/* */ Beulah Bee

April 24, 2019

Sending Hugs


I got side-tracked trying out a new stamp set from Simon called Delicate Flowers and ended up with a card I hadn't really planned on.

I'd been experimenting with coating thin papers with various mediums to use for collage. I had some rice paper, coated one side with fluid medium, let it dry and then decided to stamp it with my new set to make some masks.

After cutting the pieces out, I played around with tinting them and liked the result so I decided to use one of the flowers plus leaves on a greeting card. If you look closely, you'll see that the flower is transparent.


The background paper with the scrolls, bird, etc. is old stock from Prima called Epiphany.


I messed-up stamping the sentiment so I cut out that section, replaced it with a smaller square and re-stamped my text. A good save and one I'll remember if and when I mess-up again!


Yes, it looks handmade and it's a bit unconventional, but I'm dedicating it to all the encouraging commenters from my last post, embracing my greeting card style and learning a few tricks along the way.

April 20, 2019

Hello Friend

This card/stamping took so many tries that I almost gave up.

My artistic point-of-view takes a turn when I set about making a card. I try to be very precise so it looks "store-bought" but if it were a tag or mixed media project, I'd embrace the imperfection.

Eventually, I come around and remember that the hand-made qualities are what makes card-making superior to those that are mass-produced and machine-made. I will be bookmarking this post so I can remind myself of this point for the next time!

In this close-up, I'll point out that I stamped the image (Tim Holtz Flower Jar) on scrapbook paper using archival ink and tinted it with gel pens. For the water in the jar and the table-top, I spread the ink using a water brush (same as with the tops of the purple flowers).

The submerged stems were hand-drawn and smudged and it was tricky to get it to look right. I should have practiced on some scrap before attempting it on my card and I wouldn't have had so many do-overs (duh!).

The oval frame was machine-stitched but needed something else so I used a white Gelly Roll pen to highlight the edges.

Some of my readers know that I often use dimensional products like Scribbles or Liquid Pearls to make dots. I recently discovered a new product called Nuvo Crystal Drops (which I really like) and went kind of crazy with them here.

Mounting all of this on kraft cardstock helped convey the old-fashioned feel of the card.

I'm linking up to Simon, this week's Monday challenge is Beautiful Blooms and then I'm tossing this card in the post. 

BTW, the sentiment is from a new stamp set by Simon called Delicate Flowers. I splurged and bought the May card kit and am excited about using it.  Stay tuned!

April 12, 2019

Maurice Crooks


My Great Aunt Esther took a photo of a neighbor whose family was homesteading in Newcastle, Wyoming. She wrote his name and the date on the back--Maurice Crooks, August, 1921.

I made a copy of that photo and used gel medium to transfer the image onto a manila tag.


Then I used gesso to white-out some areas, blending the edges of the photo into the background.


Then I went about stamping and tinting and embellishing and came up with what you see here.


I know it's best not to put the focal point of a composition directly in the middle, but in this case, I threw caution to the wind since Maurice seemed to stand so proudly right in the middle of his family's meager garden.

I'm linking to Simon, the Monday challenge is "Down on the Farm."