Serene Sunrise

Hi friend!  Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far.  We had a frost warning last night, and I hope it doesn't affect all the new growth that's popping up everywhere.  I'm still astounded by how early we have the flowering trees blooming around here.  The gorgeous weeping cherry we have is already done blooming for this spring.  How is that possible when it's only April 2nd?  This is at least a month earlier than I was used to in Michigan.  But I'll get used to it, I'm sure!

Today's card started out as an evening twilight card, but I've changed the colors a bit and decided to go with a cool dawn morning instead.   That's more like what we're dealing with here, so it works.

The first thing was die-cutting the Misty Moonlight quarter sheet of cardstock with the Birds & More circular die.  This leaves such a pretty opening with berries and leaves framing the circle.  Since this layer of blue would be almost the whole card front, it needed some texture to give it more interest.  I used my favorite embossing folder - Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder.  I'm so bummed that it's one of the many items that are being discontinued.

Now it's ready to use as a guide for coloring behind the window.  It was carefully placed on the Basic White card base.  I penciled in 4 tiny marks inside the window for a guide when blending in the colors.  I needed to make sure they would cover the opening and then some.  

The first color I used was Pale Papaya ink, laying it on with Blending Brushes on the bottom area of the window. This covered an area about 1 1/2" high.  Next up was Blushing Bride ink.  This was blended into the Pale Papaya ink and brought up about 1 1/2".  The next color was Fresh Freesia ink.  Again, it was blended down into the previous color and blended up about 1 1/2".  Lastly, I added some Misty Moonlight ink to the very top of the area to represent the not-quite-night sky.  I carefully went in to erase the tiny pencil marks.  They really were so tiny I could have left them there, but you know....

I have to throw in a disclaimer here.  In real life, the dawn sky colors are soft, but still much brighter than my pictures would suggest.  I just couldn't get a picture that showed this truly beautiful background.  How frustrating!

The bird is from the Birds & Branches Bundle that's on the retiring list.  The bird is stamped with Night of Navy and Gray Granite for its two-toned look.  These colors made the bird look similar to the cute little Juncos that have been populating our bird feeder. After stamping, it was cut with the coordinating die.  The branch is also from the same bundle and was die-cut from Pear Pizzazz cardstock.

The sentiment is from the Special Moments stamp set that was one of the freebies during Sale-a-Bration.  I hope you were able to pick this set up as it has so many wonderful sentiments included.  This one was stamped with Misty Moonlight ink onto a Basic White scrap.  It was die-cut with the Beautiful Shapes Dies.  This is a fun little die from that set that has embossing that is part of the die.  Nice accent.

Now that all the pieces are ready to roll, it's time to put it all together.  The Misty Moonlight layer was attached to the folded card front (with the dawn sky on it) first.  I used Dimensionals to pop it up and give some shadowing to the leaves and berries around the window.  The Pear Pizzazz branch was attached with multiple Mini Glue Dots.  The bird was attached over the branch using Dimensionals.  Lastly the sentiment was attached flat to the card front using only adhesive.  

At this time, there is no bling on the card.  I wasn't crazy about anything I tried.  So, for now, plain it is.  Let me know if you think it needs something added and what that should be.  I can always change my mind about this, if you can convince me.

As the old catalog is on its way out to make room for the new, I feel the need to get out some of my very favorites and play with them again.  The Birds & Branches Bundle has been used often since I'd gotten it.  While still in Michigan, it was used for classes several different times.  It was always fun to make a card with these fairly realistic birds, and it still was this time around.  Yes, I'm going to miss this bundle very much.  If you're interested, it is still available until the end of April - just a couple more weeks.  Let me know if I can help you order this before they're gone. 

Thanks for coming by again and checking things out.  Hope you enjoyed this little card and give this idea a try.  It's fun to have a die-cut opening in the front of the card with a scene of some kind peeking through.  Just something a little different for you to try.  Just a reminder that catalogs will be sent out sometime this month.  If you haven't received yours by the end of the month, please contact me so I can send another one.

Blessings and peace,

Sharon

Sending Rainbows to You

Here it is already, 2022!  We have a fresh new year ahead of us.  Have you made any new year's resolutions?  My big one is to make a greater effort to stay in touch with my family and friends.  Sometimes I get off in my own little world and kind of shut the door behind me.  Well, I'll be working on doing a better job of staying connected and being there for my family and friends.  If you find me slipping, remind me.  OK?  One of my favorite ways to stay in touch is with sending cards.  Duh, as if you didn't know that already!  Today's card was made with that in mind.  It uses one of the new 2022 January - June stamp sets and a Sale-a-bration stamp set and a Designer Paper freebie too.  Lots of new goodies to play with.  Ready to have a Sneak Peek two days early?  Both of these catalogs go live on January 4th so you don't have a very long wait at all.

I figured this card would be perfect for letting someone know you were thinking of them and brightening their day.  What do you think?  The card uses a new set called Rainbows of Happiness.  I've always been partial to rainbows as they are a symbol from God to mankind that He would never destroy all of mankind again in a world-wide flood.  When still living in Michigan and having our basement flooding - not yearly, but way more often than I wanted, I always loved seeing rainbows.  They were a beautiful symbol of hope to me.

For this card, I didn't want a traditional fold, so I started with a Basic White base that was cut at 4 1/4" x 11".  It was then scored at 4", and at 9 1/2".  This gave me an asymmetrical gate-fold card to work with.  The designer paper is one of the free items from the Sale-a-bration catalog.  It's a perfect match for the Rainbow of Happiness stamp set and is called Sunshine & Rainbows.  This is a 6" x 6" paper pack with 48 sheets of playful prints that are bright and sassy.  Don't you just love these sassy prints?  It has both big, bold prints and some lovely, bright pastels too.  For this card I chose two different prints to coordinate.  The bolder, Misty Moonlight print is cut at 4" x 3 3/4" to fit the left side of the gate-fold.  The Mango Melody print is 4" x 1 1/4" for the right flap.  

TIP - When you're cutting this DSP, you need to be very aware of the direction of print.  For this card, you wouldn't want them going side-ways and looking weird.  Check twice before cutting!

Of course, I had to stamp a rainbow for the card.  Checking the size of the rainbow to the different dies, it fit nicely on the 2nd largest rectangle die in the Stitched So Sweetly Dies.  That was cut from Basic White cardstock for the focal point.

I decided to use the colors of the rainbows on the DSP print for my rainbow.  These aren't traditional colors at all, but they are fun (and matched too).  The largest color band is So Saffron.  Next up comes Pool Party.  This one also has the sentiment stamped over it in Misty Moonlight ink.  The 3rd band is Magenta Madness and the smallest is Petal Pink.  I added a few Magenta Madness teensy hearts over the rainbow to make it happy.  This was attached to a cut-to-fit rectangle of Magenta Madness cardstock using adhesive.  

When attaching the images to the card front of a gate-fold card, figure out where the left edge of the front flap is.  Do NOT attach your adhesive beyond this point.  I used four Dimensionals under the images only on the left side to attach this. 

After finishing the front, I felt it needed just a little bling.  There are three of the new Iridescent Rhinestone Basic Jewels added.  You can really see from this picture how pretty those rhinestones are.  Just gorgeous!

When I got to the inside of the card, I might have gotten just a little carried away.  The sentiment comes from the Special Moments stamp set in the Sale-a-bration catalog that you can get free.   Lots of great sentiments in there!

Then I decided I wanted some sunshine inside the card.  This cute sunshiny guy is from the Sharing Sunshine set in the 2021-2022 Annual Catalog.  Love how cute it is, especially with that smiley face.

There were two little strips of DSP left over, so why not add them to the card?  And of course, there just had to be more of those teensy little hearts added too.

That's it for today.  I hope you're inspired to try making a gate-fold card again.  Don't know why it's been a while since I've made one.  They're just so cute.  I need to make them more often.  (Along with all the other stuff I need to do!)  Stay happy and healthy.  And keep stamping and creating!

Sharon