Botanical Layers Card

 Hi Friends!  This is hopefully going to be a short and sweet post.  I just got back in town from visiting my sister in North Carolina for several days.  And after doing the laundry and repacking, we'll be heading down to steamy Florida for a week to watch our grandson Carson's baseball team play in a big tournament over the 4th of July week.  Woo Hoo!!  But obviously, that means I'm not getting much stamping done in my free time.  More like, what free time??  This is a card that I made before my last trip but didn't get a chance to post yet.  It's made with the new Botanical Layers stamp set.  I seem to be a sucker for greenery lately and thought this set would be fun to use.  I had planned to use the coordinating Lovely Layers Vellum on this card, but plans changed as I went along.  And... I'm quite happy with the outcome.  I'll get around to those Lovely Layer Vellum papers another time around.

The card started out with the idea of stamping on a Mint Macaron layer with vellum over it on a white card.  As you can see, part of the idea survived, but the rest hit the "get to later" pile.  The stamped layer measures 4 1/4" x 3".  First several branches were stamped with Mint Macaron ink and spread out across the layer.  Next the same branches were stamped three times with Shaded Spruce ink.  They were positioned a little lower and spread out farther than the first stamping.  

The tiniest flower in the Botanical Layers set was stamped multiple times along the branches for flowers growing.  Flirty Flamingo ink was used for the flowers.  When stamping the flowers, the stamp was inked up and then stamped two - three times before reinking to get different depths of color.

White Baker's Twine from the Baker's Twine Essentials Pack was wrapped around this layer three times and tied into a bow.  The sentiment comes from the Botanical Layer set.  It's stamped with Shaded Spruce ink onto a Basic White cardstock strip. It's cut with a die from the Beautiful Shapes Die set.  This die has an added bonus of some uneven embossed lines outlining it for interest.  It's added to the layer with Dimensionals both above and below the White Baker's Twine.

Instead of a total white card for the rest of it, I changed it to a Mint Macaron card base that measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is scored and folded in half.  This way I'd have two Mint Macaron layers sandwiching a layer of white. I liked that so much better.

The white layer is Basic White cardstock that measures 5 1/4" x 4".  This layer is embossed with the Fern 3D Embossing Folder.  I thought the ferns would be a good match with the greenery in the design.  The white layer was attached to the Mint Macaron card base using Multi Purpose Liquid Glue. 

The original stamped layer of Mint Macaron was attached to the center of the card front using Dimensionals.  

The inside of the card was made next.  This is a layer of Basic White cut to 5 1/4" x 4".  On the bottom right corner, I carried the design into the inside of the card.  The same Branches were stamped once with Mint Macaron ink.  Then without reinking, was stamped again angled a little more to the left.  This gave a much lighter branch but filled in the area nicely.  I thought it would be better this way using just one color, than adding some branches that were in Shaded Spruce ink.  Since this is on white cardstock instead of the Mint Macaron, the softer look seemed better to me.

Lastly, there were some Brushed Brass Butterflies flying around the branches that thought it would be a lovely garden to visit.  So three of them are added to the finished card.

Hope you like this sweet and simple card idea.  It's so very soft and pretty in person.  Not every card needs to have loads of layers, special folds, and tons of bling.  Sometimes sweet and simple fits the need.  Now I need to figure out who would like me to share this card with them.  Could it be you?  Let me know if it's time for me to be sharing a card with you.  I'm trying to get cards out to all of you when I can.  And I just love getting cards back in the mail from you too!

Just a reminder that the new July - December Mini Catalog goes live on July 1st!  Yay!  That's just a few more days you have to wait.  But if there's still those last-minute items in the retiring Mini Catalog you need before they're no longer available, you have a few more days to get your order in.  If you do any last-minute ordering, please use the Host Code shown at the top of my blog page.  There will be a new Host Code starting July 1st so check back for that!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm so glad you're taking time to visit.  And your comments are greatly appreciated too.

Happy stamping and creating!

Sharon