Country Bouquet Happiness

Hello, hello!  Hope you're doing well, and life is running along smoothly.  Seems like we're having some bumps in the road all the time lately.  But I guess that's what life is all about, isn't it?  Today I have a card to share that's pulling all kinds of odds and ends together to make a whole.  I had fun making it and hope you like it.

This is so funny - I didn't realize how Christmas-y this card looked until just now.  All because I took the picture on a green tablecloth.  Go figure...  Anyway, I had fun pulling items together to make this card.

It started with the Country Bouquet stamp set.  This is a new set in the January-April Mini Catalog.  I love this floral heart with its two-step image stamps.  It's great getting all this detail on the heart with just two stamps.  I stamped the flowers and hearts with Real Red ink onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock just to get a feel for the stamp.  Then stamped the leaves and stems with Garden Green ink.  I was happy enough with the placement of the images that I decided to use the image for a card.

I had recently gotten the Split Card Textures Dies and wanted to try them out.  You can find them on page 86 and on page 174 in the 2022-2023 Annual Catalog.  I die-cut the side of a top-folded Very Vanilla card with the 'plaid pattern'.  I decided that I preferred the pattern on the other side of the card, so turned the card on its side and then inside out with the die-cut pattern along the top of the card.  With having the back-side of the pattern on the front of the card, you now have much more of a textured feel to the card.  I cut a piece of Real Red cardstock that measured 5 3/8" x 4 1/8" to place inside the card to show through.  It was attached to the left side of the card with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.

The sentiment is from the Cheerful Basket stamp set in the 2022-2023 Annual Catalog on page 35.  I really like this sentiment and it's sure to be one of my favorites in the coming months.  It's stamped with Real Red ink.  A couple of small hearts from the Country Bouquet set were stamped above the sentiment with the same ink.

At this point, I thought some Wink of Stella would be a nice touch.  It's spattered on over the entire card front.  Unfortunately, it didn't show up as much as I thought it would.  But it still gives it a nice touch when the angle of the light is just right.

The original stamped heart that I had made needed to be fussy cut from the Very Vanilla piece as there are no dies for this set.  The heart was so easy to cut out, so that really wasn't a problem.  It did need something between the card front and the heart to make it stand out more though.  After trying several ideas and promptly rejecting all of them, I ran across a 3/8" Real Red organdy ribbon that's retired.  This seemed to be the perfect match for the card.  It gave the heart some definition but wasn't too 'heavy' for the design.  I put several stripes of adhesive across the back of the heart and 'swooshed' the ribbon back and forth.  This looked much better than a bow.  After getting the ribbon situated the way I liked it, the heart was attached to the card front using Dimensionals.  I thought about adding some sort of embellishment but decided against it.

So that's it for today's post.  This is such a fun Valentine set that really doesn't have to be used for Valentine's Day.  I figured if you changed the colors on this, it could be used any time you needed a card to cheer someone up.  After changing the sentiment, it would work nicely for an anniversary card too.  Just put on your creative thinking cap and get stamping!

Reminder - as if you need reminding - Sale-a-bration is going on right now and things are busy.  Many of you were smart enough to pick up the Dainty Flowers DSP for your first free choice.   I think that's an excellent choice.  I know I'll probably end up using all mine up and need to get some more.   😄

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon

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

Fitting Florets Again

 Hello everyone!  Here we are back with another card using the new Fitting Florets Collection.  And this time there's an added bonus of it being a fun-fold card too.  To make it even better, I have two versions of the card also.  This is another design that Connie and I both made our version of the same layout.  Hope you like.

Here's my version of the card.  The card base is smaller than usual, 4 1/4" x 8 1/2".  It's scored in half with the fold to the left side.  Then it's scored from the top right corner to the bottom left folded corner of the front flap of the card.  I think you can see the scored fold in the picture.  My thumb nail is right near the bottom corner fold.  The card base is Evening Evergreen to match the Fitting Florets Designer Series Paper.

The 'heart frame' die was used to die-cut a piece of Silver Foil paper that measures about 4" x 4 1/2".  This die actually doesn't cut either an inside oval or an outside one - just the tiny hearts in the oval shape.  After die-cutting, I used Paper Snips to follow the edge of the die to cut out an oval frame.  Then I used the smaller of the other two oval dies to cut out both a Polished Pink cardstock frame and a Basic White inset.  I'm left with a white frame and pink inset for another project.

In the center of the white inset was stamped a sentiment from the Framed Florets Bundle using Evening Evergreen ink.  Then the Polished Pink frame was attached in the center of the silver foil oval using adhesive.  The inset was also attached to the center of the frame with adhesive.

One of the flowers in the set was stamped with Polished Pink ink on Basic White cardstock.  Two of the leaf clusters were also stamped on white with Evening Evergreen ink.  I used a Water Brush and extra ink to do a little watercolor on them before die-cutting them with the matching dies.  

A tall leaf spray was die-cut from Evening Evergreen cardstock and an extra spray of leaves was die-cut from Balmy Blue cardstock.  I'm sorry I forgot to write down what I was using as I went along and can't figure out what die set was used for the Balmy Blue piece.  I would guess that any similar bitty piece would work just fine.  These pieces were all attached to the frame, most with adhesive, but the flower has a Dimensional behind it.

The ovals are attached to the front of the card only on the bottom section by using adhesive.  Make sure the adhesive doesn't go above the fold or the card won't stand up as shown.

To finish the card, a 4" x 4" piece of Fitting Florets DSP was attached inside the card.  The sentiment was stamped on a 1/2" piece of Basic White cardstock using Evening Evergreen ink.  It was trimmed then layered onto a Polished Pink piece to frame it.  This was attached inside the card using Dimensionals.  It's at just the right angle to catch the front flap on the card and allow it to stand upright.  Cute, huh?!  The final touch is the little Festive Pearls in Cherry Cobbler color tucked into the design.  Now, on to Connie's version of this card.

As you can see, many differences here starting out with the card base color of Night of Navy.  She also added two half pieces of 4" x 4" paper - one in Balmy Blue and one is the matching DSP.  The Balmy Blue cardstock has tone-on-tone stamping with one of the little sprigs in the stamp set.  These two pieces were added to either side of the diagonal fold.

Connie did not use the hearts oval die like I did.  She did use the Silver Foil for the smaller frame and Basic White for the inset on this design.  The words are from the Framed & Festive set that is part of the Collection and it's stamped in Night of Navy ink.

She added the leafy spray die-cut from Night of Navy cardstock.  She also had a bitty die-cut of Balmy Blue and a smaller one from Silver Foil that are added for interest.

Last picture shows the inside of the card and has it standing upright.  The sentiment comes from the Framed & Festive set also.  It's stamped on Basic White with Night of Navy ink and then framed with Polished Pink.  

The inside of the card has the same print as the front of the card to carry the design inside.  The sentiment is attached with Dimensionals.

As the finishing touch, she added several pink dots to match the design of the DSP print.  A slightly different take on a Christmas card, don't you think?  But lovely just the same.

So, there you have it.  We have used the same layout on the cards we made and that's about all that is the same about them.  Have fun making your own version of our fun-fold card.  I'm sure you'll come up with something wonderful and uniquely yours!

If you're enjoying seeing the possibilities of this Fitting Florets Collection, consider purchasing this for yourself.  Or you might want to get only the parts of it that appeal to you.  Either way it works.  The fun ideas just keep flowing and hopefully I'll have more ideas to share for using this Collection in the future.   If you're ordering soon, please consider using the Host Code shown at the top of the post.  Thanks for stopping by again to see what's happening.  Love to hear from you!

Happy stamping and creating!

Sharon