Pick A Season Card

Hello stampers!  I've got to get a quick post in today.  I wasn't going to share these, because I'd just quickly made them for my own use.  But since the Pick A Season stamp set is a Sale-a-bration freebie, I wanted to let you see these before the set is no longer available.  Like I said, these cards were for my own consumption for a couple of ladies in Sunday School who have been under the weather. I used several items that are retired, so you get a mix of old and new.  There is nothing out of the ordinary about them.   But I did have a small problem.  It seems I don't have any St. Patrick's Day stamps, so this little tree is stepping up and letting me decorate it for the holiday.  So that's why these little cards are being shared today.

Even though these were super quick to make, I think they turned out cute.  The card base is Shy Shamrock cardstock.  Quite fitting I'd say!  The size is 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  It's scored and folded in half.  

The watercolor wash looking layer is a piece from the Bloom Impressions Designer Series Paper which is another Sale-a-bration item.  Cool, two items on one card.  The DSP piece measures 4" x 2 1/2".  

It's layered onto a piece of Shaded Spruce cardstock for definition between the two colors. The Shaded Spruce cardstock measures 4 1/4" x 3".  They are layered together with "green glue".  Then this is layered onto the fold card base right about across the center.  It's attached with "green glue" here too.

The focal piece is stamped onto a piece of Basic White cardstock.  This measures 3 7/8" x 2 5/8".  You could make the piece a little bigger if you don't like dealing with the odd 1/8" measurements.  This is just a piece I had in my "cut pieces stash".

The first item stamped is the trunk of the tree.  It's stamped with Pecan Pie ink about 3/4" from the bottom.  (The next one I made, I put this a 1/4" higher to not leave quite so much white on top and give you more room for the grass.)

Next, the leaves were stamped above the tree truck.  They're stamped with Shy Shamrock ink.  While I had the Shy Shamrock ink out, the grass was stamped multiple times to give it a base for the tree.

The stamp with 3 clover leaves is part of the set.  These were stamped with Shaded Spruce ink, so they show up nicely among the leaves.  Don't they fit in the open spaces just right?

I didn't have a current sentiment to use on the card, so I dug the Lovely Friends set out of hiding and used it once again.  This little stamp fit so nicely in the open area.  It's stamped with Shaded Spruce ink to match.

At this point I was planning on putting a layer underneath the white layer.  After trying several ideas, I realized I liked it just plain and simple with no more layers.   Sometimes less is the better option.  It's attached to the center of the card using Dimensionals for lift.

I remembered these teeny tiny flower accents from a year or two ago.  I seem to have a bazillion of these little flowers, so why not use them.  I thought they would be a good accent for this all green card.  I love the addition of both the color and interest.  Each of these tiny flowers were attached with a Mini Glue Dot.  What a lovely finish to my St. Paddy's Day card.

After making two of these, I thought they turned out cute enough to send to the shut-ins from church.  So, I've cut enough cardstock and DSP for another 22 cards.  We'll be getting together next week to make these.  Hope all the recipients with enjoy them.

And I hope you liked this card idea.  When I saw this Sale-a-bration item, I knew I had to get it.  I love that it has an assortment of stamps to fit the openings in the leaves.  This means you can do everything from hearts to flowers and shamrocks to eggs.  There are even some extra leaves if you just want a plain tree.  What fun!  Lots of possibilities.  I've always enjoyed these types of stamps that you can change around to cover several seasons.  Very versatile.

Thank you for sharing your time with me today.  If you haven't got this set yet and you really want it, you only have until the 28th.  So, hop to it and don't delay!  (hmmm, maybe I could add a bunny under the tree?)  But I digress.  I do appreciate your time and also your orders.  Thank you so much!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon

Pick a Season Happy Tree

Hello all you wonderful people!  Hope your month is going great so far.  I've still got my hacky cough holding me back, but I'm definitely back to stamping!  The ideas are just percolating at a rapid pace and I'm having trouble keeping up.  There have been some orders coming in this month, so I needed to make some cute thank you cards for them.  What better to use that the new Sale-a-bration set called Pick a Season.  This is such a cute set that is very versatile.  I was going to use different colors on each of the cards.  But after starting out with the Peach Pie color, I liked it so much that's what I used for all of them.  I'll have to revisit this set and use some of the other stamps in the set and different colors too.

I started by stamping the tree on Basic White cardstock that measures 3 1/4" x 4".  The trunk was stamped first with Pecan Pie ink near the bottom.  The leaves were stamped next.  It was inked with Lemon Lime Twist ink then the bottom portion of the stamp was tapped onto the Granny Apple Green ink pad to blend the colors.  I like the lighter color at the top.  It reminds me of sunlight on the upper branches.

Then the triple flower stamp was used with Peach Pie ink to fill in each opening in the leaves.  I kept twisting the stamp, so the flower cluster wasn't all lined up the same way.

The grass stamp was inked in Granny Apple Green ink and stamped multiple times to get different shades of green.  It also filled in the grassy area a little bit.

Granny Apple Green was chosen for both the card base and the layering piece.  The measurements are 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  This is scored at 4 1/4" and folded in half.  The layer is 4 1/4" x 3 1/2".  The stamped piece is layered onto this with adhesive.

Now the decision for the background layer.  After trying a few options, the 2024-2025 In Color 6" x 6" Designer Paper was chosen.  I couldn't decide which print of the four to choose, so I tried out two different ones and liked them both.  Dilemma - which one to choose.  In the end both of the prints were used on my stack of cards, and I was happy.

The sentiment is from the Mixed Labels stamp set.  It's stamped on a Peach Pie 1/2" strip of cardstock and trimmed to fit.  Pecan Pie ink was used.  It's attached with Dimensionals.

For this card, peachy colored gems from the Party Dots were used for an accent.  Then a Peach Pie Bordered Ribbon was tied into a loose knot and attached with Mini Glue Dots to the card.

The inside of all the cards were finished the same way.  A sentiment from Mixed Labels was stamped with Pecan Pie ink.  One of the flower clusters was stamped with Peach Pie ink.  And one of the small leaf sets was stamped with Granny Apple Green ink.

Did I mention making several changes on the cards as I went because I couldn't make up my mind on some of the choices?  Thought you'd like to see a slightly different version...

Can you spot the changes?  The leaves have more of the Lemon Lime Twist showing on this one so it's a little brighter.  

The background DSP is a stripe instead of an overall print.  It's still from the same pack of paper though.

The gems used are the 2024-2025 In Color Shimmer Gems. 

All these add up to just minor changes, but it does make a difference.

Here's a last look at them together. Which one do you prefer?  I'd like to hear from you.

If you didn't know, the Pick a Season set is one of the Sale-a-bration free choices.  It's so dog-gone cute and so easy to use.  You'll just love it if you choose to get this set.  I will definitely be making more cards with this.  There are tiny eggs, shamrocks, hearts, and of course the flowers I used.  There is also a fence and clouds.  Just think of all the possibilities!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon