Birthday Blooms and Botanicals Meet Shabby Chic

Time to change things up a bit by combining some watercoloring with a shabby chic style!

Today's design of this early Mother's Day card resulted from my color choice for watercoloring the lovely Birthday Blooms stamp. I have seen a lot of variations of this flower being colored but not too many yellow ones. I decided that I would use a different yellow hue for the flower by combining So Saffron and Delightful Dijon for a rich, dark yellow hue.

I started by stamping on watercolor paper with Basic Black Archival ink. I used my MISTI so I was then able to stamp in Versamark which allowed me to heat emboss using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Using my Aqua Painter, I wet a few sections of the stamp at a time and then colored the sections with So Saffron reinker. I used my heat tool to dry my work and then added in some shadowed areas using the Delightful Dijon reinker.

For the centre of the flower I used Soft Suede reinker. For the leaves, I used Old Olive and after drying, Mossy Meadow for the shadows.After completely drying the my work, I fussy cut the flower.

Next, I cut two ovals, Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow, from papers in the Botanical Gardens DSP. I used a Distress Tool to distress the edges of each. I sponged the edges with Delightful Dijon and Cajun Craze. These were adhered using Dimensionals. The flower was also adhered in the same way.

I cut a card base for a 6 x 4.75" card from Delightful Dijon. After scoring and folding, I distressed the edges and sponged them and the top of the card with Delightful Dijon. I cut a flowered matte from the Botanical Gardens DSP and distressed its edge and inked it with Cajun Craze. I wrapped two layers of the Delightful Dijon 1" Ribbon around the matte (two layers to make the color deeper) and taped the ends on the back. The matte was adhered to the card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I adhered a small strip of paper to the middle of the ribbon and put Fast Fuse Adhesive on it. I layered some Lost Lagoon Thick Twine, from the now retired In Colors Accessory Pack, over the adhesive to accentuate the tiny flowers on the paper. The oval mattes were then adhered over top with Dimensionals.

I used the banner die from the Large Numbers Framelits Dies to die cut a piece of Cajun Craze patterned paper from the Botanical Gardens DSP and another from Cajun Craze card stock. I stamped the sentiment from the Crazy About You Stamp Set on the patterned paper with Basic Black Archival ink and stamped again with Versamark. I heat embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder and then layered the patterned paper sentiment on top of the Cajun Craze card stock for stability. This was adhered to the card front with Dimensionals.

Inside the card, I cut a matte from the same flowered DSP. I cut a smaller matte from the now retired Naturals White card stock. I distressed both mattes, inking the edges with Cajun Craze and Delightful Dijon. I stamped the sentiment from the First Sight Stamp Set in Mossy Meadow. The mattes were layered and adhered inside the card with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I really like the shabbiness and the rich hues in this card!

Have you tried the Shabby Chic style? Let me know in the comments below!

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!