Celebrating with Crafty Meraki

         Hello my fabulous friends,

and welcome to anyone who is new!

Crafty Meraki is celebrating their 4th anniversary, and they invited me to join in the fun!

Note: Products were provided by the company, however my opinions remain my own. Affiliate links have been used. This doesn't affect the price you pay, but it does a lot to help me continue bringing you new content. Thank you so much for your support!

 As Crafty Meraki celebrates its 4th anniversary this month, we're throwing a huge party with our Brand new #Merakiversary Release! It's been an incredible journey, and we're beyond grateful for your unwavering support every step of the way.  Thank you for FOUR AMAZING years of crafting adventures, and your unwavering support. Here's to many more to come! 

Discover intricate background dies that create stunning backdrops for your designs, with matching hot foil plates to add extra oomph to your projects. Join us in commemorating this special occasion with our irresistible cupcake layering die – a delightful treat for every crafting enthusiast. Don't miss out on the excitement of our #Merakiversary release – it's a crafting party you won't want to miss! 

As our way of saying thank you for being part of the Crafty Meraki family, we are giving away $100 gift certificate with each hop. Watch all month long for hops on Instagram, YouTube and our blog with multiple chances to win amazing PRIZES! 🤩  Enter by June 5th for each giveaway! Winners will be announced on the Crafty Meraki Facebook Group!

WARNING> Photo overload here!!!

 (but I'll try to make it worth your time)

For those of you familiar with my work, you know I love no-line watercolor florals!  This gorgeous Orchid Opulence stamp is no exception! 

This stamp set comes as one single stamp (intended to be die cut with one pass using the single die). This makes the die cutting easier if that's how you usually craft. However since that's not typically how I use stamps, I went ahead and cut the stamp apart using some sharp scissors so I can stamp each image individually like a typical stamp set. 

Don't worry, you can still use the die, just carefully line your stamps up on the printed acetate and just tape the whole acetate sheet to your stamp platform, then stamp as usual. As long as all the stamps are lined up with the printed images, they should be perfectly placed to use the die!

To start, I stamped the branch onto Arche cold press watercolor paper using Inkon3 Fadeout Ink. I then added one of the single orchids at the bottom of the stem to finish filling the length of the card.  

After stamping, I added a light messy wash of pink and yellow watercolors (making sure that some areas the colors mixed into peach, but other areas you see the individual colors). For those unfamiliar with watercolors, when I say "light" I'm not talking about the color... I mean, I used a lot of water to thin the paint down until it is light. Quinacridone Rose isn't a light color, but if you add enough water it becomes a very soft pink. 

 I only roughly tried to avoid the flowers, however I did try to follow the same diagonal line as the flowers. Don't over think this step, just throw some water and paint at it and let it dry completely! 

Once the background was dry, I started painting in my orchids. I used the same pink and yellow to paint the flowers as I did the background (but I used less water so the colors are darker). I mixed my pink and yellow together to get the base peach color and painted each petal. While the petals were wet, I dropped in little drops of yellow and pink in various areas. As long as your petal is wet when you drop in the colors, they should blend naturally without any effort on your part!

NOTE: if you are using a hot press watercolor paper or a cheap, non cotton watercolor paper, your paper may dry too quickly for this technique to work. Cold press 100% cotton paper will stay wet the longest- which is one of the reasons I prefer it.

Once the first layer was dry, I also added in some purple to my darkest shadows, and some green for my stems and buds.

After painting the orchids, I added a little bit of splatter using the left over puddle of paint on my palette. While you can't fully control splatter, I did try to keep the splatters following the same diagonal as the orchid so they move across the page with the orchid instead of just randomly being everywhere.

And a close up of those color blends... aren't they dreamy?

Ok, moving on to dies...

There's lots going on here, so let's take a look...

The background uses the Sahara Symphony cover die. I cut it out of white paper, then layered onto white paper. This give beautiful yet subtle texture to your background that won't pull focus from the main element of the card!

The focal point of this card uses both the Succulets die, and the Terrarium Add-On dies. The terrarium was cut from foiled cardstock to give it a metallic look. I also stacked a number of layers so it would fit over all the layers of succulents.

The succulents were colored by swiping 2 Distress Ink colors on my glass mat (Picked Raspberries and Lucky Clover), I then sprayed the ink with water, mixed the colors ever so slightly with my fingers, then started swiping watercolor paper through the puddles. Fun fact- these particular shades of pink and green when mixed together make beautiful shades of blue and purple- perfect for succulents!

I made a light, medium, and dark version using more water on the light, less water on the medium, and less water plus more layers (be sure to dry your paper between layers) for the dark. It was then a simple matter of die cutting and stacking layers of different values.

For this card I used Mosaic Maze Shimer plate to foil the background, the Succulents die for my focal point, and Orchid Opulence for my sentiment.

The way the Succulents die is made, you cut out all the layers for each succulent in one pass... so to get light and dark layers, you have to cut the whole thing from both a dark paper and a light paper... This mean that you can easily get a variety of looks simply by mixing and matching your dark medium and light values.. I was able to do these succulents for the left over pieces from my terrarium card!

More Distress swiping (both to create the background, and the light and dark layers of the succulent... this tine I used Peeled Paint and Forest Moss)

The colorful bad across the middle uses both the Mosaic Maze Shimmer plate to foil, and the Mosaic Maze stencil (off set) to add a little color to on otherwise monochrome card.

The sentiment is from Passion Posies

This colorful card uses a rainbow foil and the Sahara Symphony Shimmer plate behind the Sahara Symphony die. Love how it looks!

The sentiment is from Orchid Opulence

Again, this is using the left over green succulent pieces! 

And finally... I have a pile of background papers made with various techniques... some I like, some I don't, but I keep them 'just in case'... please tell me I'm not the only one!!!

Anyway, one trick for using up those backgrounds (especially the ones you don't really like) is to use a cover die like Sahara Symphony over top of it... it completely changes the look, and took this background that I probably never would have used, and changed it into one that I love!

The sentiment here is from Passion Posies, and the beautiful gem are Red Illusion.

Ok, now on to the rest of the hop!

For a chance to with a $100 gift card to Crafty Meraki, all you need to do is:
👉 Leave a comment on this blog post
👉 Visit each designer's blog 
👉 Comment on each designer's blog post

FULL Hop List:  <ADD the hop list>

** By entering entrants confirm that they are 13+ years of age, release and agree to Crafty Meraki's terms of use.

Crafty Meraki

Irene 

Bonnie

Deepa

Andrea

Michelle

Kassi {you are here}

Ilda

I'll be back with more soon... see you then! 

~Kassi

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