Peaceful Place stamped onto Wood Textures DSP

 
What a beautiful stamp set this is. It's called Peaceful Place and I'm delighted that it will carry over into the upcoming catalogue. Something that won't be carrying over is the lovely Wood Textures Designer Series Paper, which I've stamped directly onto for this project, then watercoloured on top. It makes a lovely effect and I'll really miss this paper. That lovely Old Olive Linen Thread has been given its marching orders, too, which is a shame!

Peaceful Place sympathy card

The problem with sympathy cards is that when you need them, you need them in a hurry. And I prefer to keep them simple rather than put the focus on the card. So I made this quickly from my UFO (unfinished objects) box, where I have a stash of these beautiful images already watercoloured. A bit of layering, a quick greeting and it was ready to go.

I do love this image from Peaceful Place; it’s very soothing to colour in and I think it looks fab. You can make it easier to colour, as I’ve done here but you can’t see from the photo, by embossing in black.

Peaceful Place squirrel

I do love this little squirrel from Peaceful Place - I've stamped him onto Wood Textures DSP for a different look. The background is Hardwood and I've used the Layered Leaves embossing folder down the side for a bit of extra interest. 

Oh, and Artisan Textures around the edge of the card, and a tiny greeting from Waterfront. Yes, it's product heavy but if you've got it, use it!

Peaceful Place... viewed through the round window

I absolutely love this image from Peaceful Place and I’m determined to make time to use this stamp set more, if only to prove to one of my doubting customers that it IS versatile!

For this card I began by watercolouring the image on watercolour paper. I stamped with Stazon and – top tip – if you do this using the Stamparatus, you can ensure you get a totally crisp image, which doesn’t always happen when stamping on watercolour paper. How? You stamp once and then if you’ve missed a bit, or it’s simply not crisp enough, you ink up the stamp again and stamp again... in exactly the same place. 

I needed an accent to go on the card and suddenly remembered I have these lovely wooden elements which I’d almost forgotten about. They're called Frames Elements and I received them way back in February when I received my box of goodies for my OnStage display projects. I used loads of them at the time, so was surprised to see that I still have loads left. 

Peaceful Place - watercoloured onto Crumb Cake

Peaceful Place is a stamp set with my name all over it. Woodland, trees, a squirrel...

I confess I was a little put off by the sentiments but decided that the images more than made up for them. In fact, I’ve cut the long sentiment up so I can just use “Thinking of you” on its own, which will make the stamp set much more versatile, for me at least.

Using the Stamparatus, I stamped the image onto Crumb Cake with Soft Suede ink, then cleaned the stamp before stamping again in Versamark, then heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

The beauty of the Stamparatus is that you can do this in exactly the same place, which makes embossing in ANY colour really easy.

Next I painted the image, because I wanted to see what it would look like on Crumb Cake. I am quite happy with the effect; you just have to bear in mind that colours will come out much more subdued.

The water and sky are painted in Balmy Blue; the grass in Pear Pizzazz, the big tree in Old Olive, the pines in Mossy Meadow, the bush in Mint Macaron, riverbank in Crumb Cake and rocks in Gray Granite. What do you think?