{capture the moment}: Introducing Take Three: Spring

Here we are! Day 14! It's hard to believe that this year's anniversary festivities are about to come to a close! Are you ready for the BIG party tonight? I think it will prove to be very high pace and FUN for everyone involved!!! I hope you'll be able to stop by for a visit!

Once again, I have two new stamp sets to introduce to you today. They each have very unique attributes, so I am dedicating one entire post to each set (so be sure to scroll down to the post below AND down to the third post declaring today's contest )

Alli Miles is introducing the first set of a quarterly series to you this month. Take Three: SPring is the first installment of the Take Three Collection. Each quarter we will be releasing a new addition based upon the current season. When the year is up, you will have a small collection of stamps that can carry you through nearly any occasion or holiday, and all very reasonably priced.

The Take Three stamp sets will always include six images and a handful of complimentary sentiments. Between the six image stamps there are actually only TWO images, each positioned three ways within three reverse block stamp. By having images available facing left, right and centered you have options to use them all together or individually.

The details.

Take Three: Spring will be available for purchase on February 15th.
It will retail for $15.
Take Three: Spring includes a total of 12 stamps (6 images and 6 sentiments).

I always enjoy an opportunity to play with reverse images, like those included in Alli's Take Three Collection. They open up a world of simple possibilities and techniques, which I am looking forward to showing you just a bit of today.

Alli has focused on pairing the six sentiments found int he set HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. I thought I would mix things up a bit with my projects and show you how you can get even more looks by pairing these basic images with some of our other popular sets, which you probably already have in your collection!

There are three sweet reverse bunnies in Take Three: Spring, and the instant I saw them, I thought they would work wonderfully on a baby card. They don't JUST have to be used for Easter!

I stamped some grass with Spring Moss and flowers with Spring Rain, all from our With Sympathy set. The "Sweet Baby " sentiment (from Mega Mixed Messages) is stamped in Smokey Shadow at the bottom center, with lines of paper piercing on either side to help ground it.

Here I have added Alli's bunny image on foam dimensionals. The addition of the bunny just brings the project to a whole new level and provides a wonderful point of focus. I also added small pearls to the four corners of the bunny block to help give it more emphasis and texture. I just *adore* the way this project turned out! Wouldn't it be cute in pink too, for a baby girl?!?!

This second card uses one of the three leaf block images from the set. Alli did some wonderful artistry with these and made leaf images that are very calming and bring you back to the stillness of nature.

For this card I paired up Take Three: Spring with the large leaf images from Turning a New Leaf and a sentiment from With Sympathy. The leaves are stamped at the top of the card using Versamark ink. The sentiment is added in Dark Chocolate.

Here i have added the Spring Moss leaf image with foam dimensionals. I love how one of the three leaf blocks in this set had an orientation similar to that of the larger leaves I used on the background. IT made everything look very cohesive.

I added two narrow strips of cardstock as a border towards the bottom of my card to help add visual balance. To make an overall "softer" looking project, I also added Fresh Snow ink to the edges of the Kraft card front. Such a fun & easy project!

This project uses all three of the leaf block images. I placed them all on the same block together and stamped them in our new Plum Pudding pigment ink, which will be available at the release tonight. As a special little technique, I colored the leaf area with Copic markers to give a more artistic feel to the card.

I used two of the markers from the Plum Pudding trio we carry to complete this project. I started with the lightest shade, V91, and colored the entire leaf in.

I thin moved to the net shade down, V95. I added just little flicks of color at the base of each leaf.

I was then able to go back in with the V91 and blend the darker shade into the lighter one. It will look a bit dramatic until it dries (see below).

After the leaves were colored, I felt as though a nice, scripty sentiment would do just the trick! I finally settled on this one from Signature Greetings. It's stamped in Dark Chocolate and I think complements the row of images perfectly.

This is why I love Alli's Take Spring Collection so much! The images are basic and versatile and will go along with just about anything else they are paired with! And I don't know any stamper that wouldn't like that! :)

I hope you enjoyed all of the inspiration included here today! I know I really enjoyed creating all of this goodness and I think all of you would have just as much fun, if not more, when you get your owm copies of this set!

Since there are TWO project posts today, I have started a separate contest post below, which can also be found HERE! Be sure to stop over there to see what it's all about and have a chance to win a FANTASTIC prize package!!!