The Stamp Review Crew: Fabulous Florets Edition

Welcome to another Stamp Crew Review Blog Hop!  We share our take on a selected stamp set every first and third Monday.  This round we are looking at the flower set Fabulous Florets.  This set has a fun combination of line art and solid images, which allows a great opportunity to incorporate various coloring and stamping techniques. 

This is the first stop from the top, but if you are hopping around in a circle, you have just come from Jill's beautiful blog.  Don't you just love her style?

I have used Fabulous Florets LOTS, so it is hard to come up with something new and different.  Splitcoaststampers' Mix-Ability Challenge #33, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered, to the rescue.  This challenge was to color an image and seal it with some sort of glaze.  Although Crystal Effects would work here, it would give me a glossy finish, and I was looking for something with a matte finish.  The options were transparent gesso or, my choice, Mod Podge.

This is all one stamped layer, including the background text.  :o  The masking turned out pretty accurate, and potentially the Mod Podge could have been a disaster to my finished main panel.  Thank goodness all was ok.  Once I started with the messy stuff, I couldn't stop, and I used acrylic paint to soften and distress the edges.  This card also uses Freshly Made Sketches #122.

In this photo, I'm trying to pick up how the matte layer softens the colors a bit.

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Really Good Greetings, Dictionary BG; Paper: Calypso Coral, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Etcetera DSP; Ink: Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Black Stazon; Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Aquapainter, Mod Podge, White acrylic paint, Sewing machine, Thread, Dimensionals.

Flowers are an easy choice for many mixed media challenges, so I did another one.  I played along with Mix-Ability Challenge #27, A Little Sketchy, and I love how this card turned out.  The challenge was to use some pencil to shade the background.

Can you guess what this is?  First I created my background (a flowing creek) with watercoloring, then spritz the entire piece with water to blend the colors.  For the challenge, I shaded under the leaves and blossoms with pencil.  Framing it on a clean card looks so artsy fartsy... heehee.

Stamps: Fabulous Florets; Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Watercolor paper; Ink: Real Red, Old Olive, Crisp Cantaloupe, Black Stazon, Coastal Cabana & Island Indigo reinkers; Accessories: Aquapainter, Stampin' Spritzer, Sponges, Pencil, Dimensionals.

Tanya was hoping for some 3-D items, which I find difficult with a versatile flower set.  I need something that says, "This is what this set is made for."  The more specific, the better for me.  I'm strange that way.  I whipped together a seed packet matchbook for my girlfriend.  :)

What kind of flowers are in this set anyway?  I think it is purposely ambiguous; all the more difficult to figure out which seed packet to target.  I inked the flowers and sponged the center of the stamp before stamping.  I edited the seed packet label I had on file from a punch art class.

Stamps: Fabulous Florets; Paper: Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White, Etcetera DSP; Ink: Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango; Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch, Sponges, Stapler.

Make sure you check out the next stop to see what Cindy at Stamps, Paper, and Ink put together with the set.  Her projects are always amazing!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

The complete hop list:

1. Heidi Baks  runningwscissorsstamper.blogspot.com
2. Cindy Beach stampspaperandink.typepad.com/
3. Tanya Boser   tinkerin-in-ink.blogspot.com
4. Debra Burgin  heartfeltinkspiration.com/
5. Deb Currier  artfeltimpressions.blogspot.com/
6. Yapha Mason   yaphamason.com
7. Mary Rindal   maryrindal.com/ 
8. Nancy Smith  iguanastamp.wordpress.com
9. Martha Stewart  seasonsofstamping.com/ 
10. Dawn Tidd   tiddbitsfromdawn.typepad.com
11. Betty Traciak kittystamps.blogspot.com
12. Lisa Young   addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/ 
13. Kerry Willard Bray  kerrywillardbray.com
14. Paula Wright  paulastamps.blogspot.com/
15. Rita Wright  ritascreations.blogspot.com/
16. Jill Coleman  jillstamps.com/