Nature's Prints Wreath

 Good morning from sunny Florida!  We're down here for our grandson's baseball team which is playing in a tournament over the next week.  Yesterday there were skill matches for homerun hitting, accuracy and distance in throwing, and timed running.  He took place in all three events along with droves of other boys.  There was supposed to be a parade of teams and opening ceremonies last night, but they were cancelled because storms moved in late in the afternoon. There are so many teams here!  Some from as far away as Oklahoma and Texas.  What an awesome complex to play at and be part of all the fun.  But we have run into a few glitches while here.  Like neither the internet nor bathrooms working in the rental house all the time.  Not that those two are connected, but ewwww!  Right now, the septic tank is being worked on.  And the internet is connected at the moment, so I'm trying to get a post in here quick before it's lost again.  So, let's talk about card making, shall we?

I made this card almost two weeks ago, but never got around to getting it posted.  I love wreaths - on doors, inside houses, or on cards.  So when I saw the Natural Prints Dies had a wreath die, it was on my list right away.  I had all these ideas for cards, but then struggled to get the first one made.  The little add-ons to the wreath have been changed three times trying different colors and flowers.  I finally got it the way I liked it, so I'm sharing it with you.  

The card base is the new In Color Tahitian Tide.  Isn't it a pretty, clear turquoise color?  The first layer is Basic White that measures 4" x 5 1/4".  To add texture and interest to this, it was embossed with the Brick and Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.  To help define the bricks just a bit, a light rubbing of Sahara Sand with a Blending Brush was used.  It was attached to the folded card base with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue, then set aside while I worked on the rest of the design.

The wreath was my next step.  I cut the wreath from Garden Green cardstock first.  The Natural Print Dies also has several medium to short greenery stems you can cut.  For this card, several of each size were cut from Granny Apple Green and tried some yellow flowers with that.  Honestly, for some reason it just didn't look right to me, so off they came.  Next I tried Mint Macaron, but after looking at it awhile, that idea was ditched too.  That's when the whole idea was shelved for another day.

Ok, here it is another day, and I give it another try.  This time I went darker for the add-ons and used Evening Evergreen. I even cut a couple extra pieces from Garden Green too. The Garden Green pieces have a brushing of Garden Green ink on the edges using the Blending Brushes.

I also switched the flowers I was trying to use to the Artistically Inked little trio of flowers.  Then changed the color to Fresh Freesia ink, stamped them and die-cut them with the matching Artistic Dies.  Much better mix of colors in my humble opinion.  Ok, let's see if I can get this card actually finished.

The wreath is attached to the card front with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.  Then the bits and pieces were laid out in a generally pleasing fashion but weren't all attached yet.  I wanted to get the sentiment ready before the final layout was finished.

The sentiment is from the Nature's Prints set.  It's one of four sentiments that have this cool, funky font that I just love.  It's stamped on a piece of Basic White cardstock using Garden Green ink.  It's then die-cut using a label die that's part of this same Nature's Prints Bundle.  It has just a tiny bit of Tahitian Tide brushed around the edges using a Blending Brush.  It's positioned on the wreath and attached with Dimensionals.  The extra pieces of greenery were tucked in and around the wreath.  Some were attached with adhesive, and a few were attached with Mini Glue Dots.   Each of the flowers were attached with a Mini Glue Dot just in the center and curved a bit on the edges so they weren't totally flat.

Three of the littlest flowers were attached to the front of the label along with a little greenery.  It needed a bit of bling to finish it off.  I tried rhinestones, pearls and sequins and none of them really enhanced the card at all.  Then I remembered those cute little Brushed Brass Butterflies!  Three of them were added to the card and I pronounced it finished, before I decided to change something on it again!

Hope you like wreaths too and want to give this one a try.  Usually I have no problems putting wreaths together, but this time it took a little more effort.  Guess my mind was thinking on other things instead.

If you're planning on placing an order, there is a new Host Code listed at the top of the blog page.  Please consider using it - I would appreciate it greatly!  And thanks for waiting around for me to get another post for you.  Hopefully we'll have internet connections here tomorrow too.  Take care and get creative.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon