Nature's Prints Wreath

 Good morning from sunny Florida!  We're down here for our grandson's baseball team which is playing in a tournament over the next week.  Yesterday there were skill matches for homerun hitting, accuracy and distance in throwing, and timed running.  He took place in all three events along with droves of other boys.  There was supposed to be a parade of teams and opening ceremonies last night, but they were cancelled because storms moved in late in the afternoon. There are so many teams here!  Some from as far away as Oklahoma and Texas.  What an awesome complex to play at and be part of all the fun.  But we have run into a few glitches while here.  Like neither the internet nor bathrooms working in the rental house all the time.  Not that those two are connected, but ewwww!  Right now, the septic tank is being worked on.  And the internet is connected at the moment, so I'm trying to get a post in here quick before it's lost again.  So, let's talk about card making, shall we?

I made this card almost two weeks ago, but never got around to getting it posted.  I love wreaths - on doors, inside houses, or on cards.  So when I saw the Natural Prints Dies had a wreath die, it was on my list right away.  I had all these ideas for cards, but then struggled to get the first one made.  The little add-ons to the wreath have been changed three times trying different colors and flowers.  I finally got it the way I liked it, so I'm sharing it with you.  

The card base is the new In Color Tahitian Tide.  Isn't it a pretty, clear turquoise color?  The first layer is Basic White that measures 4" x 5 1/4".  To add texture and interest to this, it was embossed with the Brick and Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.  To help define the bricks just a bit, a light rubbing of Sahara Sand with a Blending Brush was used.  It was attached to the folded card base with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue, then set aside while I worked on the rest of the design.

The wreath was my next step.  I cut the wreath from Garden Green cardstock first.  The Natural Print Dies also has several medium to short greenery stems you can cut.  For this card, several of each size were cut from Granny Apple Green and tried some yellow flowers with that.  Honestly, for some reason it just didn't look right to me, so off they came.  Next I tried Mint Macaron, but after looking at it awhile, that idea was ditched too.  That's when the whole idea was shelved for another day.

Ok, here it is another day, and I give it another try.  This time I went darker for the add-ons and used Evening Evergreen. I even cut a couple extra pieces from Garden Green too. The Garden Green pieces have a brushing of Garden Green ink on the edges using the Blending Brushes.

I also switched the flowers I was trying to use to the Artistically Inked little trio of flowers.  Then changed the color to Fresh Freesia ink, stamped them and die-cut them with the matching Artistic Dies.  Much better mix of colors in my humble opinion.  Ok, let's see if I can get this card actually finished.

The wreath is attached to the card front with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.  Then the bits and pieces were laid out in a generally pleasing fashion but weren't all attached yet.  I wanted to get the sentiment ready before the final layout was finished.

The sentiment is from the Nature's Prints set.  It's one of four sentiments that have this cool, funky font that I just love.  It's stamped on a piece of Basic White cardstock using Garden Green ink.  It's then die-cut using a label die that's part of this same Nature's Prints Bundle.  It has just a tiny bit of Tahitian Tide brushed around the edges using a Blending Brush.  It's positioned on the wreath and attached with Dimensionals.  The extra pieces of greenery were tucked in and around the wreath.  Some were attached with adhesive, and a few were attached with Mini Glue Dots.   Each of the flowers were attached with a Mini Glue Dot just in the center and curved a bit on the edges so they weren't totally flat.

Three of the littlest flowers were attached to the front of the label along with a little greenery.  It needed a bit of bling to finish it off.  I tried rhinestones, pearls and sequins and none of them really enhanced the card at all.  Then I remembered those cute little Brushed Brass Butterflies!  Three of them were added to the card and I pronounced it finished, before I decided to change something on it again!

Hope you like wreaths too and want to give this one a try.  Usually I have no problems putting wreaths together, but this time it took a little more effort.  Guess my mind was thinking on other things instead.

If you're planning on placing an order, there is a new Host Code listed at the top of the blog page.  Please consider using it - I would appreciate it greatly!  And thanks for waiting around for me to get another post for you.  Hopefully we'll have internet connections here tomorrow too.  Take care and get creative.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon

 

Birdhouse Birthday Card

Hello everyone!  Hope you're ready for an interesting card today.  It's a tri-fold card that is just a little bit different.  At least I hope it's different for you!  When visiting my sister Connie, she shared a tri-fold card that was lovely.  But I didn't want to make the card in the same way, so I did a little bit of artistic license voodoo on it and came up with my own way of making it.  Not only did I change up the way to cut the cardstock base, but the stamps used changed too.  So much fun!  Hope you like the idea.

For this special fold, I started with an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of Basic White cardstock.  I cut 3" off from the side to end up with 5 1/2" x 11".   This was scored at 4" and 8".  When folded, this gives you a card that is just a bit skinnier than normal, and the top flap does not reach over to the other side.  

The flap on the right was embossed with the Brick and Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.  To make the lovely brickwork stand out more, I used Crumb Cake ink and a Blending Brush to rub color over the bricks. Extra attention was paid especially to the raised bricks which received much more ink.  You could add more color with other pale colors if you'd like a different look.

The stamps used for this are from the Garden Birdhouses in the Annual Catalog on page 107.  It was one of my first choices from this catalog, but when I got the set, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.  It languished on the shelf until I got this creative nudge, and here it is.   

On the top flap, the branch on the bottom was stamped first.  I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink and stamped the branch with enough room for the smaller birdhouse to tuck in under it, but over to the edge of the paper as far as possible.  The branch was stamped again pretty close to the top and not quite so close to the edge of the cardstock.  Then the birdhouses were stamped in the open areas tucked up under the branches.  The third birdhouse was stamped on a scrap of Basic White and cut out after coloring.

The birdhouses were colored in with a Blender Pen (haven't used one of those in a while!) and these inks:  Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, and Old Olive.  The leaves were lightly colored in with a Pear Pizzazz marker, leaving some areas of the leaves alone.

After coloring, I cut a curvy edge very loosely following the stamped images, making sure the top edge ended up shorter than the bottom edge.  When folded, there wasn't enough contrast between the two panels, so a 3" x 5 1/2" piece of Pear Pizzazz cardstock was attached inside the flap with adhesive.  The cardstock was then cut to follow the curvy line of the white layer on top of it.  This gave just enough of a contrast to please me.

When the flap is opened, you have the lovely green color complimenting the bricks.  It needed a sentiment on this layer, but I wanted it to be small enough to be hidden.  One of the sentiments from the Color & Contour stamp set was used.  It was stamped on a scrap of Basic White with the Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Then it was cut out following the contours of the lettering.  It was attached to the bricks using adhesive.  When making this sentiment piece, I also stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Garden Birdhouses and contour cut them too for later.

On to the inside of the card.  I'm still fussing about what I can add or change on that, but here it is for now.  The sentiment comes from the Garden Birdhouses.  It was stamped with the Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I added a little bird sitting on one of the words.  I haven't decided if that leafy branch should be stamped partially inside the card, or would it be too much.  What do you think?  Input please???

The very last thing to do on the card is the belly band.  Pear Pizzazz cardstock was used here.  It was cut 1" x 11" and folds around the card.  I actually trimmed off about 1" to make the overlap shorter.  You want to make sure the overlap can be hidden under the third birdhouse which is attached with a Dimensional.  The birthday sentiment that was made earlier is also attached with Mini Dimensionals.  And there you have it.  A tri-fold card that is just a little bit different.  If you try doing a card like this, let me know how it went and send me a picture if you can.  I'd love to see what you do!

Just a short reminder that Sale-a-Bration is just about over.  It ends on February 28th.  If there's something on your wish list, now might be a great time to order it.  I'll have to go back to sharing cards made with Sale-a-Bration freebies to show you possibilities before they aren't available anymore.  And there are many!  When you do order, please remember to use the Host Code at the top right corner on my blog page.  I would greatly appreciate it.

It was fun being away visiting Connie, but great to be home again.  Connie and I had lots of fun creating together and bouncing ideas around.  She is such a creative person and it's so great to see how someone else pulls ideas together.  I'll have her here guest hosting again sometime soon.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by for a read and hopefully a dose of creativity.  Stay in touch and keep on creating.  It's good for your disposition - at least that's what hubby says.

Hugs,

Sharon