Black & White Plus One Color with Woodland Wildlife

Hello crafters! Joan Bardee here and I’m excited to share with you the fantastic Ranger Woodland Wildlife set of stamps and coordinating dies by Simon Hurley. Spellbinders released this gorgeous set with two other fun stamp and die pairings - Inspired and Everyday Wreaths. I chose to focus on Woodland Wildlife, but the color palette I’m using would work well with the other sets as well. Today’s color palette is a striking black and white plus one other color. Since Woodland Wildlife is packed with line art drawings (as opposed to solid stamps) this color formula is great if you don’t want to color in the images or just want to do something different. This palette works particularly well when the “one other color” is bright. However, it works with pretty much any color – including neutrals, such as gray or beige. In other words, try it with any combination and see if you like the result.

Bear in Winter – Black & White Plus Blue

Keep in mind the 60/30/10 design rule for color when working with this palette. In this card, blue takes up about 60%, white 30%, and black 10%.

• Stamp the bear (look at that face!) from Woodland Wildlife with Versafine Onyx (or Versafine Clair Nocturne) ink twice – once onto masking paper and once onto an A2 panel of white cardstock as shown. You aren’t going to be die cutting the bear so place it on the card where you want the bear to stay.
• Using Spellbinders 4” Detail Scissors, cut out the mask of the bear.
• Place the mask over the stamped image of the bear.
• Cut a wavy border to mimic snow drifts or a hill (or use a die if you have one) out of masking paper and place it over the bear’s feet (so the feet will be in the “snow.”)
• Blend Blueprint and Mermaid Ocean Distress Oxide inks over the panel with Spellbinders Large Blending Brushes - the masks will protect the bear and the ground under the bear from getting any ink.
• Remove masks. It’s such a fun reveal!
• Add Splatter White Opaque Watercolor with a paintbrush. Let dry.
• Stamp sentiment from Many Merry Christmas Sentiments in black.
• Decide card is perfect.
• 2 days later start overthinking and add some small flat embellishments.
• Decide card is perfect.

TIP: When cutting a mask, cut on the line of the image, not around it. Any white masking paper left outside the image of the bear will leave a white halo or spots around the bear. TIP: The Spellbinders Large Blending Brushes are exceptionally soft and make blending larger areas a snap.

FOX AT SUNRISE: Black & White Plus Orange

Black and white with orange sounds like Halloween, but it works here because it’s obvious that the orange is a sunrise (or sunset). (This layout was inspired by many cards made by the talented Carly Tee Minner.) This card consists of 60% white, 30% orange, and 10% black.

• Trim panel of white cardstock to an A2 size.
• Lay card on gridded paper or another gridded surface.
• Using the grid as a guide, temporarily adhere masking tape or masking paper over the front of the card, 2 inches from the top.
• Ink blend the unmasked portion of the card with Dried Marigold and Candied Apple Distress Oxide inks with Spellbinders Large Blending Brushes.
• Stamp the fox on a separate piece of white cardstock with Versafine Onyx ink and die cut.
• Die-cut another fox with white cardstock and adhere the die-cut foxes together.
• Place the fox on the card (don’t adhere) so you will know where to stamp the sentiment.
• Stamp the Just a Note sentiment from Woodland Wildlife first.
• Place the card back in your MISTI and cover with a piece of acetate.
• Stamp the sub-sentiment onto the acetate. This way you can tell if your placement is correct. Clean off the acetate, remove, and stamp directly onto the card.
• Stamp some of the smaller images with Candied Apple Distress Oxide ink onto the masked portion.
• Adhere the fox with foam tape.
• Add black dots with an alcohol marker (I used a fine Sharpie).
• Decided to go wild and add some black and white twine. I like it!

TIP: It’s easier to use a small acrylic block to stamp tiny images, rather than the MISTI.

WILDLIFE PATTERN: Black & White Plus Red

Woodland Wildlife is the perfect set to create a background – it has numerous tiny images to fill in between the larger ones. It’s hard to quantify, but this card looks about 60% white, 30% black, and 10% red.

• Trim a piece of white cardstock to an A2 size.
• Select a sentiment from Woodland Wildlife and stamp in the center of the card. This helps you place the images around it.
• Lay out some of the larger animals and birds, keeping in mind that you want a white border around the pattern. (Or you can stamp off the edges – your choice.)
• Stamp the larger images in Versafine Onyx ink.
• Stamp smaller images in between.
• Stamp the tiniest images to fill in.
• Using a water-based marker, such as the Fire Red Karin Brushmarker Pro, color in a small piece of each image. You are going for a stylized look, not a realistic one.
• Find a dot stamp in your stash (or use a marker or embellishments) and fill in some of the white spaces.
• Trim an 1/8 of an inch off all 4 sides of the panel.
• I wanted a completely flat card but realized that my sentiment was a bit off, so I stamped the sentiment again, die cut, and popped it up on foam tape.
• Glued the panel to a piece of white Pop-Up Die Cutting Foam Sheet cut slightly smaller than the panel and adhered that to an A2 white card.

TIP:  It’s always a challenge not to lose small stamps or dies. To keep track of them, as soon as I use them, I put them inside a Craft Stax Large Tray. This is safer than putting them back on the carrier sheets. When I’m done, they all go back on the carrier sheets and into storage. Thank you, Spellbinders, and thank you for reading along. I hope this inspires you! Other Supplies Inks, twine, dot stamp