Delightfully Surprised

Tonic Studios July 2021 Blog Hop: Patterns & Prints

“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. ” –Pablo Picasso–

Growing up, my mom was a huge inspiration to me. Her creativity was relentless and I often wondered how she did so much with so little! Anything from a craft project to setting up a dinner table-she made it all look delicate and beautiful. Whenever she worked on a project, she always had that look on her face that said: what if…? or why not…?

It didn’t take long for me to realize that a creative mind finds possibilities everywhere, often in places that others had overlooked. This understanding shaped me in such a way that it transferred into my personal and creative life, even today. It isn’t always about the quantity but rather about the willingness to look beyond and find creative ways to use what you already have!

When I got these Stamps and Dies from Tonic Studios, inspired by Maria Willis (@cardbomb) – I was very excited. This 6×8 stamp and die bundle it’s perfect for my mixed media world. It coordinates with the Background & Borders bundle for increased versatility.

I started the process initially on a cradle wood panel, with a completely different design… (there is a reel on my feed showing the initial stages of the panel). However, somewhere in the process I felt stuck with the composition and ended up covering those amazing patterns that I had already created with the dies. Frustrated, I thought to myself: Why not try something different?

Therefore, I decided to try again and work on a smaller Canson Mixed Media board and explored with maximizing the use of the stamps and dies as much as I could on the board… and what a delightful surprise! It was like creating two pieces in one.

In the first 2-3 pictures here, you see that I focused on creating a design that highlighted the bundle by creating a colourful and contrasting background with multiple textures (collaging with paper, adding gesso, gel medium, molding paste, watercolor, some acrylics, rub-ons and scribbling with ink) allowing some of these textures to peek through in the lighter areas. I added pearls on both sides to keep things cohesive, and a flower design from Open Journey.

While in the last three pictures, you see how I turned the same piece into a slightly different by adding a few more stamps. I even switched the colors removing a bit of the warmth and adding more of the blue. In this process I added more texture mixing some of the text stamp and the dots. I was really happy with the look.

I removed the pearls from the left side, and instead added another piece of die cut with a completely different shape from the bundle to contrast and complement the flower, adding some more layers with the bigger splatty circle stamp. It was so much fun. I also added couple of words from the Big Chat Ideology to complement the theme and narrow the focal point.

I am glad that I was able to move past the initial frustration and found other possibilities by pushing myself out of my comfort zone to create a dual project that allowed me to try multiple stamps and dies on the same surface! This was a really fun process and I can’t wait to explore with the rest of them.

In this bundle you will find: 15 total stamps in a mixed media style that is perfect for creating beautifully textured backgrounds and projects and 14 total dies. Includes bold word dies that be rearranged to create new sentiments. Use in combination with the bold word dies from Backgrounds & Borders to increase your sentiment options! Includes four sentiment dies in a fun cursive font that have both the text and shadow dies. Includes two large stand-alone dies that can be used to create backgrounds, accent pieces or used as stencils to add texture to your projects.

https://www.tonic-studios.com/products/stamp-club-patterns-prints-stamp-die-set-sc11

Maria Willis, thank you for inviting me to be a part of this Blog Hop (my first time ever, so now you, my wonderful readers, can be gracious with me if this blog looks different than the rest. lol)

I loved your designs and I can’t wait to continue to play and explore many more possibilities with them.

And to you, wonderful reader, thank you for coming by and checking out this blog. I hope you were inspired to play and explore your own and unique creative process.

Don’t forget to check out the bloggers participating in this :

Maria Willis	https://www.cardbomb.com/2021/07/video-tonic-studios-patterns-prints.html
Ilda Dias	https://www.ilovedoingallthingscrafty.com/2021/07/patterns-prints-friendship-mixed-media.html
Jen Kray	https://jenkraydesign.blogspot.com/2021/07/stamp-club-patterns-prints-blog-hop.html
Debi Adams	https://debi-adams.com/?p=7444
Kulbir Kirkland	https://luv2papercraft.com/?p=1517
Amber Rain Davis	https://notableink.com/?p=15447
Erica Andersson Burke	https://cacacraftblog.wordpress.com/?p=5810
Channin Pelletier	https://channin.wordpress.com/2021/07/30/tonic-studios-patterns-and-prints-blog-hop/
Sandi MacIver	https://sandimaciver.com/tonic-studios-patterns-and-prints/

And remember, there is a GIVEAWAY:

GIVEAWAY #1:

One lucky winner will win a £50/$50 Gift Card to Tonic Studios and the Patterns & Prints bundle! To enter comment on every blog in the hop by 11:59pm PST on August 4, 2021/ 7:59am GST on August 5, 2021

Winner will be announced on August 6th, 2021 on IG and FB so make sure you’re following all of the Tonic Studios social media accounts!

GIVEAWAY #2:

-Every purchase of the Patterns & Prints Bundle will also receive a free gift from Tonic Studios automatically included in their purchase.

-Free gift is the small Happy Birthday stamp set. There is a graphic for this stamp set in the graphics folder.

With love,

-Jannette Simmons–