Hey everyone! Happy Thursday!
If you’ve visited my blog before, you know I have a thing for ink. Particularly, especially, now almost exclusively, Catherine Pooler’s inks.
I go crazy for colours. Dippy for dye. Potty for pigment. Not-quite-sold on solvent (me and StazOn just aren’t friends. Sorry StazOn.).
You get the picture.
I’d probably class myself as a bit of an ink connoisseur. That’s a bit of a nicer way of saying I’m picky. I wouldn’t go as far as snooty or pretentious – but I can definitely say that some inks would never make it to my table, let alone onto one of my cards.
So when I tell you the Catherine Pooler inks are the best of the best, you get how big a deal that is.
Ever since those inks have come into my life, it’s been love at first sight. Or should that be love at first stamp? Either way, I was sold immediately, and now they’re pretty much the only inks I use.
So the moment I knew that another collection of inks was on its way, you can imagine how psyched I was.
I couldn’t wait to put these new inks through their paces! If you have the Spa Ink Collection, then you will definitely find that the Zen Garden Ink Collection nicely fills in the ‘gaps’ in the spectrum! These colours are less saturated (more grey) than the vibrant Party inks, but the same formulation of awesome! The colours from both collections won’t always play nicely together, but they will certainly expand your stamping possibilities many fold!
Catherine also released a massive bundle of new goodies earlier this week, all of which can be found here.
I paired the new inks with the Doodle Garden Background stamp, the Eat Sleep Create stamp set, and the Thanks die and got to work!
Let’s get to the cards.
We’ll start with this baby, shall we?! I wanted to create something a bit different with the inks and a plaid seemed like the perfect thing!
I stamped the lines using some of my long rectangular acrylic blocks! They worked perfectly for the wider stripes! I inked up the blocks, stamped off once, then spritzed with water and stamped them down! I was careful to heat set the stripes between each step so that the colours would not muddy when they crossed paths – you want a nice blend of the colours, not a mess!
I used the long stripe stamp from Eat Sleep Create, along with the line of dots stamp for some added interest and thinner line detail. The finest lines were drawn with a pen. Then I die cut the ‘Thanks’ from black cardstock, heat embossed it a few times with black embossing powder for some dimension, then adhered with Pinflair Glue Gel for some dimension. Love how this turned out!
For my next project, I wanted to play with the Doodle Garden Background stamp:
What a stunner! This one took ages to watercolour but it was so worth it!
I stamped the background with Versafine ink, then wet my cardstock and went to town! I used every ink from the Zen Garden Collection (apart from Spruce) and had so much fun painting this intricate design!
Because that background is the star of the show, I went with a very small sentiment. I built it using two different sentiments from the Faithful Flutterings stamp set and heat embossed it with white embossing powder onto black cardstock. I trimmed it out then adhered it to my design. Perfect!
For my final card, I wanted to go in a completely different direction and put the Eat Sleep Create set through its paces a bit more:
I’m a big fan of Ashley Goldberg and the stamps in this set really allowed me to emulate her style!
I used the brushstroke stamps, along with the ‘ink, stamp off, spritz with water’ technique to add the swipes of colour. I then used Versafine ink to stamp the black details and the sentiments.
This turned out so fun!
Giveaway!
So I bet you’d like to get your hands on some of these new goodies, right? Read on!
All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is leave me a comment – and then make sure you visit the other hop destinations too to check out the amazing inspiration and increase your chances of winning by commenting there too!
Here’s your Hop line-up for today!
Catherine Pooler
Jen Carter
Tracie Pond
Melissa Miller
Susan Powell
Karen Baker
Ardyth Percy-Robb
Laurel Beard
Allison Cope
Taheerah Atchia
As I mentioned, this is the third of three Blog Hops – and each day’s Hop has two prizes to give away! Two very lucky random winners per day will each win a set of Zen Garden inks (or a $45 gift certificate to spend in Catherine’s store if you’ve already bought them!).
You have until 11:55am EST on Friday 16th February to enter. Good luck!
And don’t forget to head over to Catherine’s store now to get your hands on those new inks and goodies!
Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies
Rainbow Plaid Thanks Card
Hey There Rainbow Doodle Flowers Card
Create Every Day Brushstrokes Card
Great cards! Love the plaid. Thanks for sharing.
Nice, what beautiful colors! I absolutely love your plaid card.
Awesome cards! Really love that first one! Great colors! I have not had a chance to try out any of Catherine’s inks yet, but have heard nothing but rave reviews about them! Such gorgeous colors too!
Oh wow, beautiful work!
Thanks for showing off the new release! Catherine Pooler products rock!
Love these cards!!! Thanks for the inspiration ?
Well, I guess that first card is plaid. Whatever it is, I love it. And the watercoloring on the doodle garden – I might get two flowers colored before I lost my patience. But it is beautiful to look at. Amazing colors.
Beautiful ccards! You are very creative. Thank you for sharing! I agree her inks are my go to inks also
I agree that Catherines inks are the best. They are all I use anymore, because you can use them with so many techniques, so I only need one type of ink pad. CP! did it right.
Love the cards you made to inspire me. You are very talented.
Oh how cute are your cards!!! I really like “create everyday” ????
All your projects are really lovely but I LOVE, LOVE the Doodle Garden. The coloring is SO gorgeous. I would only be able to give that to my husband cause I know I could get it back.
Great cards…. beautiful and so creative. Wow! That plaid is so pretty and clever? Wow wow wow!
Great cards! Your testimony for CP inks leads me closer to purchasing some. I’m going to move through this blog hop to see more examples.
Wow…im new to the ink color thing so id love to give these a pouncin…
Beautiful cards n colors!
Wow nice cards! From what I have see her inks look amazing!
Very playful feel to these cards. The watercolor doodle garden is gorgeous!
Fabulous–love the plaid.
So many wonderful cards. Each so unique in thier own way! I love your fun and funky style!
Beautiful colors in the collections, and love your cards.
Stunning cards Taheerah! Thanks so much for introducing me to Catherine Pooler designs – I think you’ve started a life long addiction!
Your cards are so pretty! Thanks for all the inspiration!
If I have a style yet, the doodle garden is it! Ooooh, such yummy colors! I have heard her name here and there, but am becoming increasingly aware. I just finished up the “help the youtubers” hop and heard lots of wonderful words. Of course, she was sponsoring a prize!!! I am glad to hear your input and would love to give these beauties a try. Thank you.
Great projects really like the background card the best.
Wow, love all the colorful flowers! Gorgeous card!
Doodle garden is so beautiful! I love your watercoloring
Great cards! Love the plaid card! So simple but yet so striking!
Love, Love that plaid. It is gorgeous. Make a great baby card. I love the new doodle Garden background Stamp.
These are all great ideas. So lovely.
Love your cards especially the watercolored Doodle Background one! thanks for sharing.
Love how you created that plaid -it looks great! Lovely spring colors, just what I need on a grey day!
Beautiful cards, love the colors in your plaid card.
Thank you for sharing how you created that beautiful pastel plaid background. My computer is on the blink, so I can’t see the whole Doodle Garden card, but what I can see is fabulous. I will tune in tomorrow when the cable company says all will be fixed, and look at the whole picture.
Love these cards!!! Thanks for sharing ?
Nice use of water colors. I really like the plaid look. I will have to man up and try water colors one day.
These cards are absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing!!!
Fabulous inking on all
the cards and I love
the Hey You, so pretty.
Carla from Utah
Hi, Your cards are beautiful, love the inks and I really love that thanks die. It was good to see your name on a blog hop again, I use to see you on your Christmas blog hop you did and I had so much fun that I signed up to get your blog posts in my email I got I think 1 after Christmas so I just thought you were taking time off, something must of gone wrong so guess I will have to sign up again, unless you deleted me for some reason LOL. Good to see your beautiful cards again, have a wonderful day.
That spritzed plaid pattern really appealed to me. Thanks for tips.
That plaid!!! It is a thing of beauty. Love these inks.
Such a variety of cards! I especially like the plaid…gorgeous!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
Love your designs! Great cards!!
What lovely lovely cards! Thanks do much for sharing!
The plaid is fantastic. I’ve never tried to make my own.
Love the blending of the colors on the flower panel.
Have to get more of these inks.
thanks for sharing
txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com
I love your cards and the many different ways you approached them! I was a little shocked that you hadn’t watercolored your first card; I thought for sure you had! So now I know that I need to try the spritzing the stamp technique, because it absolutely works! Thanks for sharing all these great ideas!
Wow! Your cards are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing..
Your cards are stunning and I love them all. Thank you for sharing your amazing talent.
Stunning cards. The doodle one is so playful. The last one is soft with a bold statement. Thank you for sharing.
Terrific cards and the plaid is so soft and gorgeous.
Wow! Your cards are so colorful! These inks are amazing!