the beauty of Nature’s Wonder mini cards

Happy Tuesday, everyone..I hope you are all well. I am back today to share a small set of cards using the Nature’s Wonder Stamp Set by Tim Holtz and the new matching Wafer Die set that matches the set. This makes creating so much easier as you don’t have to take the time to fussy cut to achieve the same look. It just opens up more possibilities.

I used the leaves in the set to create a background for the cards then used the die set to cut out some leaves for the focus of the card. The background and leaves were made by using my craft mat as a base for stamping using a combination of Distress Spray Stains both regular and oxide, and Spritz.

The combination creates so much depth and sparkle…it’s just a little hard to see that in the photos, but in real life, it sparkles and shines…hence the phrase “choose to shine” that I found in the Tim Holtz Tiny Text CMS394. So, let’s get started!

I like to start with a base color that blends into the background but adds to the vintage feel. I spritzed some Distress Watercolor Paper with water, then a combination of Antique Linen and Old Paper Spray Stain and Antique Linen Oxide Spray. I then dried the backgrounds with my heat tool.

Next, I sprayed the craft mat with some spray stain (Pumice Stone, and Scorched Timber and Peeled Paint Oxide Spray. I spritzed it in couple places on the mat then began spritzing on a couple of the Mica Stains and Spritzes…

here, you’ll see the combination I used that included Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo and Fossilized Amber Spritz. I spritzed them around the mat around the previously sprayed stains.

I stamped a variety of leaves into the spray stains, then stamped them randomly onto my inky backgrounds until I had covered the backgrounds.

I made sure to use the inks around the mat to create a variety of colors of leaves.

And here is my first leaf background combination…you can’t really so much of the shine but…

you can here!! it’s so much better in person, but you get the idea.

Then, I stamped some leaves onto another piece of inky paper using the same technique but this time, making sure there was space so that I could cut them out to be the focus of the card. If you run into having too much “muddy” ink colors, wipe off the ink of the mat, and spritz and spray the mat again and begin again.

Once the leaves have been stamped and dried with a heat tool, using the matching dies, cut out the leaves using your Die Cutting Machine.

I like to use a tacky purple tape to keep the wafer dies in place while running it through my machine. This makes the cutting SO MUCH easier!

I used another wafer die to cut out the fronts of my mini cards. This is a die from the Tim Holtz Collector Die Set from Sizzix. It is a large label size (approx. 2″x3″).

I began arranging the cards and deciding which leaves fit on each label card front. I then stitched around each of the edges of the labels, then stamped the phrase onto scraps of paper.

The leaves were applied to the card fronts using foam squares then the label fronts were applied to card fronts. The card fronts were made using Dress Watercolor Paper that was spritzed with a variety of the sprays that I had used on the leaves. The small “choose to shine” phrase was adhered to the cards using tiny foam squares, and with that, my cards were complete.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Creatively yours, Stacy

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