Pretty Paper Cards

Hello and an early merry Christmas to you!  Life has been really busy lately, but I did get some quality time spent in my stamp room.  It was awesome to start out with an idea and watch it actually get accomplished.  What a great feeling!  I can't tell you how many times I sit down to stamp a project and just run into roadblocks, finally put the project aside and try to work it differently another day.  But today's idea went smoothly from start to finish.  Hooray!

I wasn't in the mood for making anything else Christmas.  I figured you were probably finished with all of your cards too.  So, I thought I'd make some cards focusing on the Fitting Florets Designer Series Paper that is only available until January 4th.   It is lovely and it's still in stock!  What a surprise.  I started out this project by cutting three pieces of the dark blue floral print to measure 5" x 3 3/4".  These would be my main layer and really show up on my cards.  Plus it's my favorite print, so why not!

Here's the first card I worked on.  It starts with a card base of Evening Evergreen cut at 11" x 4 1/4", scored at 5 1/2" and folded at the top.  The next layer is Soft Succulent that measures 5 1/4" x 4".  I had a 1" strip of the same print left over from cutting the DSP.  This I flipped to the back side and attached this to the DSP layer that I cut for this card.  It's about 3/4" from the left edge.  Then the DSP layer was attached to the Soft Succulent layer with adhesive.  This was all attached to the folded card base with adhesive also.

The sentiment on this card is from the Framed Florets stamp set.  It was stamped on Basic White cardstock using Evening Evergreen ink.  It was die-cut using the Stylish Shapes square die.  I also cut a square from Balmy Blue cardstock that is the same size.  I angled these and attached together with adhesive.

Before attaching this to the card front, I felt it needed something else added.  I couldn't find anything current that added to the design.  But then I remembered the blue ribbon from the Boho Blue Kit from two years ago.  I dug it out and loved how it looked together.  The ribbon is attached with a small amount of Tombow Multi Purpose Liquid Glue right down the center of the Soft Succulent strip of DSP.  The bottom was angle cut.

The sentiment was attached over this with Dimensionals.  Perfect!  Lastly, I added three Iridescent Pearls to the card front.  Oh yes, just lovely!  One down, two more to go. 

When I started working on this card, I was using the other side of the print just like the first one.  But after getting all the pieces of the design together and getting ready to glue them down, I decided I liked this side better.  Nothing like changing an idea at the very last minute.

The Basic White circle is die-cut using the Stylish Shapes again.  The bold sentiment comes from the Garden Birdhouses stamp set and is stamped in Evening Evergreen ink.  

The flowers and leaves are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and are from the Framed Florets stamp set.  (This set and the coordinating dies that I used will be in the January - April Mini Catalog.)  I used Stampin' Blends for coloring:  Balmy Blue Light & Dark and Soft Succulent Light & Dark.

There is a spray of open-work leaves cut from silver paper that was added to the design, and one open-work single leaf in Evening Evergreen cardstock.  All of the pieces were attached to the circle with adhesive, except for the middle flower that has a Dimensional behind it.

When I had die-cut an earlier project, the one frame is surrounded by tiny hearts.  You know me, I couldn't throw them out, because I might need them someday.  Well, today was that day.  I added three of them to the card as bling.  They are attached with a tiny drop of Tombow Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.  Pretty, aren't they?

A retired twine that is white and silver was tied into a bow and attached with a Mini Glue Dot as a finishing touch to the card.  Now on to the last card.

For this one, I wanted to try a stamp set that will be in the new catalog.  So here we go for a quick sneak peek.

The stamp set is called Two-Tone Flora.  I was sticking with the same color palette of Balmy Blue, Evening Evergreen and Soft Succulent to match the DSP.  In my die-cut leftover stash, I had both the Basic White and Balmy Blue Stitched Nested Labels already cut and ready to layer together.  It's a retired die set, but I liked how it fit with this card idea.  

The sentiment was stamped in Evening Evergreen ink.  You'll find this sentiment in the Happy Thoughts stamp set.  It has a great bunch of sentiments in the set with the fun font combo used here.

The flowers and leaves were stamped on a Basic White cardstock piece.  The flowers were either just Balmy Blue or Balmy Blue with a detail stamp inked with Night of Navy, off-stamped, and then stamped on the flower.  The leaves were either stamped with Evening Evergreen by itself, or first inked with Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen added over it to get a two-tone look.

Some of the pieces were attached directly to the card front, but the larger flower and one smaller flower were attached with Dimensionals.  The leafy spray that extends off the label has a Dimensional under the tip of the leaf.

To finish off the design, I added three of the Iridescent Pearls to it.  These pearls really pick up the blues on the card and mimic the berries on the background so they're perfect.  

So, there you have today's offerings.  It's fun how different you can make a card look just by changing up the components you add to the card.  These all have the same color scheme, but the die-cuts, sentiments, etc. all come together to give you a different card.  Hope these ideas give you some food for thought and spark your imagination a little bit.

Christmas blessings to you!

Sharon