Catherine Pooler Zen Garden Blog Hop – Day Two

Have you seen the new bigger collection of Spa inks over at Catherine Pooler Designs? If not, you’re in for a treat! Welcome to the Zen Garden Day Two Blog Hop! Did you hop along yesterday? If not, I’ll get you caught up at the end.

The new Zen Garden Release was kicked off yesterday. Eight new gorgeous inks were added to the Spa Collection – Rose Petals, Polished, Shea Butter, Seafoam, Spruce, Skylight, Stone Blue, and Sugared Lavender. I love how Catherine names her inks, I know it’s corny…but they make me smile. And let’s be honest it takes less facial muscles to smile than frown, so I try to do that as much as possible – wrinkles and all…lol!

Today we’re featuring the Love Grows stamp set. To say I love this set is an understatement.

I’ll admit, I find it super easy to stamp with just about anything created from the mind of Lisa Kirkbride. And when I first saw this set, I knew I would have loads of fun with so many of the little pieces. SO, my goal today is to showcase just how versatile the little stamps in this set are in addition to all those gorgeous flowers!

I don’t know about you, but for me if I can get versatility out of a stamp set, you know…use stamps for a variety of things – I’m sold. I’ve been stamping for 19 years now…wow! And I’ve purchased my fair share of sets. (Michael, if you’re reading…they were all on sale, I swear…lol) So I can tell right off the bat if I’m going to be able to use that set over and over again. That’s very important to me as a crafter. Love Grows fits that mold for me.

And interesting fact – when Catherine first saw these designs – it was all entangled as one design like patterned paper. But Catherine, being the brilliant designer and stamper that she is said – let’s break the pieces apart, it would make a great stamp set. And you know what – she was right!

Spa Inks Medley No 1: Love Seeing You Smile

Let’s start off with a more traditional Clean and Simple look to start. These flowers were just begging to be stamped, popped up and layered. This card not only showcases how stinkin’ cute they are, but how well the new 8 Spa inks work with the last 8 – together it’s a very powerful collection.

Here’s a TIP for you – cut out your dies first (I cut a ton when I first get my dies – pop a movie in and just cut, cut, cut…). Then grab what you need and stamp away. You’ll speed up your card making, cause you’ll have all the tools you need right at your finger tips.

The two flowers are inked up in Mandarin Spice & Sauna from the Paradise Found Collection, the small cute little conehead is in Sugared Lavender and Shea Butter from the NEW spa inks. For the leaves I wanted an earthy look, so I used Eucalyptus from the Paradise Found inks.

Don’t they all just play really well together? Skylight, Shea Butter and Sugared Lavender play so well with the first 8. That’s the brilliance of the Color Made Easy system by Catherine. No more needing to figure out what goes with what. Spa colors play well with each other…period.

Now for the fun little versatile pieces that I love so much. There’s an awesome stamp in this collection – it’s a circle with all sorts of lines in it – I LOVE that stamp. To get a great little background – stamp it next to each other and emboss white on white to create a scalloped border behind the top layer…did you even notice that? It’s a little subtle thing that totally makes the card. Little stamps like that are priceless to me. That’s where versatility in a stamp set sells me. And how about those little open circles? Notice I don’t need sequins here – I have those little circles!

I’ll admit, I’m in love with this card. Yesterday it was my mixed media card, today it’s all about the Clean and Simple…lol!

Spa Inks medley No 2: Smile

Did you know that Love Grows also works flawlessly with the new word die Smile? There are four sentiment stamps in this set. Seeing you, Sending you a, You make me and the word Smile. So naturally – a word die – Smile, fits perfectly too! And look how awesome this Smile is!! It’s an awesome font, and wide enough you don’t have to take your time placing your Multi Matte Medium (glue) behind it – love that!

Stamp a background in Shea Butter. It’s subtle and soft, yet you can still read it. Stamp a small circle (filler stamp from the awesome Eat, Sleep Create Stamp Set) in Sauna for a little contrast in-between and you’ve got an awesome background.

To make it all pop, use the complimentary color to yellow – purple (across the color wheel). I wanted something dark, so instead of Shea Butter – which would have been just as cool, I chose to use the deeper spa ink color Royal Treatment. Smoosh down some versamark and emboss in clear and you’ve really got a cool word embellishment that pops.

For that little something extra, work in my favorite stamp – the circle with the lines through it in Skylight. Isn’t it just AWESOME? Add that little flower in Mandarin Spice too. It needed something else, and I love to work in odd numbers, so I added that great little circle stamp in skylight too.

Of course, sometimes you just need a little bling too – so sneak in some sparkling clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh – you know those are my go to…lol!

I was having SO much fun with the color combo of Skylight, Shea Butter/Sauna, Mandarin Spice and Sugared Lavender/Royal Treatment. It’s an awesome combo – you have to try it…the spa inks go SO well together.

So what do you think…fun, right? Have you checked the shop out yet? What are you waiting for?

When you’re all done shopping – don’t forget to check out all the incredible designs by the Creative Team today. Don’t forget to comment too – Catherine is giving away two set of Zen Garden Spa Inks. And if you already purchased them…you’ll get a $45 gift certificate, so you can’t lose! Now it’s your time to keep getting inspired – hop along!!

1. Catherine Pooler  <—Hop here Next!! 
2. Laurel Beard  
3. Chrissie Tobas  
4. Jenny Colacicco  
5. Ashlea Cornell  
6. Melissa Miller  
7. Tracie Pond  
8. Karen Baker 
9. Lydia Evans
10. Ingrid Blackburn <— You are Here!!

Fun, right? Tomorrow the hops continue….SO much great inspiration this week. Don’t forget to comment below! Till next time…

Keep those fingers inky!

Supplies

To make finding the supplies I used in these projects a bit easier for you, here are a few clickable links. Compensated Affiliate Links are used when possible. Click here for disclosure. Happy Shopping!