Market Place Suite

I've put together some cards following Betsy Veldman's design using her new release from The Greetery.  These are the 3 Market Place die sets, that create the sweetest European Market style of buildings.  They work great on their own, but Betsy did a wonderful tri-fold card that I tried to recreate.

SOOO many little pieces!  I don't mind working with fussy die cut bits, and found it easiest if I kept to a fairly limited palette, which allowed me to cut multiple pieces at one time.

It definitely took a little planning, but I am really happy with the end result - and plan to make a bunch of coordinating tags in the near future.

In addition to the three different building designs, there is a set called Market Place Holiday Festoons - all the little wreaths, bows and a few garlands.  There is also a the Market Place Holiday Sentiments stamp set that gives all those wonderful little business signs - such an amazing detail.

After my houses were put together, I cut two hinge pieces that are scored down the middle, that were glued between them to create the tri-fold.  I also cut each house out of cream cardstock and adhered it to the back of each one, which not only gave a clean finish to the back, but provided the 'filler' for the windows from the front side.

I was able to put three of these together, to give to some special people in my life.  Not sure if they're quite done, I may add a little gold or white spatter, or possibly a little glitter.

Shaped Sweet Moments

I made a bonus card with the August Betterpress Society plate, 'Sweet Moments', using the Essential Arches dies from Spellbinders.

I pressed the plate in ombre fashion on some aqua cardstock using four of the teal inks from Pinkfresh Studio, using a blending brush to soften the colour transitions.

I cut out my panel with the Arches dies, then adhered it to a slightly larger arch shaped base in a deep teal.  I used the same die to cut a folded piece of white cardstock to serve as the card base.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Giant Happy Birthday

I have a whole host of family birthdays over the next few months, and needed to build up my gender-neutral stash of cards.  I pulled out an old favourite - the Giant Happy Birthday die from Lawn Fawn to get started.

I love that literally any papers will work with this die!  I dug out some ancient Basic Grey papers in a couple of coordinating colours and got cutting.  I cut the large die also in black and offset it under the patterned paper.  I used die cut bits from Spellbinders Holiday Blooms stamp set for some extra decoration with a black jute bow.

I did my favourite thing - sewing on a card!  Just added a row of black stitching around the exterior.  I am happy to get four of them made (one was already in the mail when the photos were taken).

Bolder Sweet Moments

My third project with the August Betterpress Society plate, Sweet Moments, was pressed with 49th & Market's new ink in Arctic Blitz, which gave a nice crisp image!

I used a mix of Distress inks and Pinkfresh Studio inks along with the coordinating stencils to colour in my flowers, sticking with bold, strong colours.  The panel was cut with the Hemstitched Rectangles die from Spellbinders.

Since the Arctic Blitz is an unusual blue/green colour, I didn't have any cardstock in my stash that matched it, so I created my own, by inking up the edges of some white cardstock - worked out really well.

The panel was adhered to the inked cardstock mat, then glued onto some patterned paper from my stash - it's a larger 5"x6.5" card.  The sentiment from the set was also pressed in Arctic Blitz, and was attached with some 3D foam adhesive.  A few pale blue enamel dots finished off the card.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Market Place Mini

I am so excited to be playing with these!  This is the newest release from The Greetery - a full set of European style buildings, called "Market Place".  This is the Market Place Mini set of dies:

For my first effort, I chose some muted cardstock colours, trying out each building in each of the colourways, so they're all just slightly different.

There is a companion die set called Market Place Holiday Festoons, which includes all of the little wreaths, bows and the Merry Christmas swag - of which I die cut a bunch!

Betsy at The Greetery does an amazing job designing her products - all the details are just perfect, and they're all easy to assemble.

After gluing all of the buildings together, I spattered them with some gold paint, then attached them to a rectangle die cut (also The Greetery!).

So happy to have three more Christmas cards in my stash.  I'm just getting started with the Market Place collection... stay tuned.

Muted Sweet Moments

My second project with the August Betterpress Society plate set, Sweet Moments has a soft, ink blended background on a bisque cotton card panel.

Instead of using stencils to colour in the flowers, I blended Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Bundled Sage inks, roughly in the area where the flowers and foliage appear.  I pressed using the new Fossil ink from 49th & Market.  This was my first press with this plate, and the coverage was not amazing (after cleaning and inking it a few times, it worked perfectly), so I initially put the panel aside - but went back to it after a few days, finding it's grainy appearance to be kind of appealing!

I found some polka dot paper in my stash that matched my muted colour scheme, and cut an oval shape out of it, before adhering it to my panel with 3D foam adhesive.  I also pressed one of the sentiments from the set in Fossil ink, and blended a little colour on it, so as not to have it appear too bright, then glued it over the opening.  

I added a few champagne pearls to finish it off.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

I'm Just Here For The Pie

I've used the Spellbinders Perfect Pies Collection quite a few times, but don't think I've ever made pumpkin pies with it?  What better time than Thanksgiving to put together a little pie card.

I paired it with some fall die cut bits from Sizzix, and some utensils from Your Next Stamp.  The paper is from the Fall S2 pack from Art Impressions.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians who are celebrating this weekend!