Neat & Tangled / Benzie Collaboration

Hey everyone!  I'm up over on the Neat & Tangled blog today as part of a collaboration we're doing with Benzie Design.  They make really high quality felt in beautiful colors as well as pom poms, die cut felt pieces, all sorts of good stuff.

I had a lot of fun creating with the felt.  For my first card, I selectively cut the large flower from the Succulent Cover Plate from three shades of green.  Before I die cut the pieces, I backed them with white cardstock.  This adds reinforcement and allows you to adhere the pieces easily to your card.

I also cut the flower from cardstock and used the webbing as a guide to get my pattern started.  Once I had the first few pieces in though, I just eyeballed the space between the pieces.



Even though the cardstock does add a lot of reinforcement, the tiny pieces can still be a bit tricky, so you need a die that has large enough pieces, the petals for the succulent were a perfect size.  The only tricky bits were those teeny tiny pieces in the center.  I just needed to be very careful with those and used craft tweezers to adhere them.

The sentiment is from the Gardenia Blooms Journaling Card set and it was stamped on one of the banners from the Scalloped Dies set.



My next card features the Maple Thanks and Oak Leaf Dies.  I cut the solid shapes from felt and the webbing/detail dies from cardstock and woodgrain paper.

The solid felt shapes were stitched to the card itself along the center line.  Then I used spray adhesive to attach the webbed pieces.



The sentiment, also from the Gardenia Blooms set was stamped on one of the skinny tags from the Classic Tag 2 die set and was then trimmed down and stitched on as well.

I thought it would be fun to dress these cards up a bit, so I cut a Doily Envelope wrap from felt for each of them.



Caveat, this is beautiful, but these doily pieces are very delicate in some sections and so you have to be very careful with them or you'll get some tears.  The felt cuts well, but I think because of static cling the pieces need a little help coming out.  I used a largish needle to just poke the pieces out and that worked pretty well.



I love how pretty the details look in felt!



OK, you'll want to head over to both the Neat & Tangled blog, there's a giveaway of some beautiful Benzie products over there, and the Benzie blog, where you can leave a comment to be entered to win a $25 store credit to Neat & Tangled.  Good luck!

Succulents and Alcohol

Hey guys, I'm over on the Neat & Tangled blog today sharing this card featuring the newly released Succulent Cover Plate.

This was really quick and easy to put together.  To create the background I used alcohol inks on photo paper.  I have a Canon Selphy, and I just use the individual sheets when I want to use alcohol inks on my cards.  This incorporated just two colors:  Sail Boat Blue and Citrus.

Playing with alcohol inks is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to end up with, but usually it's pretty cool.  Basically, I eyeballed where the flowers were going to be and then put down some ink.  I did this kind of in a swirl, and then added the second color, mixing and adding a touch of color where I felt like it needed it.

Once I was happy with the panel, I was able to go ahead and complete the card as alcohol inks dry almost instantaneously.



I cut the cover plate from white cardstock, and kept just the webbing and the negative space pieces on the inside.  In terms of adhering, I just made sure to add adhesive to the inlaid pieces and the outlines and didn't worry about all those delicate inside lines.  Alcohol inks have a bit of tackiness to them when dried, so that helped, and I like a bit of extra dimension as well.

The sentiment is from Scandinavian Prints.

One more thing before you go.  In case you didn't know, There's a big sale going on over at Ellen Hutson that runs through tomorrow, 20% off everything in the store, just use code momsday17.



I've linked the products that I used in this card below, but my affiliate link is also in the sidebar.  Happy Shopping!

Neat & Tangled Dies, Succulent Cover Plate

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Scandinavian Prints

Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink, Sail Boat Blue

Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink, Citrus

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Pad, Jet Black

Neat & Tangled May Release - Day 4 - Giveaways

Hey folks, today's the last day of release reveals,  The entire release will be available in the store tomorrow morning at 8 AM EST.  Today I'm showing off a new cover plate which is only kind of a new design.  It's really a modification of my Succulent Journaling Card die.  Danielle asked me to convert it to a larger cover plate design and I was happy to oblige.  Although I designed this set as a succulent, it really works as a floral as well.



For the first card, I cut the cover plate from four patterned papers as well as white cardstock and then it was basic inlay.  The sentiment is from the Paper Cut Flowers set and is stamped on one of the skinny tags from Classic Tag 2.

Since I had so many extra frames/pieces, I thought I would put together another card with my left overs.  Here I left portions of the succulents empty, and inlaid just the background.  It's a much more delicate look.



The sentiment is from the original Succulent Journaling Card stamp set and utilizes two of the little banners from the Scalloped die set.



Finally, a cardstock only card.  This is something I wanted to do with the original smaller die, but figured the pieces were just too small for it.



Here I chose four shades of green cardstock for my succulents, running each through my die cut machine.  I then cut the cover plate from white cardstock twice.  I use the first as kind of the base, leaving the pieces intact in the webbing of the die, and then adhered a second and third layer to each piece, the second being white cardstock and the third being the colored cardstock.

Once that was done, still using the original webbing as a guide, the pieces were adhered to a white panel.  This was a little tricky as I would adhere a few, then rip away the webbing until I was done.



The sentiment is from my Maple Leaves Journaling Card set.

Head on over to the Neat & Tangled blog to check out today's other reveal and see all the great samples.  Be sure to leave a comment there as Danielle is giving away today's reveal products to a lucky winner.  I'll also be choosing some winners this week.  To be entered to win one of my release products, leave a comment here.  If you share this post on Facebook, or repost my Instagram post, leave an extra comment and let me know what you did for an extra entry.

I'll announce winners in the morning.  Good luck!