Macrame Builder – The Greetery

Have you ever started a project only to end up somewhere completely unexpected? Well, that’s exactly what happened when I made this! It’s my second design from the gorgeous Winter Wanderer release from The Greetery. My intention was to create a floral card – I already picked a color palette, stamped and die cut the flowers, and started planning my macrame elements. As I was moving my flowers around to determine a position I liked best, I noticed that I had a leftover hoop from the last card I made. As soon as I placed the hoop on my panel, this card idea came to me. I immediately saw a mountain scene. Once I envision a grand plan, I can’t unsee it. My brilliant ideas don’t always work, but this time it did! Those happy little accidents are what makes crafting so much fun.

Sunset background. With all the die cutting that I’ve ben doing recently, I wanted to ink blend a panel. I purchased several new Distress Oxide inks during Black Friday so this was the perfect occasion to use them. The Distress Oxide colors I used were (from the bottom to the top): wild honey, ripe persimmon, abandoned coral, and fired brick. Normally, I would not blend dye ink and oxide ink together, but I did not have a light yellow Distress Oxide, so I improvised. I started my sunset background with Catherine Pooler Tiara dye ink. I made sure to apply an even, smooth layer of ink just for a soft glow around the mountain peaks. Luckily, wild honey blended beautifully. As I blended up, it helped to overlap the colors and vary my blending strokes to make sure that the colors were gradual.

Pro tip: If you have trouble blending ink, I recommend trying the Distress Oxides immediately. I think they are the smoothest and most forgiving to blend. My blending tool of choice are blending brushes; I have never tried the foam applicators. I recently watched a great video from Jessica Frost-Ballas all about ink blending. She gives you some great, foolproof tips!

Scene elements. The rest of the card was simply die cutting, personalizing, and placing elements on the panel. I layered the sun with a small circle cut with the Hero Arts Infinity Circle die and a standalone die from the macrame diamonds set. I ink blended Catherine Pooler Tiara and Sauna dye inks on the edges for color. For the “triangles” on the mountain, I used one of the macrame diamonds dies and cut it in half horizontally (thank you for the suggestion @inkhillrevival!). I stacked two layers of “triangles” for dimension. For the mountain bases, I blended CP ink, Twilight, for added interest. The wood bar at the top is from the boho banner set and was colored with Copic markers.I glued some twine from my stash around the wood bar to mimic a hanging tapestry. The sentiment is from the hoop wreath stamp set. I made an ombre with Twilight and black ink to mimic the gradation of the sky and backed it with fun foam. I adhered everything with liquid glue and attached it to an A6 sized card base. I couldn’t bear to cut it down!

Hope you liked my unique take on these beautiful dies! If you’re inspired by my design, I’d love for you to follow and tag me on IG; I can’t wait to see what you create. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

.Tiffany.