A Trio of Birthdays

Hello there, Michelle Short here and I am delighted to be back on the Spellbinders blog today sharing three cards using the Florals Through the Year Collection. This collection is designed to be used to create a DIY calendar but as you will see from my projects, you can use the floral plates on their own for cards (and anything else!) too!

SNOWDROPS

For my first card, I used the beautiful January Snowdrops. Since snowdrops are winter flowers, I wanted to give a slight winter feel to the card with a little snowfall! To make this card:

• Place January Snowdrop Press Plate onto the Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto Platen and hold down at the corners using Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Ink up press plate using Betterpress Black Ink.
• Place Platen on top and run through Platinum Six.

• Cut panel down to 3 5/8^th” by 3.5” using Guillotine Paper Trimmer.
• Using Blending Brushes, blend Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet Distress Inks on top.
• Using the Mighty Mister Spray Bottle, spritz with water and dry.
• Mix Splatter White Opaque Watercolor with a little water and splatter onto panel using a paintbrush.

• Once dry, adhere panel to card base using foam tape.
• Stamp sentiment from Typewriter Adventure Sentiments onto Onyx Cardstock using Clear Embossing & Watermark Ink.
• Apply white embossing powder and heat set.
• Cut into a strip and adhere to card using foam tape.

After making this card, I did think the snowdrops would look really pretty foiled too, especially against the darker background!

COSMOS

My next card uses the October Cosmos. I decided after creating my first card that I would keep to the same colour combination but with a different design. To make this card:

• Place October Cosmos Press Plate onto the Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System slightly off to one side.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto Platen and hold down at the corners using Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Ink up press plate using Betterpress Black Ink.
• Place Platen on top and run through Platinum Six.

TIP: Every die-cutting machine is different, so find out what works best for you. For my machine, I like to remove one of the shims from under the Chase to get a better/cleaner-pressed impression.

• Take a Masking Sheet and cut to 4.25” x 5.5”. Place Essential Diamonds Etched Die in the middle and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Run through Platinum Six to create a mask/stencil.
• Remove the backing from Masking Sheet and adhere to the floral panel.

• Using Blending Brushes, blend Wilted Violet Distress Ink at the top of the diamond and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink at the bottom.
• Remove mask.
• Adhere panel to A2-sized white card base.
• Stamp and heat emboss Typewriter Adventure Sentiment onto Onyx Cardstock, cut into a strip and adhere to card with foam tape.
• To finish, embellish with Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems.

POPPY

For my last project, I thought I would keep the card with the same color combination again as I felt the colors worked well with the black silhouette flowers, and this way, I could give the cards as a set to a non-card maker as a gift. To make this card:

• Place August Poppy Press Plate onto the Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto Platen and hold down at the corners using Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Ink up press plate using Betterpress Black Ink.
• Place Platen on top and run through Platinum Six.

• Cut panel to 2.5” x 3.75” first and then cut it again to make 3 strips. On two of them, cut an extra little piece off of the strip so that you can leave a gap between the strips and the image still lines up.
• Add ink blending to each strip using Distress Inks and Blending Brushes. I used Mermaid Lagoon for the top strip, Blueprint Sketch for the middle, and Wilted Violet for the bottom one.
• Splatter on a little water with a paintbrush and set aside to dry.

• Adhere strips to A2-sized card base (4.25” x 5.5”) using foam tape. Use a T-square ruler to help line them up.
• Stamp and heat emboss Typewriter Adventure Sentiment onto Onyx Cardstock, cut into a strip and adhere to card with foam tape.
• To finish, embellish with Silver Mix Color Essentials Gems.

It was really fun to keep to the same color combination and just change up the design slightly on the cards. As I say, I think they work well as a set, but the colors and sentiments could easily be changed to mix things up a little! Thank you so much for popping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Other Supplies

Thin foam tape, Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink, Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink, Wilted Violet Distress Ink, white embossing powder.