From the Garden trio

Before Christmas I ordered a few items from the upcoming Occasions catalog from Stampin' Up! The first things I've had a chance to try out are the From the Garden stamp set and Handpicked Framelits dies. Here are my first three creations:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: From the Garden
Paper: Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar, Real Red, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight card stock
Ink: Old Olive, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Handpicked Framelits dies, Cupcake Builder punch, 1-3/8" circle punch, Itty Bitty Accents punch pack, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I think this is a cute, simple, nontraditional Valentine's Day card. It would also be perfect for anytime you want to say love you, thinking of you or miss you. It's a pretty straightforward card, so there isn't much to explain. The only detail that isn't evident is that the leaves on the stem/vine image are actually just outlines. After I stamped the stems with Old Olive ink, I used an Old Olive marker to fill in the leaves to make them a little more bold.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: From the Garden
Paper: Marina Mist, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black marker
Accessories: Scalloped Tag Topper punch, pearls, burlap ribbon, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I wanted to make this card using just the stamp set, without the coordinating Framelits dies. The images in the stamp set are all fairly small, so I stamped the flowers and leaves together in groups to make them a better scale for the card. I cut out the flower on the bottom left corner by hand, adhered it to the tag with a Dimensional and added a pearl in the center. For the tassel on the tag, I cut a piece of burlap ribbon a few inches long, trimmed off one of the sewn edges and then pulled out a few of the individual fibers. I threaded some of the fibers through the hole on the tag and used one of the fibers to tie them together. I made a dotted border around the tag with a marker and added a horizontal line of pearls to balance out the vertical tag.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: From the Garden, Work of Art, Endless Birthday Wishes
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Pumpkin Pie, Tangelo Twist card stock; silver glimmer paper
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Coastal Cabana, Memento Tuxedo Black, Project Life Journaling Pen (05)
Accessories: Handpicked Framelits dies, Itty Bitty Accents punch pack, Glue Dots, Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

This is my favorite card of the three, and probably the most unexpected, since there is nothing garden-ish about it. As soon as I saw the shape of the die that's meant to be a long plant stake, pointed at one end, I thought of a crayon.

I chose four colors and then selected a light and dark shade of each color; the lighter shade is the crayon, and the darker shade is the wrapper. I die cut the crayon shape from each of those eight colors of card stock and then trimmed off the ends of the four darker pieces. I stamped the "loopy" image from the From the Garden at each end of the wrapper piece and used a journaling pen to draw a solid line next to it. Then on the center of each crayon I stamped a different sentiment. All of the sentiments are from From the Garden, although "for you" is shortened from "Fresh picked for you"; the photopolymer makes it really easy to stamp just part of an image exactly where you want it. After I glued the wrappers on the crayons, I trimmed the bottom end of each crayon so they weren't quite so rounded.

With the crayons made, I needed a background. The swooshes and dots in the Work of Art set seemed like perfect crayon scribbles, so I stamped them randomly on Whisper White card stock using the same colors as the crayons. I stamped a birthday sentiment, mounted the panel on a Basic Black card base, adhered the crayons and added a few silver stars.

There you have it: three very different cards made with the same basic products. I'm excited to see what else I'll create with this stamp set and dies. Thanks for stopping by!