Help Me Grow Card

Oh, my goodness.  I had so much fun playing with the new Help Me Grow bundle yesterday!  I hope y'all love this card as much as I do.  You know the feelings of how sometimes things just don't gel right and you can't figure out what is wrong versus when it all comes together easily and you're surprised by the outcome.  I've had both before, but I've been leaning towards the frustrating feeling a lot lately.  Things just haven't look as good as I pictured it in my mind.  But the last couple of days, I feel like I've been on a creative high.  I had no card idea in mind when I sat down to create.  Just wanted to get a feel for the new Help Me Grow set.  You know, do a little coloring on cardstock and playing around with the dies.  I didn't even get around to doing any stamping!  But let me share what I did.

This is it!  I wish you could see this in person.  The photo just doesn't do it justice but let me walk you through the process.

I started with a half piece of Basic White cardstock, a couple of Blending Brushes, and several ink colors.  I wanted some pastel leaves, so I started with blending Soft Seafoam ink over the cardstock.  There were some lighter areas and some I tried to darken as much as possible with this pale color.  Then some swirls of Pool Party were blended in.  Lastly were areas of Old Olive which were kept a little light.  Then I took the leaf cluster die from the Help Me Grow set and started cutting leaves until I had a half dozen of the multicolored leaves to use.  After cutting them, some ink was added to a few of the leaves for a little more color.

Then I moved on to the flowerpot die cut.  It's cut from Crumb Cake cardstock to start.  Using Blending Brushes and Cajun Craze ink, color was blended on with the darkest area in the left bottom corner and working out from there.  It really changes the Crumb Cake color.  It's darkened a little with Pecan Pie ink on the left side and bottom corner.

I love old clay pots with the water marks and dirt to give it character.  So, this was speckled with an Early Espresso marker.  Then with a Water Painter and Craft White Ink, splatters of white were added.  Then with the Water Painter wet with white ink & water, some was dabbed in the corner.

Next was playing around with the leaves and clay pot together.  It needed a darker contrast in among the leaves, so two of the same leaves were die-cut from Old Olive cardstock.  I also cut the trio of separate leaves from Old Olive too.  A touch of Old Olive ink was blended onto some of these leaves to darken and define them more.

Next, I moved to the flower dies.  I cut yellows, pinks, reds, lavenders, and Calypso Coral.  I ended up with a whole pile of different colors to play with.

Now it was time to figure out what the card was going to look like.  I found a 2" strip of a peach/coral print in the Painterly Pears DSP.  It made me think of creating a shabby chic look for the card.  This weathered wood piece is from the Country Woods DSP and paired up nicely with the peachy print.

A Calypso Coral piece of cardstock that measures 11" x 4 1/4" was used for the card base to contrast with the wood piece.  It's scored and folded at 5 1/2".  The wood piece is attached to the card base with adhesive.  Then the peachy print was attached down the center of the card front.

To make the blooming flower pot, adhesive was added to the backside of the pot under the slit.  This way I could place the stems inside the pot and get them placed properly.  I started with the two Old Olive stems in the back.  Then added the blended stems in the front.  A couple of the leaves were taken off the bottom of the stems and were later tucked into the design where needed.

Six of the Calypso Coral flowers were used for the design.  The centers were colored in with a Cajun Craze marker.  They were tucked into the leaves and attached with a Mini Glue Dot behind each one.  I loved the brightness of the flowers peeking out from the leaves.

At this point, the whole flower cluster and pot were attached to the card front using Dimensionals.  In a few areas, I tucked the extra leaves in with a Mini Glue Dot.  Also added a couple Mini Glue Dots behind a few leaves to hold it more securely because most of the leaves were only held by their stems in the back.

The sentiment comes from the Storybook Friends stamp set.  It just seemed to fit perfectly.  It's stamped with Early Espresso ink onto a 1/2" Basic White strip.  It's trimmed to fit and attached with Mini Dimensionals.

Final look at the Help Me Grow creation.  There's no bling at all.  Is that awful?  There is usually some sort of bling on every card I make.  But this time, I just liked it as it was.  

If you're looking for the Help Me Grow bundle, you can find it in the Online Exclusives store.  And if you're looking for a demonstrator, I'd be happy to help you.

Now I need to go back and try using the rest of the set that I didn't even try yet.  Those garden tools especially are calling to me.  This is just the perfect time of year to play with this set.  Bring a little bit of springtime inside to your cardmaking.

Hope you enjoyed hearing how I created this card and will give it a try with your own twist added.  I'm sure you'll have fun making it.  I'd love to hear what you create.  I think the possibilities are pretty endless.

Thanks for sharing your time with me today.  Hope you are inspired to get out your stamps and assorted stamping "toys" and have a good therapy session.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon