Featuring new October release products from the Kristina Werner line at Concord & 9th.

I’ve seen lots of examples using these stamps that are full of truly gorgeous coloring and layers of flowers and foliage, but I also wanted to see how these products worked in a different style. This design is simple, but not too much so.

Techniques:

• I knew I wanted to create a shaker card, so the first thing I did was to stamp the large flower in StazOn black ink on a piece of acetate. I knew this would need some time to dry, so I set it aside while I created the rest of the card elements.

• Next, moving on to the card panel, I positioned the larger flower die where I wanted it on my card panel and die cut that. This gave me my focal point where I wanted it, and I could build out the rest of the background pattern from that.

• One way to show off beautiful illustrations is to let the linework show, which is exactly what I did here with the black stamping on a 5” x 7” white card panel. Instead of arranging the elements into a realistic arrangement, I carefully arranged them to include a mix of the flowers, berry stems, and leaves. When creating a random background pattern like this, it is helpful to consider the spacing between the elements, and to mix the larger elements and smaller elements. If you look, you’ll notice 3 main stamped flowers spread throughout, a few larger leaf stems, a mix of the berry stems, and then single leaves, all placed to create a balanced look. I also took care to vary the angles of them, which adds to the interest.

• After creating a 5” x 7” card base for this, I did some ink blending on the front of the base that would show through the center die cut of the front panel. (One way to mark the spot is to lay the front panel on top and add a few light pencil marks at the outer points, but I just did it by generally noting where that space is within the panel. As I blended I’d lay the front panel over to see if I needed to add more blending in any direction.) I blended three colors, from lighter at the top of that space to deeper at the bottom, though two colors or even one with varying pressure and saturation would work well also.

• Once I was sure the black ink was dry on the acetate, I added it to the inside of my die cut front panel with a combination of a few bits of dotted tape runner and liquid Connect glue around the opening on the back side, and then carefully placed my stamped acetate so it lined up with the opening. (The mix of adhesives was because I know the liquid glue holds better long term, but when combined with the non-porous acetate the drying time is a little longer. The dot runner helped hold it in place better until that glue dried.)

• The shaker space was created by foam tape added on the back of that panel to create an enclosed space. I also framed the edges and some of the open spaces with foam tape so it would be stable and flat. I added some shaker filler* into that space, and then lined up the card base on it and secured them together.

• The “holidays” is cut from brushed gold cardstock, and the shadow layer is cut from Grapefruit cardstock. To add additional interest and to tie it in with the shaker opening, I blended Poppy ink up from the bottom of it.

• I added pearls in coordinating gold and red as a final touch. They help connect the reds in the focal point to the patterned background, and add to the flow of the layout.

  
  

Colors:

• cardstock: Concord & 9th Grapefruit. Spellbinders Brushed Gold. Neenah.

• ink: Concord & 9th Poppy, Sorbet, Grapefuit. StazOn Jet Black. Versafine; Versamark Onyx Black.

(Listed by company, with links to Simon Says Stamp and others. Simon Says Stamp links are affiliate links*.)

This is the only item not included in the supply list below:

Cranberry Tiny Bubbles, from Honey Bee Stamps (used for the shaker fill)

*Affiliate links do not cost you any more when you shop, but it is beneficial to creators when you use them, so thanks in advance!