get from the blended panel.
I did some black ink splatter on a piece of 4 by 5 1/2 inch white cardstock and then layered the sentiments using foam squares. I love all of the different fonts, sizes, and layouts of these sentiments. There is nothing that won't work for your particular design idea.
Once I had the sentiments in place, I simply added the succulents with foam squares. The entire panel is adhered to a standard A2 cardbase. I added some sparkling clear sequins onto this design as well.
This next design, uses some more blended succulents, but this time just the smaller of the two and completely encased in the small terrarium.
This particular design is very controlled and straight but the addition of the ink blended background gives it the whimsy that I love!
I adhered the terrarium on this card exactly as I did in the first card as well as constructed it the same. Both of these sentiments are from the Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You. There are quite a few smaller straight sentiments that complement the larger phrases to make is very versatile.
The sentiments are all heat embossed in gold to coordinate with the terrarium.
This is the final design in the collection and uses the large terrarium die which is so amazing. It really sets the stage to let all of the succulents shine.
The BonaniCuts succulents dies are so well designed; there are slits where you simply nest each piece inside the other to create these amazing die cut pieces.
I created an ink blended panel to create these succulents as well, just with different colors. If you do a search for "succulents" your mind will be blown with all of the different colors that you can find. All of mine are based off of real succulents. Nature is amazing!
For this particular terrarium, I removed the prism portion from the basic outline shape so that I could create the solid white portion in the back to really make the colors pop!
I did some color spritzing to the white portion with a blue marker to give it some added detail.
The sentiments for this card are die cut using the Basic Dies and are heat embossed in gold as well. I added some sparkling clear rhinestones here and there on the succulents to mimic water droplets as well as add in some sparkle and shine! I had so much fun creating these designs and I hope you've enjoyed today's post! Once again, I am honored and thrilled to be taking part of this amazing launch! Thanks for fluttering by!
