It's A Good Day

Last night I was clicking through my Evernote app looking at various card techniques when I spotted the Double Pleated Card technique from Iced Images. Instantly I knew what I was going to do with this technique.

I started by selecting one of the papers from the Floral Boutique DSP and trimming it to 5 x 10". I scored it, on the long side, at 1" and then 1.5" and repeated this pattern of one inch and then a half inch across the sheet.

Turning the sheet over, I marked both at 2 and 3" on each short end and then lined up my sheet at an angle in my Stampin' Trimmer with the 2" mark and the scored mark closest to it on either side of the centre fold in the sheet. Then I lined up at the 3" mark and the scored mark closest to it on the other side of the paper. I repeated this by switching to the other end of the paper. This gave me a diamond-shaped piece of paper.

Turning over to the side of the DSP I wanted to display, I alternated mountain and valley folds until I reached the middle scored section. I then switched to the other end of the paper and repeated this process until my entire sheet was pleated and met in the centre. I used Fast Fuse Adhesive to secure the pleats.

The length of this pleated piece measured 5" and the width was 4" so I cut a matte from Thick Whisper White card stock in this size. Using the Petal Burst Embossing Folder, I dry embossed the matte and then used Fast Fuse to adhere the pleated piece to it. A length of the now retired Night of Navy Seam Binding was adhered across the middle of the pleated piece. This panel was then adhered to a Night of Navy matte using Dimensionals. A Thick Whisper White card base with a finished size of 4.75 x 6" was then used.

I used the Botanical Builders Framelits to die cut a flower from the Thick Whisper White and stamens from Night of Navy card stock. These were shaped with my Mcgill Paper Blossom Tool Kit. The stamens were adhered with liquid glue and the flower adhered to the card front with a Dimensional. A pearl was added to the centre of the flower.

A piece of white Baker's twine tied together a length of pearl trim from the now retired Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit. These were adhered with glue dots. The sentiment from the Best Birds stamp set was stamped on Night of Navy using Versamark and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The Layering Circles Framelits were used to die cut the sentiment and then the now retired 1 1/4" Scalloped Circle Punch was used to cut a Thick Whisper White matte. These were adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

Inside the card I adhered a strip of the same DSP and also stamped some flowers from the Touches of Texture stamp set to complete the card.

Don't you just love the crisp look of Night of Navy and Whisper White? It makes me think of wash day when clean white sheets could be seen billowing on a clothesline!

Have you used the Floral Boutique DSP yet? These papers are part of the Floral Boutique Suite found in the catalog on pages 76-77. I'm sure you will want to pair them with the matching Washi Tape, Solid Night of Navy Baker's Twine, Detailed Floral Thinlits Dies and Floral Phrases stamp set. I think this is one of the nicest suites in the catalog! Place your order with me today so you can enjoy creating with this wonderful suite!

Cups & Kettles and Summer Flip Flops!

Why does time speed by so quickly for things that I enjoy yet seems to drag its feet for things I dislike?

Friday night was the June Wind Up for our stamping group. It seems like only yesterday it was September and we were just starting our 2015-2016 stamping season!

We had a lovely gathering of 13 ladies and we had a time to socialize and eat goodies before our stamping began for the night. I was surprised with a lovely gift card to a local spa, courtesy of my lovely stampers!



In addition to this, were finally able to give Yvonne the Door Prize that she had won at the Catalog Launch Party back in May. She had left early so never got to receive it!

Because I had long ago prepared for this class, we utilized the now retired A Nice Cuppa stamp set and coordinating Framelits to make Decorative Corner Fold cards. I have hopes that Stampin' Up will resurrect this set for the Christmas Occasions catalog as a number of demonstrators have been actively petitioning Stampin' Up to bring the set back.

To make this card, we used a 8.5 x 5.5" piece of Thick Whisper White card stock, scored at 2 1/8", 4 1/4", and 63/8”. It was folded on the score lines in preparation for assembly.

Card stock mattes, 5.25x 1 7/8” in either Melon Mambo or Bermuda Bay were used to matte 5 x 1 5/8” strips of the now retired Have A Cuppa DSP and one Whisper White strip of the same size. These were then adhered to the card panels, with the white matte on one of the ends. The white matte would serve as the place to

A 1 x5.5” Whisper White strip was scored vertically in half and then folded. It was adhered, using liquid glue, to the two ends of the matted card panel, with the fold to the outside. This formed a complete box.

The cup was die cut from either a Melon Mambo or Bermuda Bay "solid" pattern, from the same DSP stack, using the Cups & Kettles Framelits. A strip of the now retired Glitter Tape was applied to the top of the cup and the excess trimmed. The sentiment was stamped with Basic Black Archival on the cup. One of the Have A Cuppa Embellishments was threaded onto a length of silver cording and attached to the handle of the cup.

Using the largest plain and scalloped squares from the Layering Squares Framelits, a Whisper White and either a Melon Mambo or Bermuda Bay piece of card stock was die cut. These were adhered together and then the cup was adhered using Dimensionals.

The card was folded flat, with the white matte to the back. Two 1" circles were punched from Whisper White using the 1" Circle Punch. They were scored down the middle and folded in half. Liquid glue was placed on one half of each and they were glued to the upper portion of the card front, folded side in towards the score line of the card. These would form the pivoting hinge for the focal image.

Glue was applied to the remaining two sides of the circles and then the matted square was placed on top. Once the card was stood up, the focal image was free to pivot at the front of the card.

Our second card of the evening was a CASE of the card created by Sarah Lancaster. I thought that flip flops were definitely a sign of summer so would be the perfect send off for our group!

We started by cutting out the template that Sarah provided and then traced two of the top template onto Whisper White. One was fussy cut, the other was stamped on using stamps from the Love & Affection stamp set. This allowed images to be offset from the template. The stamped image was then cut out.

The template for the flip flop bottom was used to cut a bottom from Emerald Envy. The top strap for the flip flop was also cut from Emerald Envy.

Holes were poked through the strap by using a Piercing Tool. A brad was placed at the top through the stamped part and then double Dimensionals were added. The remaining two holes were pierced through the strap and the stamped piece. Once the brads were in place, the stamped piece was adhered to the Emerald Envy piece using liquid adhesive. The plain Whisper White piece was adhered to the back for written sentiments.

The Botanical Builder Framelits were used to cut a flower and stamens from Flirty Flamingo and Peekaboo Peach card stock. These were shaped and the stamens adhered to the flower with a glue dot. The flower was adhered to the strap of the flip flop using a Dimensional.

The sentiment was stamped with Versamark on Emerald Envy and heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder. It was then die cut with the now retired Washi Label Punch. It was adhered to the flip flop with Dimensionals.

A rhinestone for the centre of the flower was the finishing touch!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our stamping projects!

Exciting News and Botanical Thank You

I got very exciting news the other day–the card that I submitted to Kylie Bertucci's International Blog Highlight was voted into the top ten! Out of 46 entries from around the world, the ten of us will be participating in a International Blog Hop on May 11. I am so grateful to the people who took the time to vote for my card–I truly appreciate it!

Today's card is one of multiple cards I created to thank my stamping group for their orders this month. 

I started by cutting a standard card base from Night of Navy and a matte from Delightful Dijon. Using my MISTI and Night of Navy ink, I stamped the sentiment from the Watercolor Wishes Card Kit. I used Night of Navy Seam Binding to knot around the matte and then adhered it to the card base using Dimensionals.

I used the Botanical Builder Dies to die cut the leaves and flowers. I used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit to shape the flowers and then glued them together using Multi Medium Matte. I created a pleasing arrangement, snapped a photo for reference, and then adhered the arrangement to the matte using Multi Medium Matte and Dimensionals.

For the inside of the card, I used a stamp from Botanicals Garden to stamp on a piece of the now retired Naturals White card stock with Delightful Dijon ink. I then sponged the edges with Night of Navy.

I chose the following colors as I love the way they look together. Feel free to save this color combination for your own designs if you like it!

I like the way this card design turned out. Do you? Drop me a note below!

You're Amazing

My card today evolved totally from a color combination that I had brainstormed while working at Walmart one day.

If you have followed my blog for very long, you know that I love bold, in-your-face colors on my cards and today's colors are no exception!

As I often do, I turned to my Silhouette Cameo design software to plan out my card. I find that it is easier for me to plan out my matte sizes and be sure that my embellishments are in proper proportion on the card.

I started with a Cajun Craze card base of 6 x 4.75". I also cut a smaller matte for the very front of the card. Before deciding on any further mattes, I chose to die cut my flowers and leaves and plan my arrangement for the card front.

The Botanical Builder Framelits Dies were used to cut three flowers from Tempting Turquoise and three from a Tempting Turquoise flowered paper from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack. From Cajun Craze I cut some flower centres using the dies but also chose to use the Blossom Bunch Punch. I used the Rose Garden Thinlits to cut three stems of leaves from Chocolate Chip card stock.

I fussed with the flowers and leaves until I had my design planned out, and snapped a photo before removing all the die cuts to shape them with my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit. After shaping, I inked the edges with their matching color of ink. I then glued all parts of the flowers together using Multi Medium Matte, using the Brights Candy Dots in Turquoise for the centres.

While planning my flower cluster, I was sure to leave adequate room for my sentiment. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the Watercolor Wishes Card Kit, in both Tempting Turquoise and then Versamark. I heat embossed it with the now retired Tempting Turquoise Stampin, Emboss Powder.

To coordinate with the leaves, I chose to use a very thin Chocolate Chip matte directly under the front Cajun Craze matte. I adhered these two mattes together with Fast Fuse Adhesive. I chose to use the same flowered Turquoise paper as a matte adhered directly on the card base. For added support for my top mattes, I cut a smaller piece of brown, self adhesive Fun Foam which I adhered to my top mattes and then adhered to the card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I used Multi Medium Matte and Dimensionals to adhere my flowers and leaves to the card front, giving the flower centres a little Wink of Stella for good measure! I placed a few rhinestones around the card front for added sparkle.

For the inside, I used a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used the leaf stamp from the Rose Wonder stamp set and tiny flowers from the Botanical Blooms stamp set. The matte was adhered with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I hope you like my card today. I love how these colors work together (though I'm sorry that the flowers look more like Marina Mist than Tempting Turquoise; no amount of camera fiddling allowed me to get a truer color for them!).

Botanical Wedding Card

It happened again the other day.

I was at work at Walmart, waiting on another customer, when I spotted a new magazine in the rack. I quickly recognized the colors of Blushing Bride and Very Vanilla, on a background of green and a card idea started bubbling on the fringes of my mind! Here's the magazine cover that sparked my creative juices:

My vision for this card was that of a bride's bouquet, complete with ribbons and pearls on a lovely green background. To be able to fit in both the bouquet and ribbons, I chose a 5 x 7" format for my card.

I cut a matte that was 4.75 x 6.5" so that it would fit within the embossing folder I wished to use–Craft Concepts Tuscan Tiles. After embossing, I used Garden Green ink with a sponge to color the raised portions of the embossing. I adhered the matte to a 5 x 7" Cucumber Crush card base.

Next, I chose a circle die from the Circles Collection Framelits Dies and used that as a frame to create my bouquet simply by laying it on top of my embossed matte and adding flowers within it.

Using the Botanical Builders Framelits Dies, I cut flowers from Blushing Bride and Pink Pirouette as well as a couple of centres from the Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. I also punched flowers using one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and one from the now retired Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack. I inked the edges of the pink flowers with Strawberry Slush and the Blushing Bride ones with Calypso Coral. I also shaped them using the McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit.

I assembled the few flowers that needed centres and then started adding flowers to the circle die on my card front. I started by adding the largest flowers, filled in with the next largest small flowers and finally the smallest flowers. Once I was happy with the design, I snapped a photo for reference and then removed all but the largest flowers.

Circle die used to arrange the blossoms in a circle.

One by one, I used Multi Medium Matte to adhere each flower to the card front. Once I had filled up the circle, I removed the die and then added pearls to the centre of each blossom.

I used Glue Dots to adhere a bow of Pink Pirouette Seam Binding and a length of Blushing Bride Sequin Trim beneath the bouquet.

On vellum card stock I stamped the sentiment in Calypso Coral using the MISTI and both the Crazy About You and the Number of Years Stamp Sets. I also stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. I die cut the sentiment using a die from the Large Numbers Framelits Dies. I placed two pearls on the front of the sentiment and then positioned glue dots below them on the opposite side to adhere the banner to the card front.

For the inside of the card, I cut a matte from the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used Cucumber Crush to stamp the sentiment from the Beautiful Ride Stamp Set and added some flowers from the Bloomin' Love Stamp Set using Calypso Coral. I added the couple stamp in Blushing Bride to the bottom of the card. I inked the edges with Blushing Bride and then adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

Close up details.

I love the richness created by the embossing and sponging on the card front and the flowers looks so nice on top of it!

Let me know what you think by dropping me a comment below!

March Stamping Class Projects

My stamping group met on Friday night for a fun-filled evening of card making and some wonderful treats from Marilyn and Michelle!

Our first card was a new technique for the group–a skirt fold or other tutorials refer to it as a drapery fold.

I had been seeing this technique used on a few cards on Pinterest and thought it was delightful! I consulted a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers as well as one on by Song of My Heart Stampers and used their info to produce the card in my blog post, Fancy Fold Botanicals For Stampin' Royalty. For stamping class, I needed to modify the technique so that we could use paper from a 6 x 6" paper stack.

We started with a piece of 3 x 6" paper from the Love Blossoms DSP. It was scored at 2, 2.25, 3.25, 3.5, 4.5 and 4.75." A pencil mark was placed at 1.25" from the top right corner and another mark was placed at the bottom at the first 2" score line.

A trimmer was used to trim diagonally from the 2" score line to the 1.25" mark. The paper was then folded, accordion-style, starting with a valley fold at the 2" score line. This produced the "skirt" pleats. It was necessary to trim off .25" from the right end for the folded piece to fit exactly on a 4.25 x 5.5" matte.

Because there wasn't as long a piece of paper to work with as in the tutorials I referred to for this technique, the amount of patterned paper showing from the opposite side was not a lot, but the technique was still effective.

We applied liquid glue to the back of the pleats and then used a sponge and Early Espresso to add detail to the top of the pleat folds. The top pleats were then glued in place.

Using the MISTI, the sentiment from the Help Me Grow Stamp Set was stamped with Rose Red ink onto the bottom right corner of a 4.25 x 5.5" Blushing Bride matte, after finding the correct position with the pleated panel.

The top 3.5" of the matte was then embossed using the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. A sponge was used to apply Blushing Bride ink to the raised dots. The matte was then adhered to the Blushing Bride card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

A .75" strip of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper was adhered to the top of the pleated panel using Fast Fuse Adhesive, offsetting it about 1/8" above the panel. Dimensionals were then used to adhere the pleated panel to the matte.

The Big Shot and Magnetic Platform were used with the Botanical Builders Framelits to die cut the flower, leaves and fern from Garden Green and Rose Red card stock. Early Espresso was sponged on the edges of each and then the McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit was used to shape the die cuts.

Placement on top of the Dazzling Diamonds strip was determined and then the leaves and fern were glued in place using both Fast Fuse and the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

A "thread nest" was made with Linen Thread and adhered with Glue Dots and then the flower was adhered with a Dimensional. An Iced Rhinestone was added to the flower centre to complete the card.

Our second card was a sympathy card created with the Rose Garden Thinlits Die.

The design for this card has appeared several times on pinterest in several color variations. It makes for a very striking card. However, nowhere could I find a tutorial as to how this card was made! Looking at the photos, it just was not immediately evident to me how the card was made. Because of this, I decided that I was going to work with the die to figure out how the card was made so we could make it in class! Hopefully, this will help someone else who is trying to make this card.

We started by using a 3.5 x 4.75" Sahara Sand matte and positioned the die on the matte so it hung off both the top and the bottom right by a little bit. We used a dryer sheet under the card stock to make it easy to separate the die cut from the pieces and we saved the right side of the matte from which the rose was cut.

Using a 3.5 x 4.75" matte of Blackberry Bliss, the retained piece of Sahara Sand was glued in place using liquid glue. The Fine Tip Glue Pen was used to apply glue to the die cut rose and then it was carefully laid in place on the Blackberry Bliss matte, placing the two largest petals of the rose die cut in place first. By doing this, the other edges of the die cut fall into place naturally, making it very easy to get the rose into place next to the Sahara Sand card stock piece. A piece of scrap paper was placed over the die cut allowing the die cut to be smoothed over with a hand to ensure it was properly adhered.

The sentiment was stamped on a scrap of Sahara Sand using Blackberry Bliss and then die cut. The edges were inked with a sponge and then the sentiment was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

The edges of a 4 x 5.25" matte from the now retired Painted Blooms DSP was inked with Blackberry Bliss and adhered to a Sahara Sand card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive. The matte with the die cut rose was adhered to the DSP matte using Dimensionals.

The second sentiment was stamped inside the card using Blackberry Bliss to complete the card.

I'm pleased with both these cards from class! Using the Stampin' Up dies can so quickly produce a stunning card!

Love You Sew

As a child growing up, I remember my mother often sitting at the sewing machine, putting the final touches on a skirt or blouse or Halloween costume for me.

In high school, when I took Home Ec and learned how to sew, I was quite proud of myself for being able to sew something that I could actually wear!

However, my love for sewing didn't last long. When I wanted to sew something new at home, my mother tried to teach me her method of laying out the pattern on the fabric.

In school, I had found it quite easy–follow the picture in the pattern directions! My mother did not take this easy route. Instead, she had to fold the fabric and lay out the pattern in countless configurations to gain about 12 more inches of leftover fabric to throw in the leftover fabric bin!

I just couldn't wrap my head around how to do it her way and of course it had to be done her way. So, I said so long to sewing until I was out of the house and could lay out the pattern according to the directions but my love for sewing just wasn't there anymore!

Despite my history with sewing, I decided that my card design for today required me to do some stitching on the card itself!

To begin, I cut a standard Basic Black card base and a Hello Honey matte. I cut another matte from a piece of the Botanical Gardens DSP. I then cut a square of Cajun Craze and proceeded to create zig zag edges (like those done by pinking shears) by using the Finishing Touches Edgelits.

I used a template from the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack to pierce holes in the zig zag matte. I used two strands of Gold Metallic Thread to cross stitch across the top of the matte, leaving a long tail of thread.

On a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock I stamped the spool of thread from the Love You Sew Stamp Set (this is a hostess set you can only order as a hostess!) using Basic Black Archival ink. I fussy cut this and then wound a length of the Gold Metallic Thread around it, securing it with Fast Fuse Adhesive. I then wound a little from the end of the stitching thread around the spool and placed a Dimensional on the back.

I used Versamark to stamp the sentiment on the Cajun Craze matte and then heat embossed it using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I adhered the Botanicals matte to the Hello Honey with Fast Fuse and then those mattes to the card front using Dimensionals. I angled the Cajun Craze matte and adhered it to the card front using both Fast Fuse and Dimensionals.

I wound the leftover thread from the stitching in a circle around the sentiment and secured one edge with the Fine Tip Glue Pen while attaching the other end to the spool. I adhered the spool on the matte using the Dimensional. I added a lick of Wink of Stella to top and bottom of the spool.

To cover the glue spot by the thread and to add further embellishment, I used to Hello Honey Botanical flowers and one Mint Macaron Flower cut with one of the Itty Bitty Accents Punches. Each flower was adhered with a Glue Dot and given a generous coat of Wink of Stella. Rhinestones were added to the centres. A scattering of crystal sequins completed the front of the card.

For the inside, I used a matte from the now retired Naturals Ivory card stock. I adhered a strip of the Botanicals DSP to the bottom and then used Versamark to stamp the ferns from the Awesomely Artistic Stamp Set around the end. I heat embossed them using Gold Stampin Emboss Powder and adhered the matte to the inside of the card using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I think that my stitching is presentable on this card. What do you think? What's your history with sewing? Drop me a comment below and let me know!

Botanicals For A Friend

These Stampin Up Botanicals keep calling my name!

We weren't too busy at Walmart yesterday so I got the chance to sketch out a few designs and color combos to try. One of the sketches was for today's card!

I started by cutting a 5 x 7" card base from Kraft card stock and then cut a 5 x 7" matte from the corrugated Kraft paper and adhered it to the card front with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I used the Botanical Builders Framelits to die cut flowers and greenery although it was actually black and white! I inked up the edges of the red flowers using Basic Black Archival ink and a sponge dauber and then used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit on these as well as the other die cuts.

I played around with my arrangement a bit, taking pictures as I went, until I was satisfied that I had a balanced design. I then added the centre parts to my flowers, including pearls.

Next, I removed all the flowers, leaving the greenery in place and one by one I adhered them using Multi Medium Matte.

Just last week, I had finally received my 3.8 oz jar of the stuff and I had completely filled my Darice Ultrafine Applicator Bottle with the medium in hopes that I would actually be able to squeeze some out! I have had great difficulty with this medium but I am persevering since no one else seems to be having trouble with it and because it dries matte so if you make a bit of a mess, no one will know!

Everything was going fine until I attempted to add glue to my last leaf. As I was squeezing glue out onto the leaf, the cap exploded from the bottle and I got a very large blob on my card, the leaf, and on stuff lying next to my workspace! Needless to say, I uttered a few choice words about the situation but remembered to snap some photos quickly before cleaning up!

Luckily, I was able to salvage my project (again due to the matte factor of the medium) with the help of a stiff piece of card stock and a damp paper towel. I die cut another black leaf and glued it in and then adhered the flowers with Dimensionals.

Note to self: In the future, don't apply glue directly over your project if you can help it!

I cut a strip of Real Red card stock and glued it to the card front and then cut a strip of the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon. I trimmed off the sides and then pulled threads out of the ribbon, saving them for later, and frayed the edges a bit. I used Fast Fuse to adhere it to the card stock strip.

I stamped the sentiment from the Awesomely Artistic Stamp Set using Versamark on Basic Black. I heat embossed it with White Stampin' Emboss Powder and then topped it with the little frame stamp from the Rose Wonder Stamp Set, embossing it as well. I die cut the sentiment using the die from the Rose Garden Thinlits. It was adhered with Dimensionals over the burlap.

From the threads that I had set aside, I made three bunches of two burlap threads, slightly offsetting one, and tied a knot. After trimming the ends, I used glue dots to adhere the knots under the flowers to add a little texture to my flower arrangement.

For the inside of the card, I cut a matte from the now retired Naturals White card stock. Using Real Red, I stamped tiny flowers from the Botanicals For You Stamp Set. You can get this free with a $60 order during Sale-a-Bration! I inked the edges with Basic Black and then adhered the matte with Fast Fuse Adhesive to complete my card.

I love the way the red, black and white look together with the Kraft card stock!

What have you created with the Botanicals? Drop me a comment below to let me know!

Just A Note Botanicals

Have you ever designed a card and then after it's done you can't decide if you like it or not? That's where I'm at with this card!

I started with the idea of placing the flowers from the Botanical Builder Framelits in a tea cup. I chose a lovely paper from the Birthday Bouquet DSP and die cut my tea cup as well as one from self adhesive fun foam. I stuck the two together. I inked up the cup and the edges of the fun foam with Soft Suede. I used Wink of Stella to give the cup a nice shimmer.

On the flip side of the DSP was a lovely coordinating pattern that I chose for the upper two-thirds of my card. I decided on Mossy Meadow for the bottom and I embossed the lower third of a 4 x 5 1/4" matte using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder. I then adhered the DSP to the top two-thirds and adhered a strip of the 3/8" Stitched Mossy Meadow Ribbon across the join. I adhered this piece to a Soft Suede card base using Dimensionals.

Picking colors from the cup for the flowers–Watermelon Wonder, Pool Party and Mint Macaron as well as Mossy Meadow and Old Olive for the greenery–I die cut them using the Botanical Builder Framelits.

I tried a few designs until I settled on the one that I used. After snapping a photo, I inked the edges of the flowers with their matching inks (except for the Pool Party one where I used Lost Lagoon) and both ferns with Mossy Meadow. I also used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit to shape the flowers and ferns.

I adhered the cup to the card front using Fast Fuse Adhesive, sandwiching the darker fern in place beneath it. I then adhered the remaining flowers and greenery with a combination of Dimensionals, Fine Tip Glue Pen and Glue Dots. I added rhinestones to the flower centres.

Using Soft Suede, I stamped the sentiment from the Picture Perfect Stamp Set on Old Olive card stock. I used the Washi Label Punch on it and inked the edges with Mossy Meadow. I adhered it to the bottom of the card front using Dimensionals to complete the card.

I did not create an inner matte for the card yet because I still haven't decided if this card is a keeper! Can you help me decide by leaving me a comment below?

Fancy Fold Botanicals For Stampin' Royalty

>>>>>Update<<<<<

My card was chosen as a Top Pick on Stampin' Royalty #317! Click on the picture below to come and and play!

There is nothing like playing with a new technique to get your creative juices flowing! For awhile now, I have been wanting to try the Drapery Fold so tonight I put it to the test!

I decided to work with the colors from the Stampin' Royalty Challenge #317 because not only did they coincide with the colors in the Shine On Specialty Designer Series Paper I wanted to use but they happened to be some of the intense colors that I enjoy!

To begin with, I checked out the video tutorial by Song Of My Heart Stampers. Once I knew what to do, I chose a piece of the Shine On paper that had Cucumber Crush ferns printed on the Kraft with silver V's on the opposite side.

I trimmed one side of the paper to 11 1/2" and then cut a strip that was 11 1/2 x 4". I scored the paper at 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 inches. I used my Stampin' Trimmer to cut from the 3" score line at an angle to about 1 1/2" from the top right corner of the strip. (In the video tutorial, she used a pair of scissors but I knew I couldn't cut that straight freehand!)

I accordion-folded the paper on the score lines and then used Fast Fuse Adhesive to secure the pleats in place. This pleated matte fit almost exactly across a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" card base. I knotted a piece of Watermelon Wonder 1" Dotted Lace Trim around the top of the pleated matte.

I cut a card base from Bermuda Bay card stock and trimmed it slightly narrower than 5 1/2" in width to match the pleated matte. I used Stazon ink and my MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the Rose Wonder Stamp Set in the bottom right corner of the card front. Once the ink had dried, I used Dimensionals to adhere the pleated matte to the card front.

I stamped the veins of the two leaves using Cucumber Crush on Cucumber Crush card stock. I then used the Botanicals Builder Framelits to die cut flowers and leaves. I punched centres for the smallest flowers using the 1/8" Circle Punch. I played with my arrangement and took pictures to allow me to choose the best design.

Before adhering my arrangement, I used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit to give some dimension to the die cuts and then used a sponge dauber to ink the edges of each flower and leaf with the coordinating ink. Once the ink was dry, I gave each a coat of Wink of Stella for a touch of glimmer.
The die cuts were adhered to the card front using a combination of Dimensionals, glue dots, and the Fine Tip Glue Pen. I added silver sequins from the now retired Frosted Sequins and also rhinestones to the largest flowers.

One last design detail was to wrap some of the now retired Silver Cording Trim around the knotted ribbon to provide a visual triangle between the silver of the underside of the pleats, the silver sequins in the flowers and the silver cord. For a good explanation of visual triangle design, check this blog post by Traci Reed. She applies the principle to her scrapbook pages but it can also be used in card making.

Here's the visual triangle on my card:

Visual triangle that uses the color silver

For the inside of the card, I chose a Very Vanilla matte and used the Botanical Blooms Stamp Set to stamp tiny flowers across the bottom of the matte. I inked the edges with a sponge dauber and Watermelon Wonder and then adhered the matte with Fast Fuse Adhesive to complete the card.

Close up details showing the Wink of Stella glimmer on the flowers

This drapery fold technique was a lot of fun to try and I will definitely be using it again soon!

Have you tried a drapery fold on one of your cards yet? Give it a go and then link to it in the comments below–I'd love to take a look!

Stampin' Royalty and Botanicals

>>>>>Update<<<<<

My card was chosen as a Top Pick on Stampin' Royalty #316! Woohoo! Click on the picture below to come and play!

Today I was busy making Valentine stuff which I'll post later this week. Just before picking up Raine, I had surfed over to the Stampin' Royalty blog and was surprised to discover that my Sky Is The Limit Birthday card was one of the picks for the #315 Challenge! That gave me a nice boost so I took a look at the challenge for this week and after supper I was compelled to create a card for it!

As soon as I saw the inspiration photo for the challenge, I thought of Mint Macaron and vellum. I knew that I would use the Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack and lots of gold!

I started by selecting a piece of the vellum that had the flowers from the Botanicals Builder Framelits printed on the vellum. I used the Framelits to die cut some flowers from Mint Macaron and set about placing the die cuts on the vellum to form a pleasing cluster. Once I was happy with it, I added die cut centres from Gold Glimmer Paper and leaves from Gold Foil Paper.

I cut a card base from the Mint Macaron card stock to make a 4.75 x 6" card. I cut the vellum to fit the front of the card. I decided to tie a length of both the Mint Macaron Dotted Ribbon and Gold Sequin Trim down the l ft side of the card. This allowed me to use Snail Adhesive to attach the vellum where the glue wouldn't be seen.

I then shaped each flower with my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit set and inked the edges of each with Mint Macaron ink. I glued each centre into its flower using Multi Medium Matte. Before gluing the flowers onto the vellum, I made a thread nest from Gold Metallic Thread and secured it under the edge of the ribbon using a glue dot.

The flowers and leaves were then glued into place. The smallest flowers were adhered with glue dots. A rhinestone, coloured with a Copic marker, was added to each little flower.

The sentiment, from the Picture Perfect Stamp Set was stamped with Tip Top Taupe onto Mint Macaron. Then the sentiment was re-stamped using Gold Encore ink (I used my MISTI, of course!) Using the Tip Top Taupe ink first help d to give the color a bit more depth.

The sentiment was die cut using a die from the Bitty Banners Framelits. The edges were inked with Mint Macaron and then the banner was glued to the card front to complete the card.

Close up details

It felt good to complete this card and have it look even better than I envisioned! I'll be entering this card in the Stampin Royalty Challenge #316.

Hope you have a great day!