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

Gorgeous Leaves Combo

 Hey there, so glad you stopped by.   Today I have two versions of the same card for you.  I have this problem of always making too many little pieces to go on a card and have them laying around waiting for me to do something with them.  Well, that's not going to happen today, because I made two cards to use up all the bits that were left over.   Smart, right?

Here are the both of them together.  I'm so into the idea of autumn coming and all the glorious leaves that put on a show for us to enjoy.  These cards highlight the colors of autumn at their finest.

Both cards started out the same with a card base of a half sheet of Crumb Cake cardstock, folded in half.  Each also has a layer of Soft Suede cardstock that is cut to 5" x 3 3/4".   Next is another layer of Crumb Cake cut at 4 3/4" x 3 1/2".  This layer has the stamping on it.

Stamping started with the Gorgeous leaves Bundle.  The larger speckle image was inked with Crumb Cake ink and stamped in a diagonal pattern from the bottom center up to the right top corner.  Over this was randomly stamped the smaller speckle image using Soft Suede ink.  Over on the left top corner, the 3 leaf stamp was inked, off-stamped, then stamped randomly to give just a light touch of pattern.   This layer was attached to the Soft Suede layer with adhesive.  Then attached to the folded Crumb Cake base using Dimensionals.

The first solid leaf image was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock using 2 inks.  First the stamp was inked on the one side with Crushed Curry ink and on the other side with Old Olive ink, then stamped.  The maple leaf was mostly inked with Pumpkin Pie ink, then Cajun Craze ink was added to the side.  Both leaves were die-cut using the coordinating dies from the Intricate Leaves Dies.  These were set aside and I moved along to the open-work leaf dies.  The large maple leaf and tall leaf were both die-cut from Cajun Craze cardstock.  Two of the little leaves were die-cut from Crushed Curry cardstock.  Then it was a matter of playing around to see which leaves went where.  They were attached to the card fronts using Glue Dots rolled up like croissants under the veining on the open leaves and the solid one too. 

The sentiment posed a bit of a problem.  I knew what I wanted it to say, but didn't have a stamp that really worked.  This is where omitting while stamping comes into play.  There is a wonderful set called Heartwarming Hugs that is all sentiments in a pretty scripty-style font.  One of them is:  & heartfelt wishes.  I just made sure that I didn't ink the "&" so I have just the words I wanted.   You can do this by very carefully inking, or place some scotch tape over the part you don't want, ink, then pull off the tape before stamping  Voila!

The sentiments were stamped on Very Vanilla strips using Soft Suede ink.  The strip was then die-cut with the Stitched Rectangle Dies.  The next up size of Stitched Rectangle was die-cut from Soft Suede cardstock.  The layers were attached together with adhesive.

The wording was kept to the right edge so there would be plenty of room on the left for wrapping some Linen Thread around it several times and knotting off.  After the sentiments were ready to go, they were attached over the leaves with Dimensionals to make them stand out.  That was it for these two cards except for the sentiment inside.  And as usual, I decided to leave it blank so I could write my own notes inside.

I love how the cards turned out quite neutral looking except for a splash of color on the side.  If you notice on the maple leaf cut-out, I left some of the die-cut little pieces in the leaf.  This reminded me on the way maple leaves start looking like skeleton leaves with part of the leaf still there and other parts gone.  Does it look weird to you?  I'm still trying to decide if that was a mistake to do or not.  Give me your opinion on this please!

Here we are with just a few more days left to take advantage of Sale-a-bration.  If you've been thinking about getting one more item from the batch of free items, you've got to hustle..  Remember for every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping) you can choose one of the free Sale-a-bration items.  And be sure to use the host code posted here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Leave a comment if you would.  It makes me so happy to know you're out there reading about what I've been making lately.  

Blessings and hugs,

Sharon

More with the Baby Wipe Technique

Hi y'all!  I had so much fun playing with the Baby Wipe Technique the other week.  I just wanted to do a little more with this technique and see what else I could come up with.  The leaves outside should soon start turning all those lovely shades of yellows, oranges, and reds.  I thought I'd get a head-start by making my own colorful fall leaves.  And the Baby Wipe Technique makes it so easy to get fabulous color on your stamped leaves.  I can't wait to look outside and see something that looks like this...

Aren't the colors on the leaves just fabulous?  I've always loved autumn and I can hardly wait for the real thing to appear outside.  At least I hope the leaves will change here like in Michigan.  Guess I really have to wait and see.

The card starts out with a base of Early Espresso cardstock cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", then scored and folded in half.  The layer of Designer Series Paper is from the pack - Beauty of the Earth.  All of the designs in this paper pack are truly works of art.  There isn't a single one that I don't like, and that makes it difficult to decide which one to use.  This print has modern-looking branches with multiple leaves in many fall colors.  It's a great place to start on this fall card.

There is a layer of Early Espresso cardstock cut with the Stitched So Sweetly Dies.  Then the next smaller die cuts out a layer of Basic White cardstock.  This is what we do all our colorful stamping on.  First make a palette of 3-4 baby wipes folded in 3rds or 4ths depending on the size of the wipes.  I put this in an empty stamp box so the ink doesn't go everywhere, but can be easily washed out.  I used these re-inkers:  Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, and Rich Razzleberry.  Drops of the re-inkers were placed in an area a bit larger than the maple leaf I planned to use.  Each color had at least 5 drops placed randomly next to each other.  Then the stamping begins!  The maple leaf and the tiny three leaf cluster are from the Gorgeous Leaves stamp set.  When inking the stamp, keep inking in the same area, don't wander all over the pad.  This way the ink colors stay fairly crisp even after multiple inkings.  If the ink colors are real intense, clean the stamp before inking in another area so as not to muddy all the colors together.   After the maple leaf was stamped 3 times, I changed up and used the cluster of three leaves to fill in the open areas on the rectangle.

At this point, the stamped rectangle was attached to the Early Espresso layer using adhesive.  Then this was all layered onto the card base using Dimensionals.  I liked the look of it off to the right side for this card.  

It needed a cute fall sentiment and the perfect one was in the Banner Year stamp set.  It fits right in with my move to the south!  This was also stamped using the baby wipe palette we used for the leaves.  After inking the stamp, it was stamped on a 3/4" wide strip of Basic White cardstock.  The Triple Banner Punch was used on each end of the strip to make a banner.  This was layered onto the card with adhesive on the right side, and a Dimensional on the left side to raise it up level.

The card needed some bling to make it pop a just little more.  After trying and discarding of lots of rhinestones, linen thread, ribbon etc, it was decided that the Sequins for Everything would work nicely.  I added two of the brown ones and four of the golden-orangey/yellow ones.

The last part was the inside of the card.  There is a layer of Basic White cut at 5 1/4" x 4".  This has one maple leaf stamped in the corner to match the front.  I've left the inside blank to accommodate one of the many notes I send out.  But this could make a cute birthday card or of course a Thanksgiving card.

If you haven't given this technique a try (or it's been years since you did), why not try it out?  It's definitely fun, and no two cards ever really look the same.  Just remember to wash your hands when you get ink on them!  Sometimes it does get just a little bit messy.  But there's nothing wrong with inky fingers.  It shows what you've been doing!     *big grin!*

Thanks for stopping by again.  Hope you're inspired to give this technique a try.  And fall leaves are a wonderful way to try it!

Here's the code for September orders if you are placing one.  I truly appreciate my customers.  Thank you in advance for any order you may place.

Reminder:  Sale-a-bration ends September 30th.  Be sure to get your order in as soon as possible.  There are still many items available for you to choose from.  I'm sure you'll find something to love in the selections.  Please call me if you have questions or have trouble placing your order.  I'm here to help!

Happy stamping!

Sharon