Impressions Abloom Cards

Hello friend!  Glad you could stop by for a visit today.  I've been focused on creating this past week instead of posting, so I'm way behind for the month.  There are different cards I'll be in need of very soon.  Like sending cards to the wonderful ladies that have placed an order lately, 5 birthday cards, and the cards for the shut-ins that I've been working on.  I feel like my mind has been scattered in too many different directions lately and I just need to take a deep breath and chill a little.  Today's card features the Impressions Abloom stamp set.  No dies used this time, just stamping.  Sometimes I feel the need to make simpler cards and get away from the multiple layers and die-cuts and fussy cards.  I was just talking to a friend about some cards I've prepped for the shut-ins that have five layers and 7 die-cuts for each of the 23 cards.  That's just a lot of die-cutting and will take a good amount of time to get them all put together.  Thank goodness I have several ladies that have been helping me get the cards made and in the mail.  But I digress.  Today's card is a very simple card to make, but I love the look.  Hope you do too.

Let's get started right away.  The base of the card is Basic White that measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" that is scored and folded in half.  

The next layer is also Basic White.  This time it measures 5 1/4" x 4".  This has the majority of the stamping directly on it.  I wanted to use two of the sentiments from the Impressions Abloom set, so I had a good idea of the space needed for the sentiment.  That made it fairly easy to decide where to place the flowers so they would be partially tucked underneath.

I started with the detailed stamp of the daisy.  This was stamped twice with Crushed Curry ink.  Then I switched to using Daffodil Delight ink.  I inked the solid daisy stamp, off-stamped, then lined it up and stamped over the detail stamp.  This gives you a good daisy shape and softens the first color used.  It was easy to line up the petals on the daisy because there is a wider space between two petals you can use for guidance.

The leaves for the daisies are from the same set.  Just the detail leaf stamp was used to keep it lighter.  The stamp was inked with Garden Green ink then off-stamped to lighten up the leaf even more.  One of the daisies have three leaves added and the other one has only two.

The centers of the daisies were stamped in with the detailed center stamp only.  I used Pecan Pie ink for this and kept the ink full strength.  I was going for more of a black-eyed Susan look for the flowers.

The huge amount of white on the card was telling me it needed just a little something added.  I used a Mossy Meadow Light Blends to flick color on this white layer.  Then used a Daffodil Delight Dark Blends to flick a little yellow on the background too.  This I set aside to dry thoroughly while I worked on the sentiment.

I placed the "Thanks" stamp on a block, then added the rest of the sentiment stamp under this.  Make sure you do a test stamping to make sure the two are straight together.  I had to make a little adjustment on mine.  I stamped using Garden Green ink on a 1" strip of Basic White cardstock.  After stamping, the strip was trimmed to 2 1/4" long.

This was backed with a strip of Pecan Pie cardstock.  This was cut to measure 1 1/8" x 2 3/8".  The two pieces are attached together with adhesive and set aside.

The spattering was dry by now so it could be used.  I decided it needed a little more detail on this layer.  It was embossed with the retired Subtle Embossing Folder to give it a little texture but not detract from the design.  

This layer was attached to the folded Basic White card base using adhesive.  The sentiment layers were attached to the card front using Dimensionals making sure it overlapped onto the flowers. 

At this point, I wasn't sure I wanted to add anything else to the design.  Then I thought of those Tiny Bee Trinkets.  They would be a good size for the daisies and definitely not too overpowering.  I added one and was going for the other two to give me the usual number of three embellishments.  Then I decided I liked the single tiny bee as the accent and that was it.  All done.

I was easily able to make my stack of thank you cards yesterday afternoon.  I like it when a plan comes together, and I actually get it finished in a normal amount of time.  (Like the same day I started it!)

Just a comment here.  These daisies all look so much more orange than they do in real life.  Not sure why the camera did a switch on the colors, but I just thought I would mention it if you're wondering.

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I've been stamping.  This is turning into my favorite stamp set at the moment and is getting quite a bit of use.  Hope you aren't tired of seeing ideas with it, because I'm not ready to quit using it for now.  I just love the different two-step flowers and all the many color combinations available to use.  I want to keep creating huge bouquets of flowers, die-cut them all, and then just play with them!  Hope you're loving this set too.

Have you placed an order lately and seen how easy it is to reap your own rewards?  Isn't this great?!  Every time you place an order, you will earn the rewards.  Stampin'Up! will keep track of the rewards you've earned, and you can redeem them on your next order.  Or you can let those rewards build up so you can cover something bigger that you have your eye on.  Either way it's a definite win for you!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon