Author: birch press

  • forever grateful | by Rosemary Dennis

    forever grateful | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hi everyone! Rosemary here on the blog today. August is almost gone and that means that fall is right around the corner! I love fall in the Pacific Northwest. We can have beautiful clear blue-sky days that are slightly crisp, soggy wet ones and things in-between! Today I’m sharing a card that invokes the beautiful fall colors of oak leaves that are so fun to walk through on a crisp fall morning. Take a look.

    If you don’t know yet, Birch Press has a new release in the shop and it is full of beautiful dies that will help you create lovely fall and Christmas inspired projects. Today I’m using the new Adornment Oak Leaf and Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers dies from the release along with a sentiment from the Brushed Sentiments set. A few weeks ago I created a few mixed media type panels using Memory Box mirror cardstock and alcohol inks. One of the panels I created used a piece of orange mirror cardstock from the Rainbow Reflections 6×6 pad. The resulting panel had a very subtle look to it. I was able to die cut something else from it and then used what was left over to die cut the outline of the Adornment Oak Leaf.

    The solid oak leaf was die cut from a piece of watercolor cardstock I had sprayed with several different distress mica sprays in fall colors. I also die cut the bare branches from the Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers die set from the same piece. I adhered the outline leaf to the solid leaf and then arranged and adhered the bare branches. The photo below shows some of the shine and layering of colors from the distress sprays and the alcohol inks.

    I used Memory Box woodgrain cardstock in kraft for the background and die cut it with the second largest die from the Memory Box Curved Cap Pinpoint layers die set. A piece of off white cardstock was die cut with a rectangle die, adhered to my card base and then I layered on the woodgrain panel. I adhered the oak leaf with thin foam squares and added the little twine bow.

    I stamped the sentiment from Brushed Sentiments using a brown ink on off white cardstock, die cut it with the smallest Curved Cap Pinpoint die and adhered it to the panel. I finished off the card with some fall colored fairy jewels from the Autumn pack. I placed three under the sentiment and then scattered a few on the bare branches.

    I hope my card inspired you to get out your fall themed Birch Press Design dies and get going on those fall themed cards! Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

    Supplies

    57524 Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers

    57484 Adornment Oak Leaf

    CL8158 Brush Sentiments clear stamp set

    FP1003 Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad

    94646 Curved Cap Pinpoint Layers

    jwl004 Autumn Fairy Jewels

    sh44003 Kraft Woodgrain Paper Pack

  • Autumn Leaves Bouquet | by Toni M Maddox

    Autumn Leaves Bouquet | by Toni M Maddox

    Hello, Birch Press fans! Toni here with you today all geared up for fall, my favorite season when the nights are cool, the days warm and the leaves are changing.

    I cut out and impressed the new Adornment Oak Leaf from a sturdy white cardstock which I sponged with Distress Oxide Mustard Seed and Lumberjack Plaid. Check out the detail on those leaves–just amazing!

    I spattered the leaves with water and Distress Oxide Festive Berries, Vintage Photo and Carved Pumpkin sprays.

    I arranged the leaves on the Memory Box Cream Woodgrain card front, tucking in a few Hillside Branches. I used a bow leftover from last year’s holiday cards (look at me using up leftovers!).

    The sentiment is from the Memory Box Gracious Floral set stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s card and have a great rest of your week!

    Supplies

    57484 Adornment Oak Leaf

    57524 Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers

    CL5280 Gracious Floral Clear Stamp Set

    SH44002 Cream Woodgrain Paper Pack

  • Forest Berry Note | By Seeka

    Forest Berry Note | By Seeka

    Hello and welcome! Seeka here and today’s card features the Forest Leaf and Berries Contour Layers die set.

    I doubled up on the berries, die cutting two sets, one out of red tones and one out of fuchsia tones. I also made two sets of leaves and two sets of stems. I glued the layers together and then arranged and adhered them, using foam tape, to a circle of white cardstock. I glued this to a slightly larger vellum circle to create a subtle frame.

    To finish, I used foam tape to adhere the berry piece to a white panel cut with the Pinpoint Contour Plate and then added a matte gold sentiment made with the Handwritten Just A Note And Outline die set.

    Thank you so much for visiting!


    Supplies


    57514 Forest Leaf and Berries Contour Layers
    57511 Pinpoint Contour Plate
    57334 Handwritten Just a Note and Outline
  • Fall Gratitude | By Seeka

    Fall Gratitude | By Seeka

    Hello and welcome! Seeka here and today I’m sharing a fall-themed card featuring the the Adornment Pumpkin.

    I started by die cutting the pumpkin from three different shades of orange cardstock (the Sunny Orange 6×6 cardstock pack is a good option). Then I cut the leaves and stem from shades of green and brown cardstock. I used a blending brush and orange, green, and brown inks to add shading to die cut pieces and then glued them all together.

    For the background, I used the Forest Canopy Layer C frame die to cut a peace of green cardstock. I glued the piece to a panel of white cardstock and then used foam tape to adhere the pumpkin, leaves, and stem. To finish, I added a sentiment from my stash and glued the card front to a card base.

    Thank you so much for visiting!


    Supplies


    57481 Adornment Pumpkin
    57534 Forest Canopy Layer Set
    SP1002 Sunny Orange 6×6 pack
  • Pink Adornment Pumpkin | by Crystal Komara

    Pink Adornment Pumpkin | by Crystal Komara

    Hello friends and happy Friday! I hope you have fun things planned for the weekend ahead! This is Design Team member Crystal Komara here with you today sharing a card made using the new Adornment Pumpkin dies.

    I looooooove how this card came out, if I do say so myself! While the pink alcohol ink pumpkin is a little more vibrant than I had initially intended, it works. That’s the thing with alcohol ink, you never quite know what you’re going to get and they can be a bit unpredictable in how they move and dry as you blow them around.

    Card details:

    *Please note, a full list of supplies is located at the end of this post.

    The base of this A2 sized card was made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth alcohol ink. Using Layer Plate A (the top layer) of the Herbarium Plate Layering Set, I die cut this from white cardstock and then mounted a sheet of magneta cardstock behind it before adhering it directly to the card base. I die cut the solid pumpkin from a scrap piece of an alcohol ink background I had in my craft bin and then die cut the frame using pink glitter cardstock from the 6″ x 6″ Glitzy Glitter paper pack. I adhered the two layers together with a fine tip liquid glue.

    I created a pumpkin stem from espresso brown cardstock and leaves from both green cardstock and green glitter cardstock. There was a lot of piece work here using these smaller contour dies. Next, using the new Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layers, I die cut leaves from pink glitter cardstock, espresso brown carsdstock and the same green and green glitter cardstock used on the leaves. Then I pieces all the layers of the leaves together (again, a little bit time consuming here to do all these small details, but SO worth it in the end). Then it was just a matter of adhering all the small branches and leaves into a pattern that was pleasing to the eye.

    I stamped the sentiment “forever grateful” in magenta ink on white cardstock and used oval punch to punch it over before adhering it to the pumpkin with 3M foam adhesive. This sentiment is from the Brush Sentiments clear stamp set.

    I love using non-traditional colors to create holiday or seasonal cards. Pink is perfect in lieu of traditional orange pumpkins.

    Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

    Supplies

    57481 Adornment Pumpkin

    57525 Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layers

    CL8158 Brush Sentiments clear stamp set

    GP1007 Glitzy Glitter Pad

    SP1003 Lush Green 6×6 pack

    SP1007 Vibrant Violet 6×6 pack

    57458 Herbarium Plate Layer Set

  • Autumn Thanks | by Sandhya Iyer

    Autumn Thanks | by Sandhya Iyer

    Hello Birch Press friends! This is Sandhya and I am super thrilled to be a part of the Birch Press design team and look forward to sharing my ideas and creations with all of you. I will start off with a couple of ‘thank you’ cards using the gorgeous new Adornment Wreath die set. It was fun playing with the delicate leaves as well as filling them up with leftover die-cuts.

    I started by trimming a piece of copper cardstock from the Memory box Glitzy Glitter Pad to a 4.25″x5.5″ panel. Then, I centered the detailed part of the Adornment Wreath die right in the middle of that panel and die-cut the wreath. I made sure to save the loose leaves that fell out of the die-cut wreath. Next, I used the Big Thanks Sugar Script die to cut out my sentiment from the same glitter panel and set it aside.

    Then, I trimmed a panel out of white cardstock to measure 4″x5.25″ and gently ink-blended around its edges with Antique linen Distress ink. I die-cut the wreath shadow layer out of white cardstock and ink blended over it with orange, yellow, and green inks and smaller-sized blending brushes.

    Now that I have all the bits and bobs ready, I assembled my card using glue and foam tape. First, I aligned the delicate glitter wreath over the ink-blended shadow and filled some of the gaps with solid leaf die-cuts. I didn’t add much glue towards the outer edges and gently lifted the glitter cardstock for added dimension. I adhered this down on the ink-blended panel and added the thanks sentiment using thin foam tape. Finally, I matted this panel with the glitter panel I used for diecutting and adhered it to an A2 card base.

    As I was creating this card, I had another idea to use the solid leaves to fill out the wreath a bit more. So I ended up creating another fun card to give this a try. For this card, I cut the wreath out of gold cardstock from the Memory Box Rainbow Reflection Mirror pad. I cut the solid shadow layer out of white cardstock and set them aside.

    Next, I stamped my sentiment from the Classic Sentimental Wreath stamp set on white cardstock and heat-embossed it in gold. I added a gold mat for my sentiment strip for added glam. Then, I went to play with a piece of watercolor paper and ink smooshing with Distress Oxide inks in fall colors – Crackling Campfire, Mustard Seed, and Mowed Lawn.

    I inked around the edges in orange and popped the watercolor panel on an A2 card base with foam tape. Next, I aligned the gold wreath imperfectly over the white solid layer and adhered it to the inky panel with foam tape. I went on to tuck the solid golden leaves to fill out the wreath. I just fell in love with this look and might just create this look in different colors now. Anyways, I went on to add the sentiment strip and finish this card. I would love to know your thoughts on my cards and if you will give any of these a try. Thank you so much for stopping by today.

    Supplies:

    57485 Adornment Wreath
    57142 Big Thanks Sugar Script
    8157 Classic Sentimental Wreath stamp and die set
    GP1007 Glitzy Glitter Pad
    FP1003 Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad
  • Warm Wishes | by Allison Frazier

    Warm Wishes | by Allison Frazier

    Hello, Birch Press friends! Today, I am sharing a mini slimline card featuring the new Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers set. I used some cool, frosty colors for the branches to turn this into a holiday card. And while the cool colors may be in sharp contrast to the sentiment itself, I love the color palette.

    I started by choosing three different colors of blue card stock. I used the medium blue for the base of my card panel, which measures 6″ x 3.25″. I then used the main branch die (the one that has both the leaves and berries) to cut the lightest color of blue. I cut berries out of two colors of red card stock and adhered those on top of the light blue layer. I cut the top layer for that branch out of white card stock and adhered that onto the light blue layer, as well.

    Next, I played around with the arrangement of my three branches on the card panel. Once I was happy with the basic arrangement, I cut two pieces of the darkest blue card stock to match the curves in the branches. I adhered these two pieces on top of the medium blue card panel, making sure to cut off any excess that was hanging off the edges. I then used the secondary branches die from the set to cut both the medium and dark blue card stock. This gave me three branches each for each color. I glued those along the curves that I had created, making sure to glue the dark blue branches on top of the dark blue parts and the medium blue pieces onto the medium blue parts of the panel. This gives some tone on tone texture. I glued the finished branches on top of these, following the curves that I had created.

    I used the new Warm Wishes Vintage Sentiment die set, which I love. I cut both the bottom and detail layers out of red card stock and adhered those together. I then adhered a white detail layer on top. I cut one more branch out of white card stock to fill in a bit of empty space on the top left. To finish the card, I added some clear fairy jewels.

    I hope this card puts a smile on your face and inspires you! Thank you so much for joining us today.


    Supplies


    57524 Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers
    57539 Warm Wishes Vintage Sentiment
    sp1006 Stormy Blue 6×6 pack
    sp1001 Berry Red 6×6 pack

    Supplies


    jwl001 Clear Jewels
  • A Fall Thank You | By Natasha Vacca

    A Fall Thank You | By Natasha Vacca

    Hello Birch Press friends, it is Natasha here and I am excited to be back with you today! Today I created a fall thank you card using the new Oak Leaf die set. I am a summer girl at heart, however I do love the colors of Fall! So let’s get started!

    I started by creating 2 panels using mixed media paper and my Distress Mica Stains. I chose 3 colors to use today to create the panels. The panels will be used to die cut my leaves. I spritzed the colors onto my paper one at a time, heat set them with my heat tool, added water droplets, and picked up the color with a paper towel. I continued this process until I had the colors and texture I was looking for. I set the panels aside to completely dry as I worked on my background.

    Next I chose a piece of kraft paper from my stash and dry embossed the panel using the Memory Box Geometric Crystals embossing folder. I then used a sanding tool to distress the dry embossed panel in various sections. To add a bit more texture and dimension to the panel I applied Distress Oxide inks to the panel in 3 of the corners.

    Next I trimmed the panel using my Deckle Trimmer and distressed the edges using Distress Ink. I added splatters to the panel using black and gold splatter. I set the panel aside to completely dry.

    Next I took my 2 panels I created using the Distress Mica Stains and die cut 2 leaves using the new Oak Leaf Die set. I also die cut the top layer using white card stock. I then ink blended the top layer of the leaves using oxides and once dry added Foundry Wax for added shine. I then adhered both layers of the leaves together using liquid adhesive.

    To complete my card, I adhered the dry embossed panel onto an A2 card base using liquid adhesive. I adhered the leaves with foam tape. I chose the sentiment from Handwritten Thanks and Outline die set. I die cut the script Thanks 3 times, using black card stock, as well as from the Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad. I adhered the layers together using liquid glue and added this to my card front. I chose a sub sentiment from my stash and completed the card with a few gems from Autumn Fairy Jewels. Thanks so much for stopping by today! I will be back soon!


    Supplies


    57484 Adornment Oak Leaf
    57420 Handwritten Thanks and Outline

    Supplies


    FP1003 Rainbow Reflections Mirror Pad
    EF1016 Geometric Crystals 3D Embossing Folder
    jwl004 Autumn Fairy Jewels
  • Peacock Hello | by Crystal Komara

    Peacock Hello | by Crystal Komara

    Hello readers! This is Design Team member Crystal Komara here today sharing one of my “oldie but goodie” favorite dies. As much as I despise birds (shhhhh!), I do admire the peacock simply for the gorgeous plumage of its quills. I mean who wouldn’t want to shake their booty and BOOM! Instant wow factor! : )

    Just look at the details in those tail feathers!

    The base of this A2 sized card was made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. On a 5 1/4″ x 4″ piece of the same white cardstock, I heat foiled the Gilded Grace Hot Foil plate with gold foil. I only used the large background piece (and not the center cut outs) for this card. Then I created the layers of the peacock using a variety of teal and purple cardstock from the Ocean Blue 6 x 6″ paper pack and Vibrant Violet 6″ x 6″ paper pack. For the top layer (Layer A) and the main body of the peacock I used a teal glitter paper from the Glitzy Glitter 6″ x 6″ paper pack.

    I then adhered the peacock to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.

    For the sentiment I heat foiled the Hello Sugar Script with purple foil on white cardstock. I used the coordinating die to cut it out and adhered it to the card with foam adhesive.

    Ahhhh, she’s so pretty! I hope you have enjoyed today’s card! Be sure to come back tomorrow for more inspiration from my fellow design team members!

    Supplies

    56099 Regal Peacock Layer Set

    BPF512 Gilded Grace Hot Foil Plate and Die Set

    SP1005 Ocean Blue 6×6 pack

    SP1007 Vibrant Violet 6×6 pack

    57143 Hello Sugar Script

  • Using Neutral Colors on Flowers and Leaves | by Colleen Balija

    Using Neutral Colors on Flowers and Leaves | by Colleen Balija

    Hi friends,

    I like to get really playful with color palettes on my cards, and I’m always on the search for new inspiration! Recently I found a card on Instagram that used neutral colors and the end result was just so cool! So, I decided to test those colors out on my next BPD card, and today I want to share with you how I brought my card to life using neutral colors! I’ll be using Large Cosmos Contour Layer die, NEW Curved Leaf Branch Contour Layers die, NEW Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layer die, Memory Box Woodgrain paper, Warm Wishes die, and NEW Fairy Gemstones! You will find a link to these products at the end of this post.

    Generally, my first step in creating a card is to choose the color palette. In this case, I went with a wheat color along with black and white! I searched for an ink color that was closest to the Wheat color I wanted. Next, I die cut the BPD flowers and leaves and adhered the layers together. I love how BPD embosses each layer, making it easy for you to build your layered dies!

    Most of my leaves and the Cosmos flower were done in white with exception to the center of the flower and the Curved Leaf Branches. Those were inked up in Mustard Brown and black ink. You can get a good visual of them in the photo below!

    Next, I created a background to compliment the foliage. I trimmed a piece of Woodgrain paper by Memory Box to 5.25×4.00 and then ran the Mustard Brown ink directly over the card panel quite generously. The woodgrain gives it a cool texture! I also trimmed a piece of black card to the same size. I tore the left edge on both panels, making the brown layer slightly smaller than the black, and adhered them together. I also stamped a sentiment randomly in black ink over the Woodgrain panel to add interest and give the card a mixed media vibe. You can see the stamping, the texture from the woodgrain, and the torn edges in the photo below.

    Next, I adhered both layers to a 5.5×4.25 white card panel. Then I created a sentiment using the new Warm Wishes layering die in black and white. Now it was time to finish my card! I like to play with placement of my flowers and leaves before I adhere them down so that they are exactly where I want them! I adhered the Curved Leaf Branch (the ones in black and brown) first, then the Cosmos flower (popped up on foam tape), and then placed several white leaves around the flower. I was careful to leave a bit of the stamping peek through on the Mustard Brown card panel! Then I finished with the Warm Wishes sentiment, propped up on foam tape. Below is a closer look at that lovely new sentiment die! It’s the perfect size!

    What makes this card pop is the amount of detail, from stamping onto the Mustard Brown ink to tearing the edges of the panels. The BPD dies are so detailed that die cutting them in white is beautiful! Also, there is a good balance of color between the white, black, and brown, going from lightest to darkest.

    Next time you create a card, pull out your neutrals and see what you come up with! This is the perfect time of year as we head into fall to create a card in these colors! Thanks for stopping by!

    Supplies Used: 

     

    SH44002 Cream Woodgrain Paper Pack

     

    GEM101 Treasure Chest Fairy Gemstones

     

    57528 Large Cosmos Contour Layers

     

    57513 Curved Leaf Branch Contour Layers

     

    57525 Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layers

     

    57539 Warm Wishes Vintage Sentiment