Four Ways to Create Cards with Nature Blossoms Stamp & Die Set

Hello, Altenew friends! Norine here with you today to share four cards I made recently with the Nature Blossoms Stamp & Die Bundle.  Each of the cards today showcases the lovely florals in four unique ways.

The Nature Blossom stamp set is my favorite type of Altenew set. It has outline images that can stand alone for filled in coloring and the layered images that make filling in the outlines easy and beautiful every time!

Card 1

My first card today is a simple stamped card, using one of the blooms and three of the leaf images and stamping with Obsidian Pigment Ink on Altenew watercolor cardstock paper.  Then, I watercolored them using the Watercolor 36 Pan Set.

Once the flower and leaves were dry, I filled in the background with more diluted paint colors and added black paint speckles to finish.

I stamped a lovely “handwritten” sentiment from the recently released Fragile Foliage Stamp Set using Obsidian Pigment Ink.  Then, I cropped the bottom and side at a wonky angle and matted the card front with a matching blue cardstock.

Card 2

The next card is also watercolored, but this time I stamped on smooth watercolor paper with a light brown water-based ink to facilitate my effort at “no-line” watercoloring.

I am just learning the “no-line” watercoloring approach, but as I do more of it, I'm becoming more comfortable with the technique and am learning some things as I go!  For example, I find a very fine-tipped brush is what allows me to paint the tiny spaces and very precise corners and edges with deeper pigment, giving that sharp contrast of light to dark that delineates the lines. For this card I used a #1 size paint brush.

I wasn't so successful with the center of the bloom (but that's just a reason to try again, right?), so I added back in some details with a fine liner pen. As with the stamped card pictured above, I imagined stems to the leaves and painted and drew them in by hand.

I stamped another sentiment from the Fragile Foliage Stamp Set and heat set it with Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder, and added more paint speckles with leftover paint.

Card 3

For the next two cards, I used the layer stamps to color in the flowers and leaves.  On the card above, I stamped the outline images with Obsidian Pigment Ink onto Classic Crest Solar White Cardstock, then filled in the leaves with greens from the Tropical Forest and Field Greens Ink families, and the flower layers with the Red Sunset Ink family.

I die cut each of the stamped images with the coordinating die set and arranged them on top of a green cardstock card panel die-cut with the Dotted Swirls Debossing Die. I adhered the leaves to the debossed card panel and popped up the flower above them with some foam tape.

Once more, I stamped a sentiment from the Fragile Foliage Stamp Set, with Obsidian Pigment Ink onto the textured cardstock.

Card 4

My final card today is comprised of an arrangement of bloom and leaves stamped with Obsidian Pigment Ink for the outline, and with the Green Valley and Green Meadows ink families for the leaves and Red Cosmos inks for the flower.

I die cut one of the stand alone dies in the Spring Roses Die set from 110lb white cardstock but I didn't remove the die-cut  pieces from the card panel, choosing to leave it in the negative outline, (and keeping it secure with some thin tape on the backside) and using it for a decorative background behind the stamped flower and leaves.

I lifted the tips of some of the leaves to add visual interest, but popping some foam tape behind the leaves, and I stamped another sentiment from the Fragile Foliage stamp set.

Each of my cards today is finished off with some coordinating enamel dots, and a few of those colors are taken from the recent Serenity Enamel Dot Release of Shades of Purple, Warm & Cozy, Sea Shore, and Tropical Forest.

Thanks for stopping by today and for your interest in our creative efforts. I hope you find something in the variety of techniques and styles I've shared today that piques your interest and inspires you to try something similar or different!