Gorgeous Garden Dies

Hello and happy Sunday to you.  Yesterday I decided that I was finally going to use one of those Gorgeous Garden pieces that I had die-cut several weeks (or was that months?) ago.  I was never quite sure how I wanted to deal with this piece.  I love the leafy background that was die-cut from one of the green/yellow prints of Hello Irresistible Designer Series Paper, but the colors were a problem I hadn't expected.   I loved the DSP, but I just couldn't quite figure out what really enhanced the colors.  Everything I tried just didn't seem right.  I finally settled on this card and I'm pretty happy with it.  It's not my usual soft pastel colors, and maybe that's why I was struggling so much.  Tell me what you think.

I was just organizing all my Fun Fold ideas and thought I wanted to use one of those ideas for this card.  This is another JOY Fold card and I like how it came together.  I've shared more on making JOY Fold cards on the August 7th post if you want to check that out.  Let's start making the card.  Start with a base of Crushed Curry cardstock that measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored and folded in half.  The die-cut is from a Hello Irresistible Designer Series pack.  The die cut piece actually covered the full card front.  I debated about trimming it down but decided to let it cover the entire card front.  It needed something in between the die-cut and the Crushed Curry.  I tried Basic White, Very Vanilla and finally settled on a piece of Vellum between the two.  This toned down the Crushed Curry and made an all-over softer look.  It's attached to the card front with 'green glue' around the edges and behind a few leaves to hold it in place.  

The Countryside Corners dies were used to cut the side fold-over flap.  The 2nd largest die cut a piece of Crushed Curry.  It's scored from edge to edge to fold under as shown.  The 3rd largest die cut a piece of Lost Lagoon cardstock.  On the Lost Lagoon piece, I laid the die partially off the cardstock edge where the die changes shape.  This gave me a piece with a straight edge that I didn't have to trim off to fit the folded Crushed Curry piece.  This piece was embossed with the Timber 3D Embossing Folder to give it some extra texture, then attached to the Crushed Curry piece keeping the edges matched.

Here you see it with just the right-side flap open.  The flap that is scored on the end is attached to the inside of the card with Tear & Tape to really stick there.  There is a layer of Very Vanilla that goes inside the card which covers where that small end is attached so no one can see it.

Back to the front of the card, the 3rd smallest die from the set cut a piece of Very Vanilla for the sentiment layer.  I used a sentiment from the Layering Leaves set.  It's stamped with Pretty Peacock ink.  I keep going back to this set lately for the sentiment choices.  There are 7 different ones from which to choose and they're all great.

On a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, several of the Layering Leaves were stamped.  Some with Lost Lagoon and some with Pretty Peacock ink.  I used a Water Painter along with the ink to give each of them a wash of color.  While working with the leaves, several extras were stamped inside the card on the Very Vanilla layer.  I stamped these with Lost Lagoon ink, some full strength and some off-stamped.  This gives just a little extra interest to the inside of the card.

There were also some of the flower buds stamped with Crushed Curry ink.  After they were all stamped, the Bough Punch was used to punch out both the leaves and the flower stems.  They were situated around the sentiment until I liked the look.  The sentiment was turned over then I started attaching all the pieces to the back side of the label with adhesive.  Finally, adhesive was used to attach this all flat to the flap.

The sentiment label seemed way too stark when I looked at the finished card.  Speckling worked out quite well to give a softer look.  The Dark Lost Lagoon Blends was used for the spattering to give it some more interest and break up all that vanilla.

After trying a few different gems for bling on the card, I chose to use the green Festive Pearls that carried over from the last catalog.  The green pearlized look didn't fight with the other colors and gave the card a very subtle sheen.  Just right.

Hope you think about dies to cut an extra flap on your cards to make a JOY Fold card.  These dies from the Countryside Corners worked out so nice for this extra touch.  Give it a try and show me what you've made with the idea.  I love it when you share your ideas!

Quick commercial - Redeem those Bonus Coupons soon.

Kits are on sale now through the end of the month.

The new Mini Catalog should be arriving soon if you don't already have it.  Fun stuff in there.  The catalog goes live SEPTEMBER 6TH.  Have fun dreaming about what you're going to make next!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon