A walk in the garden

Today I have three floral cards to share. Each one uses a different stamp set, but they were all inspired by the idea of a walk in the garden, which seems fitting now that we've definitely turned the corner into summer. (All supplies are from Stampin' Up!^®.)

Supplies:
Stamps: Raining Flowers
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Concord Crush, Old Olive, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, More Mustard
Accessories: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, basic pearls, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I often struggle with this stamp set because all the flowers have just a little bit different style, so it's hard for me to put them together. But I'm pleased with how this card turned out; I especially like the two pops of red.

Supplies:
Stamps: Greenhouse Garden
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Poppy Parade, So Saffron, More Mustard, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Old Olive, Always Artichoke
Accessories: 1/8" Old Olive taffeta ribbon, corner rounder, Dazzling Details, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

This is my favorite type of card to make with this stamp set. It's actually not hard to create, but it does involve a fair amount of cutting. Happily for me, I don't really mind all the fussy cutting; it can be sort of calming and therapeutic. Once the flowers are cut out, it's just a matter of layering them over the stamped flowers with Mini Glue Dots and Dimensionals to create different levels of depth. It's hard to see in this photo, but I also added a bit of Dazzling Details glitter glue in the flower centers. (Here's a fun tip about this set: The little violet flower also makes a good four-leaf clover if, like me, you someday find yourself needing to make something for St. Patrick's Day without any Irish-themed stamps.)

Supplies:
Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, textured Soft Suede
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Soft Suede
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon, Dimensionals

This is a simple card, but I created a little visual interest by adhering the focal piece to the card at an angle instead of centering it on the card front. I also added a bit of texture by embossing polka dots on the background.

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through the garden. Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday 'cake'

A few months ago I posted a birthday ensemble that included a tealight candle birthday cake. It was a fun, cute and easy project, so I decided to make another, this one with a coordinating gift box.

Supplies:
Stamps: Essential Messages (Hero Arts)
Card stock: Beautiful Go-Go Boots printed paper (KI Memories), pink and tan card stock
Ink: Dark brown chalk ink (Color Box)
Accessories: 1/16" and 1/4" hole punches; medium and large scallop circle, oval, scallop oval, scallop edge, corner rounder and 1-3/8" circle punches (Stampin' Up!); Pretty in Pink corduroy brad; Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles (Ranger); mini jewels - Lily White assortment (Doodlebug Design Inc.); Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (Stampin' Up!); white crochet thread; paper crimper (Fiskars); Scor-Pal; Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal); Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue
Other: Battery-operated tealight candle

There is a great tutorial for this project on Splitcoaststampers. I made a couple of modifications to the tutorial: The strip I used around the tealight is 7/8" instead of 3/4" to hide the on/off switch on the bottom of the candle, and after Step 5, I tested my scallop circle to be sure it fit over the "flame," and then I punched a 1/4" hole in the center before gluing it down.

For this candle, I crimped the strip of pink card stock before gluing it around the candle. Then I put Stickles glitter glue in the grooves. For a little more bling I placed mini rhinestones on the scallops of the patterned paper "frosting."

I wanted to make the cake look as if it were on a plate or doily, so I punched a large scallop circle from tan card stock and embossed it with polka dots. Before I glued it to the bottom of the candle, however, I punched a 1-3/8" circle out of the middle to allow access to the battery and on/off switch.

I made the box out of the same card stock colors and patterned paper as the candle. I glued a strip of card stock with a scallop edge along the inside of the box cover and placed a corduroy brad in the middle of the cover. To make a little tag, I stamped the greeting "bring on the cake," punched it out with an oval punch and, to continue the scallop theme, layered it on a scalloped oval. I tied a loop of white crochet thread on the tag and then wrapped it around the brad. A cute little gift wrapped and ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by!

Basket full of wishes

Today I'm going to share a fun card that would be great to send for a birthday, congratulations or even just a little pick-me-up.

Supplies:
Stamps: Basket Full of Wishes (Unity Stamp Co.)
Paper: Neutral ivory card stock (The Paper Company), Tea for Two mini deck (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink: Basic Brown pad (Stampin' Up!); Wild Wasabi, Riding Hood Red, Close to Cocoa markers (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Classic Scalloped Ovals Large Nestabillities dies (Spellbinders), Scor-Pal and Scor-Bug embosser (Scor-Pal), paper piercer, mini flower punch (Punch Bunch), green ribbon, 3 mm red brads, Mono Multi liquid glue (Tombow), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), Mini Gllue Dots (Glue Dots)

For the background, I used three coordinating pieces of patterned paper cut into different sizes of squares and rectangles. I adhered them to the card front leaving about 1/4" between each piece and around the border. (I don't have a scientific way for doing this. I just started with one piece of paper in a corner and worked out from there, switching up patterns and sizes.) Then I pierced lines of holes along the borders of ivory card stock.

I stamped and colored the bicycle image and then cut it out with a scalloped oval die. (I also pierced holes in the scallops of the oval.) To make the bicycle even cuter, I placed a mini red brad at the center of each wheel and punched several flowers to glue in the basket. (The stamped image does have flowers in the basket, but I wanted a little more dimension.) I used a leftover piece of one of the patterned papers -- the floral one in the top left corner and bottom middle -- to punch out the flowers so they're multicolored and they coordinate nicely with the background. The final touch on the focal image was a double bow tied with variegated green ribbon.

Inside the card I stamped the greeting "A basket full of wishes." I like this type of multipurpose greeting because it's great for many different occasions, and I can personalize the card for the recipient. Another option would be to stamp this greeting on the front of the card with the bicycle and then stamp a more specific greeting (happy birthday, congratulations, etc.) inside the card.

I also had some leftover punched flowers that I decided to glue inside the card. It looks like the flowers here are a bit shadowy, but that's because I used just a drop of liquid glue to adhere only the centers of the flowers, so the petals are sticking up a bit (and creating a shadow from the flash on my camera).




Thanks for stopping by!

Pair of card sets

Yesterday morning I finally sat down to organize all the cards I've been making the past couple of months and put them into the box that holds my stash of cards. (I had been just dropping them into a shoebox.) But it didn't take me long to realize that they weren't all going to fit. Apparently I've been making more than I've been sending. So when I sat down to make some cards, I wasn't sure what to do. Clearly, I don't need anymore cards myself at the moment. And I just sent cards to Operation Write Home last week. So instead I decided to make a couple of card sets for friends' birthdays coming up later this month.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^® unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Botanical Blooms
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Apricot Appeal
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Framed Tulips embossing folder, Lace Ribbon Border punch, Decorative Brads - Pewter
Round 2 (Making Memories)

I made eight of these cards, two of each of the four colors, and embossed the front of each card with the Framed Tulips embossing folder. I used collage, or random, stamping on a sheet of Very Vanilla card stock and then cut the sheet into eight pieces (about 2-3/4" by 4") to make the center panels for the cards. To create an embellishment for each card, I punched a small strip of card stock with the Lace Ribbon Border punch and cut apart two of the flower shapes from the punched strip. I gently crumpled the flowers and then attached them to the stamped panel with a decorative brad.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms, Petite Pairs
Card stock: Whisper White, Pink Passion, Ballet Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Pink Passion, Ballet Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Basic Black marker
Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals

This card set has a bolder color combo than the first group. I do like these colors, although I'm not sure they're quite right with this stamp set. But I was going for bright and cheerful, and I think I got that.

Again, I made eight cards for this set, two for each greeting. But I mixed up the color combos so none of the cards use the same two colors. I used a clean and simple layout with just a few rhinestones for embellishment. I also doodled a border on the Whisper White layer on each card for another little detail.

For both sets, I also stamped the envelopes to coordinate with the cards. And to package them, I put each set of cards and envelopes in an organza bag. Now I have two birthday gifts ready to go! Thanks for stopping by!

Simple blooms

I love to take pictures of flowers. I'll be honest, my pictures don't always turn out great, but that hasn't stopped me. I don't often, however, do anything with those pictures. So I decided to take a stab at making a scrapbook page focused on flowers.

Supplies:
Card stock: Black (Bazzill), periwinkle (Core'dinations)
Ink: Summer Sun, Pixie Pink Stampin' Write markers (Stampin' Up!); Pure Black Millennium pen (ZIG)
Accessories: "Just Because" Cards cartridge (Cricut); rick rack (unknown); paper flowers (Just Blooms - Close to My Heart, By the Sea Color Assortment - Mulberry Street); mini pearls - Baby Boy Assortment (Doodlebug Design Inc.); 1-1/4", 1-3/4", Dotted SCallop Ribbon Border punches (Stampin' Up!); Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue (Stampin' Up!); 1/8", 1/4" Scor-Tape (Scor-Pal); sandpaper

I took these pictures a couple of summers ago during my first trip to Salt Lake City for the Stampin' Up!^® convention. One free evening during convention, a few of my new stamping friends and I went to The Gateway, an outdoor mall.

When I made this page I left a lot of white space (or in this case, black space) so the bright colors of the flowers are really the focal point. To make the title, I used my Cricut to cut out the word "bloom" from textured card stock, and then I sanded it to make the core color of the card stock visible. I also punched and sanded a strip of card stock to make a scallop border on the left side of the main image.

I used markers to color the two pink paper flowers and the small yellow one, which were all originally white. The "leaves" behind the flowers are actually another paper flower that was already green. I layered the flowers together and added a pearl in the center.

I didn't think this page needed too much journaling, but I did want to include where and when the pictures were taken. I could have written directly on the black paper with a white gel pen. But instead I decided to make a mat for one of the circular pictures along the bottom of the page and wrote the details around the picture.

I'm pleased with how this page turned out. And I think instead of putting it a scrapbook, I might just frame it to hang on the wall. Thanks for stopping by!