Hello everyone and welcome to 2020, and a new decade. I no longer make new year’s resolutions but I do have a new bullet journal planner. For the past couple of years this is where I’ve kept track of my busy life, my goals, wishes and achievements. It’s more flexible than resolutions and I can include my project ideas as they strike me. Today’s sneak peek project using the Painted Poppies Stamp Set never made it to my 2019 journal. It sort of just ‘happened’.

HAND PAINTED POPPIES

I love it when Stampin’ Up! brings out a new stamp set with coordinating Designer Series Paper (DSP). It makes creating projects really quick and easy, but what happens when the DSP retires? Would I still use the stamps? This was my thought as I began playing with the Painted Poppies Stamp Set.

I began today’s project with a sheet of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper and a StazOn Jet Black ink pad. StazOn is a waterproof ink that is ideal for stamping images to be watercoloured. So I stamped one of the large poppy image, two of the smaller one and six of the single leaves.

Once the StazOn ink was dry I began the process of painting my own poppies. First I pressed on the closed lids of my Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry ink pads. Then when I opened them I was able to use the ink on the inside of the lids as my palette.

I worked fairly slowly, wetting a single petal with an Aqua Painter filled with clean water. Then using a second Aqua Painter I picked up a little Blushing Bride ink and touched the water on the petal. The water then did the work of spreading the ink from the centre, fading as it did so. Then I moved on to another petal that was not touching the first and repeated the process. Gradually as each petal dried I was able to work on the skipped ones without the colour bleeding across them.

When the Blushing Bride was complete I went back and added a little more water and Flirty Flamingo ink. Once again I was careful to work on individual petals. Then with that done I finished off my painted poppies with a tiny bit of Rich Razzleberry ink.

The process for painting the leaves was very similar, starting with Old Olive ink and then adding a little Rich Razzleberry ink for interest.

With all the painting done I set the sheet aside to dry thoroughly while I decided how I was going to use the pieces.

WELCOME

After dinner I returned to my studio and my painted poppies were now completely dry. I began the next stage of the project by using the coordinating Painted Labels Dies to cut out the various pieces.

I considered making a card but in the end decided on something a little more permanent, a plaque. So I went to my stash and found a 5-1/2 ‘ 5-3/4″ plaque that I’d bought at Dollarama.

I started playing with the painted pieces and came up with a layered arrangement I quite liked, but there was a still a large empty area. So I pulled out the Hand-Lettered Prose Dies and cut out letters for the word “welcome” from Basic Black Card.

Using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I first attached the letters to the plaque. That meant I could now see where to place the painted pieces.

I wanted the floral arrangement to have depth, so I began by fixing a small flower at the bottom edge of the plaque with liquid glue. Then I added the second small flower with a layer of Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next I added a few leaves with liquid glue, tucked under the small flowers. This was followed by a couple of leaves towards the centre of the arrangement attached with pieces of Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finally I added the large flower image with Stampin’ Dimensionals and my welcome plaque was complete.

You know it’s funny that my hand painted poppies aren’t obviously poppies any more. They could almost be the wild roses that grow in my garden every summer. Whatever you think they are, I’ve shown that the Painted Poppies Stamp Set can have a life away from any coordinating DSP. What do you think?

PAINTED POPPIES OFFER

One of the reasons I love this stamp set is that it’s just a collection of images. That means that I can add any sentiment from any stamp set I happen to have. I’m not paying for sentiments I may not need or want.

The Painted Poppies Stamp Set (and coordinating Painted Labels Dies and Peaceful Poppies DSP) will be available for customers to buy on Friday, January 3rd. I love the stamp set so much that I’ll be doing a special class in on February 22nd using this set. Everyone who attends the class will get their very own Painted Poppies Stamp Set to take home with them. If you’re interested in attending the class in Colchester County, Nova Scotia please contact me ASAP for more details. Registration closes on February 1st.

If you’re unable to attend the class, I have a special offer for you too. Purchase the Painted Poppies Stamp Set or the Painted Poppies bundle through my online store by February 14th, and I’ll send you full instructions and all the prepared pieces needed to create 4 projects. To take advantage of this offer you must make sure you allow your account details to be shared with me. Otherwise I’ll have no idea who ordered the stamp set / bundle or where to send the project pack!

You’ll find other projects I’ve made using products that coordinate with the Painted Poppies Stamp Set, in my previous blog posts:

• Painted Labels Dies Sneak Peek
• Peaceful Poppies Sneak Peek

For now though I’ll leave you with a look at this pretty set.

I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for one final sneak peek from the new Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalogue.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Painted Labels Dies in a bundle with the coordinating Painted Poppies Stamp Set. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included links for both options in case you want to explore these for yourself.  Also available in a bundle is the Hand-Lettered Prose Dies with the Praiseworthy Prose Stamp Set (not used today).  I’ve included a link to that bundle so you can see that option as well.