A new mini catalog “went live” last week, and we all have a whole new batch of stamps and accessories available to us. There is a great variety of products in the September – December mini catalog and I’m glad to share this card with you. I created this for a demonstrator-only swap that I joined for the new catalog. I just received my collection of swaps yesterday and they are amazing! I made two different card designs for the swap and I hope that the other participants enjoy my contributions as much as I like theirs.
The Rustic Crate bundle was one of the first items to go on my wish list for the catalog (right after the Abundant Beauty masks). I really appreciate how versatile this set is for creating cards throughout the year. This image that I used clearly has an Autumn theme, and there are flowers that could be used as poinsettias for a Christmas card, and plant greenery that could be used for a summer card. The coordinating dies (which I didn’t use for this card) also have dies to create a cardstock crate that you can use on the card if you don’t want to use the stamped crate. There are some great possibilities with this bundle!
This stamp set is a great option for some coloring. I absolutely love coloring with my Stampin’ Blends and the images in this set are perfect for that. I used Early Espresso ink to stamp the image and made sure it was completely dry before coloring. This gives a little bit of a softer outline to the images, which I wanted for this card. I really like the size of the images in this set. I can get in some coloring, and it doesn’t take too long to color or use too much of the alcohol ink in the markers. It’s like Goldilocks – “just right”. š
I used this past sketch as the design inspiration for my card. This layout gave me the opportunity to showcase a bit of patterned paper and showcase the colored focal image. I added a couple of layers to zip it up a little bit (I do love my layers), and added a touch of ribbon because I needed to include an embellishment per the swap guidelines. I’m so glad that these past sketches remain available after the challenge is over so that I can continue to use them for inspiration. Thanks so much to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and designers!