Trend Watch – A prickly subject

My next trend watch is a bit of a prickly subject.  Yet, it can be succulent too.  Because this trend report is about cacti and succulent plants!  Right now the stamp sets are crazy with options you can experiment with.  I have even seen a few folks carve their own cactus and succulent stamps out of rubber.  As with all of our subjects, there are so many ways paper crafters use the same stimulus that looking at a small sample can send your creativity soaring.  So you can create lovely cards and pages of your own.

This first set of cards uses watercolor techniques.  Because all cacti are capable of blooming at some point in their long life with the proper conditions;  when they do, they are even lovlier to color.  The contrast in the hot pink and the the green shadowing of the cactus and flower is just gorgeous.

card by Dina Kowal photo courtesy of Mama Dini’s Stamparia

Another sample of Dina’s coloring skills gives us this wonderful card below.  I love how she creates her own background paper for each of her stamps so that they coordinate and add another level to her cactus.

card by Dina Kowal photo courtesy of Mama Dini’s Stamparia

In this next card, Debby shares a cool no edge water color technique with her potted beauties.  She uses white embossing powder and water colors to give the cool washed look.  She created a video for this technique that she share here.

card by Debby Hughes photo courtesy of Lime Doodle Design

Of course you can use traditional stamping as well for a cool effect.  Cacti and succulents come in some of the most fantastic colors.  Dawn captured a few of the lovely mint and ice blue colors in her card.

card by Dawn McVey photo courtesy of Raspberry Suite

With cactus stamps it is so natural to create a scene showing them at different dimensions.  I love the sunset look and the sweet stamped flowers on Donna’s card.

card by Donna Bowman photo courtesy of Donna’s Crafty Place

I thought Isha’s treatment of her cactus plants was so clever.  Most of the stamp sets I have seen have the cacti and pots separate so you can add dimension with your pots.  Isha takes it one step further by overlaying her die cut negative over her inset stamped images.  Very pretty.

card by Isha Gupta photo courtesy of New Ideas by Isha Gupta

JJ used her cactus as a shadow for her bold and rich sky treatment.  She used a die cut and this look is so nice.

card by JJ Bolton photo courtesy of Handmade Cards by JJ Bolton

Lysa created a different look by using kraft colored paper and Copic markers for the succulents and the tea cup.  These colors capture the soft look of the plants I love.

card by Lysa Rohrer photo courtesy of Lysa’s Crafty Creations

I fell in love with this next card because the colors are just so awesome.  There are actually colors in nature this lovely too.  It is captured so well with this card.

card by Nina Yang photo courtesy of Waffle Flower Blog

Paper Smooches also has a stamp set of Southwest images and it includes faces.  Jocelyn created a fiesta girl animated cactus with margarita in tow.  This is a super fun card.

 

card by Jocelyn Olson photo courtesy of Red Balloon Cards

You may have noticed by now that I love a good pun.  I couldn’t resist adding one to this post.  Misty’s so stuck on you cactus is such a cute love card and punny too.

card by Misty Buck photo courtesy of Lil Buck’s Creations

I am totally digging the texture of my final card this week.  I think adding the felt die cuts with stitching for the thorns is just great and adds a lot to the card.  The baker’s twine is awesome too.

card by Chari Moss photo courtesy of MossyMade

Cactus stamping doesn’t need to be prickly, you can start with succulents!  Seriously though, I hope you have seen something that inspires you to try this fun stamping trend.    I am showing a few of the stamp sets the creative ladies I have featured used in case you would like to expand your collection.  I would also love to see your finished product if you try stamp carving a succulent or two as well.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

Simon Says succulents and saucers stamp set on Simon Says Stamp

Hero Arts Your own succulents stamp set at Simon Says Stamp

Mama Elephant Potted Pretties Stamp set at Simon Says Stamp

Planted Stamp set at Waffle Flower

Potted Plant stamp set at Waffle Flower