Catherine Pooler Designs | Kind of Batty Blog Hop | Monochromatic Cards

Hi Everyone and Welcome to Day 2 of the Kind of Batty Blog Hop!

You should have arrived here from the always awesome Jen Carter’s blog. If you get lost along the way, the full list of stops along the hop is at the end of this post.  Be sure to comment on each post to be in with a chance to win – 3 random lucky winners will be chosen to receive a $25 gift voucher.  Winners will be announced on the evening of August 20th on Catherine’s blog.

Earlier on Day 1 you saw me use some of the new Halloween goodies in the release.  Today I’m using some of the floral and leaf designs and kindness dies (hence the ‘Kind of’ Batty !) which are absolutely stunning.  There are two amazing large layering stamp sets featuring roses and leaves, with co-ordinating dies.  There is a super modern (and yet retro!) abstract background stamp, and then a fabulous new Kindness sentiment set and a trio of dies.   See the bottom of this post for links to all the new goodies.

I was inspired by the combination of modern with soft and floral in this release.  I will also admit I am a little scared about choosing color combos in layering stamps, so I wanted to show you how you can use basic neutrals with layering stamps and still get amazing results. All of my cards today are monochromatic and use only Midnight and Black Jack inks for the stamping to create classy and elegant monochromatic cards.  But of course, you can now also add the Twilight mid grey ink into your arsenal to avoid all the double stamping I do here.

Cards 1 (and 2) – Abstract Focus

My first cards are the same, and are negative images of each other (almost).  They use the new Angled Squares Background stamp.  This stamp is just begging for a big focal point!  I first stamped the background onto an A2 panel of Catherine Pooler Designs Premium White cardstock in Midnight ink.  I used my MISTI to ensure it was fully lined up.  I then stamped it again in Versamark onto an A2 panel of Catherine’s awesome grey Smoke and Mirrors cardstock, and heat embossed in white embossing powder.

I then used the Three of a Kind die set, and die cut the largest directly into the centre of the square on the background panels to create a window.  On the grey heat embossed panel, I adhered some silver mirror cardstock behind the opening.  I then adhered both panels onto Premium White Notecards.  These are pre-scored and SO HANDY!

I die cut the second largest Kind die from Premium White cardstock and the smallest from Smoke and Mirrors cardstock, layered them together with liquid glue and adhered it down onto the silver foil opening on the heat embossed card.   The sentiments on this card are from the Kind of Wonderful stampset from the new release, stamped in Catherine Pooler Black Jack ink onto white cardstock, trimmed out and popped up on foam tape.  I scattered some clear confetti sequins on the card for a little subtle sparkle.

For the white card, I die cut the two smaller layers from the Three of a Kind dies from silver glitter cardstock and Midnight cardstock, layered them together and adhered over the opening.  The sentiment is from Kind of Wonderful, and heat embossed in white onto Smoke and Mirrors cardstock and popped up on foam tape.  I used the same confetti sequins to finish.

Card 2 – Monochromatic Roses

My second card uses the Rose Garden layering stamp set from the new release.  I used the Midnight and Black Jack inks to stamp all the layers.  The roses and little bunch of flowers in this set each have four layers.  The lightest (and largest) layer is stamped in Black Jack ink, which I stamped off on scrap three times before then stamping onto Premium White cardstock.  For the second lightest layer, I only stamped off twice, and the third layer is full strength Black Jack.  The final, most detailed layer is stamped in Midnight ink.  One tip – make sure to allow each layer to dry in between to avoid blending and ensure you get great contrast between layers.

When all of my roses and flower bunches were stamped, I die cut them out with the coordinating dies, and then adhered them with foam tape at random over a Premium White notecard. I trimmed off any excess that was overhanging.  I then filled in the spaces with a leaf from the set, which has three layers, so I missed out the ‘stamp off twice’ layer of Black Jack.

I flicked on some Midnight ink mixed with a little water with a paint brush, and while it dried, I heat embossed the sentiment from the set onto Midnight card stock in WOW! Metallic Silver embossing powder, and trimmed it out.  I adhered this over the centre of the card with foam tape.  As a finishing touch I added some clear Glitter Nuvo drops at random, and onto the flower centres.

Card 3 – Monochromatic Autumn

My final card uses the new Hello Autumn layering stamp set.  I first created my background panel.   I trimmed some Premium White cardstock down to 4 1/8″ x 5.3/8″ and flicked it with Midnight ink mixed with water using a paintbrush.  While it dried, I used the Hello Autumn dies and created a stencil from another A2 panel of scrap cardstock, by die cutting out the leaves at random.  I sprayed the back with removable adhesive and then adhered it over the paint flicked panel.  I then used a palette knife and smoothed clear glass bead glitter gel over the stencil.  I then removed the panel, and as you can see, you get a nice sparkly leaf fall image!

I stamped and die cut the leaf images from the Hello Autumn stamp set in the exact same way as I did for the Roses card above. I then layered them into the corner of the panel with liquid adhesive and foam tape.

The sentiment was heat embossed in WOW! white embossing powder onto Midnight cardstock, trimmed out and adhered with a layer of foam tape, doubling up with addition foam layers on the right side to keep the sentiment level.  I adhered the entire panel onto a Premium White note card.  As a finishing touch I added some clear Confetti again.

And that’s my cards! I hope you like them, and it gave you some inspiration on how you can use layering sets in a different way.  It also works great if you don’t have a tonne of inks – Catherine’s inks are amazing for second and third generation stamping.

Your next stop on the hop is my super talented teamie Ashlea.  The full list of participants is below.

1. Catherine Pooler  
2. Chrissie Tobas  
3. Susan Powell  
4. Karen Baker   
5. Jen Carter   
6. Jenny Colacicco  <- YOU’RE HERE
7. Ashlea Cornell <- GO HERE NEXT
8. Kelly Martin
9. Ardyth  
10. Lydia Evans

I’ve listed all of the new goodies below as well as the additional supplies I used, or you can go get your hands on all of the new release by clicking the graphic below.  Hope you have a wonderful day!!

Jenny x

New Release

Supplies Used – Additional

Affiliate links used