Hi everyone.  I’m Ellen Vargo.  I am a signature designer for PaperArtsy, as well as a former design team member for Simon Says Stamp & Show.   I am thrilled to have the chance to do a guest post STAMPtember® and thought I would take it a step further and design an exclusive stamp set for the event.  I’m a big fan of flowers, so I wanted to do some hand drawn sketchy designs.  Below I’m showing 3 different ways to use them for cards, adding some of my other stamps as well as other fabulous PaperArtsy products.  I hope you enjoy them!

The first card in the set shows how you can make a clean and simple card using just one stamp set.  I used Versamark ink and black embossing powder to emboss the coneflower two times onto PaperArtsy’s Smoothy Heavyweight card stock, then painted the flowers in with a watery mix of Fresco Finish chalk acrylic paints.  Then I stamped the sentiment with Versafine black onyx ink directly onto the card front.  I added a black outline with a sharpie paint pen, matted the whole card front onto orange card stock, and with a few sequins you’ve got an elegant and simple one layer card.

The second card shows more of my typical style, which is very mixed media / painty / inky.  I used a brayer (inky roller) with Fresco Finish paints to create a multi layered background and added some paint-stamping with stamps from EEV01 and EEV06.   Then I stamped the fringy flower from the exclusive stamp set onto white card stock, painted it in with Fresco Finish paints, and then did some fussy-cutting and adhered it to the card.  The fussy cutting allows you to layer a bright flower onto a darker background.  The sentiment was stamped with Versafine black onyx ink, double matted and outlined with a black fine-line pen so it would stand out.

And our final card shows how to make another mixed media background with a dimensional flower.  I created another multi-layer background with a brayer (inky roller) and Fresco Finish paints, then added some textural stamping with archival inks as well as paint, and this time I added a layer of tissue paper collage made with the dotty stamp from EEV06.  Added some white dots as accents with a white paint pen and a few scattered sequins.  I stamped the tulip three times and painted it in with coordinating but different fresco paints, and then cut different layers from each flower, gluing them on top of each other with foam dots between the layers.  The dimension doesn’t show too well in the main photo, but there’s a detail pic below so you can see.

This picture shows the dimension of the multi-layered tulip with foam dots between the layers.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few different ways to use my new flower stamps along with my go-to favorite paints and paper from PaperArtsy.  Thanks to Heidi and the SSS family for the opportunity to share my stamps and my style with all of you.  Happy STAMPtember®!

~ ellen

Hey everyone! It’s Shari here with another card using Ellen’s stamps. I fell in love with the tulip blossom and tried something a little different. I used Peakcock Feathers, Rusty Hinge and Peeled Paint Distress markers to color my flower.

I also played around with the Paper Artsy JOFY letters and Gesso to create a unique background. The new Tim Holtz Distress sprays Peacock Feathers, Rusty Hinge and Peeled Paint were used for my color.

I have a video for you with the full process. Enjoy!

All of the products in this “Paper Artsy Sale” category:  http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/category/Shop-Stamps-and-Stamping-Paper-Artsy-Sale are 75% off when you use coupon code ARTSY! OR you will receive a FREE Paper Artsy Gift (while supplies last) with coupon code ARTSYGIFT.

Blog Candy Alert!! Follow our blog via email and comment on this post for a chance to win a special blog candy from our STAMPtember® stash!

Thanks for coming by today, hope you’re having a great week-end!

Ellen Vargo Supplies:

Shari Carroll Supplies: