Beyond Blessed - September 2016 Stamp of the Month Sample

Here is my latest creations using Beyond Blessed (S1609).  I was making cards for a team meeting swap.  I started with the simplest of the three.  It was okay for me, and for most people.  But, as I looked at it, I thought it was missing something.  I thought I'd add some vines.  That's my second (middle) card.  I was happy with that one!  And that's the card I made for my exchange.

However, while I was assembling those cards, I thought how neat it would be to add some leaves.  I admit that the third card is a bit over the top - and I'm okay with that because I love the way it turned out!

Let me tell you a little more about each one.  The three cards have a few things in common.  First, the card pattern came from Make it From Your Heart volume #2 and is pattern #20.

The card bases background is from the Rustic Home Fundamental pack (Z3262).  You can see two different sheets were used, both equally pretty.  I embossed the saying in Gold embossing powder (Z2066) - VersaMark ink (Z891) to hold the powder - on New England Ivy cardstock (1282).  That was then sponged distressed with New England Ivy ink (Z2835).  The Colonial White(1388) mat was stamped in Saffron ink (Z2751) for the leaves and Goldrush ink (Z2223) for the berries.  The mat was then sponged distressed in Goldrush ink.

The accessories you see once were clear sparkles (Z3274 (middle sized), Z1263 (bitty sized), and retired for the large sparkle).  But I didn't want see through, bright accessories.  So I colored them.  I found that by first coloring them with Marigold ShinHam marker (Z2457) then the  Metallic Gold marker (Z1768), the Gold looked a little more rustic.

Each pumpkin was stamped twice.  The first time I used Saffron ink.  I waited a little bit (maybe 5 minutes) and then applied a rolled Goldrush ink layer.  I can do this because of the awesomely clear stamps and blocks!  I just lined up the image and pressed.  : )  Now, I rolled in Goldrush to give the pumpkin some dimension.  That was good.  I waited about 5 minutes because the Saffron and Goldrush are so close together that when I inked in Saffron and rolled in Goldrush, then stamped, the color difference was lost.  Not good.  By waiting the 5 minutes, it allowed the Saffron to dry and be absorbed into the Colonial White cardstock.

My simple card's pumpkin was cut out from Artbooking Cricut Collection (Z3169).  It's found on page 73 of the booklet or row 4 column 6 (R4C6) on the keypad.  It's also under the ICON key.

I colored the top of the cut out image with Sap Green (Z2463), using both the fine tip and broad tip of the ShinHam marker.

I added some Thin Foam Tape(Z2060) to the back of the pumpkin, and placed it on.

The background mat is Ruby from the Enchantment Fundamental pack (3254).  I love the versatility of the new papers in the Annual Inspirations book.

This card isn't too far off from the simple card.  I just wanted to add a little more to the pumpkin.  I found that inspiration from the page in the Artbooking booklet with the vine and leaves.  Page 72, BORDER, row 4 column 5.  Shift gets the leaves by themselves.

My first attempt, I just cut out the vine in New England Ivy.  My daughter didn't like how it disappeared into the "Thankful" (I had it on the other side originally).  That led me to cutting the vine in Fern cardstock (X5777) and the leaves in New England Ivy cardstock.  Since I cut the images out in Design Space, I removed the hearts from the vine's leaves.  I wanted (and did) to color the centers with Gold Metallic marker to incorporate more of the gold color.  It's hard to see in the picture, but each leaf has a gold heart.

To attach the small New England Ivy leaves, I use bonding memory glue (in this case the small tipped one - Z553) to the leaf and glue it onto the corresponding vine's leaf.

Like I mentioned, while I was putting the vines together, I thought "how cool would that be to have the pumpkin in a bed of fallen leaves?!"  The leaves are also from Artbooking and on page 72.  They are just one leaf, cut out multiple times.  This is the base of the leaf found under ICON.  They were cut from Colonial White cardstock.  I sponged each of the leaves with different colors.  Each got a Saffron base.  Some got just Goldrush.  Others got Goldrush and Ruby (Z2870).  Still others got Eggplant (Z2847).  Two I added Eggplant and a little bit of Sapphire (Z2848).  Then I glued some directly to the paper while others I used Thin Foam Tape to pop a little.

I used two vined leaves for this card too.  I cut one vine off just above the middle leaf as well as the connector from the small leaf to the middle leaf with scissors.


The pumpkin was hand cut.  The stem is New England Ivy ink.  The background mat is Pomegranate.  Honestly, I was going to use Pomegranate for all of my cards, but I accidentally cut the Ruby paper.  It was a nice mistake.  : )  And originally I was going to use Gold Sequins with this card.  But I forgot that.  I like the Gold Metallic colored sparkles though.

So, which is your favorite?!  And don't forget that this stamp set is only available until the end of the month.