Wildflower Path Smiles

Hello Ladies!  Glad you could come back for another visit.  The idea behind today's card is an English-style garden with taller flowers in the back, then medium height and smallest in the front.  The Wildflower Path stamp set is a stand alone set with no dies or punches, but has enough different stems and flowers to make up my garden.  So, I gave the idea a try and here's my English garden in full bloom.

My thought was to use bright, summery colors for my garden, and I think this works.  This has a mix of some of the new 2022-2024 In Colors with some favorite standbys.  The card starts with a base of Sweet Sorbet cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored in half and folded.  The next layer is So Saffron cardstock cut at 5 1/4" x 4".  It's attached to the card front with Dimensionals.  The stamped layer is Shimmery White cardstock that's cut at 5" x 3 3/4".

Stamping started with the heavier stems that I stamped in Shaded Spruce ink.  These were stamped four times across the card, but the two outer stems are partially off the side edges.  The thinner stem was stamped with the new Parakeet Party ink three times, once in between each of the darker stems. 

On the darker stems, I stamped what looked mostly like roses to me.  These are 2-step stamps.  The larger stamp was inked with the new Sweet Sorbet ink and off-stamped before stamping on the stem.  The more detailed stamp was inked with Sweet Sorbet also, but stamped full strength.  The flowers for the other stems were inked with Mango Melody and stamped.  (I tried So Saffron first, but it was too pale.)  I liked the garden so far, but it needed some darker flowers to offset some of brightness.  

There is a cluster of three flowers that would work for the lowest flowers in the garden.  These were stamped three times in Orchid Oasis ink.  The flowers were twisted each time I stamped so the flowers didn't look like little soldiers lined up.  There were a few more leaves stamped tucked in the bottom using Parakeet Party ink.  There's also a single flower in the set that was stamped a few times near the bottom using Mango Melody ink.  The last thing was to add just a touch of the grasses on the bottom edge with Shaded Spruce ink.

The sentiment is from the same Wildflower Path stamp set.  The words are wonderful and the font fits them perfectly.  This was stamped on a piece of Basic White cardstock cut at 2 5/8" x 7/8".  I used Shaded Spruce ink for this.  To make the whole sentiment layer stand out more, a piece of Shaded Spruce cardstock was attached across the card front with adhesive.  The size is 4" x 1/2".   This ended up a little dark for my tastes, so a strip of Vellum 4" x 1 3/8" was attached in the center only.  Then the sentiment layer was attached to the center of this using Dimensionals for some lift.  

I wanted to carry the design inside the card just like taking cut flowers inside the house to enjoy.  The inside of the card is stamped on Basic White cardstock using the same stamps and colors from the front of the card.  To bring in some of the So Saffron layer from the card front, I added a 1/2" strip across the bottom edge.  I liked how that gave it a more finished look.

Looking at the finished card, I realized the garden needed some butterflies flitting about.  I used the Brushed Brass Butterflies to finish my garden.  One of the tiny butterflies landed on the sentiment to draw attention there, and the other two are enjoying the many blossoms.

Thank you for joining me today on a walk through my English garden.  Hope you enjoyed yourself.  You can always make your own garden to enjoy with either the Wildflower Path that I used or any of the many floral stamps that Stampin'Up! has to offer.  Just pick your favorite flowers and start planting.  Oh sorry, I meant stamping!!

If you're placing an order, please use the Host Code found on the top right of my blog posts.  I appreciate it so much.  Please enjoy your day and find some time for gardening, whether that's creating with stamps or with real flowers and plants.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon