Gold Dipped Daisies

On the weekend, I had some free moments at my job to brainstorm card ideas. I came up with a couple for using with the Daisy and couldn't wait to try them today! My first idea didn't work quite the way I wanted so I went on to the second idea.

I started by stamping a 4.25 x 5.5" Basic Black matte using the Diagonal Stripe stamp and Versamark and then heat embossed it with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. I really liked that effect!

Using the Daisy Punch, I punched six daisies from Basic Black. I also punched out six of the medium size blossom on the now retired Blossom Bunch Punch. I used a sponge dauber to dab Versamark on the ends of each daisy petal and embossed with gold. After using my Heartfelt Creations Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit to shape the small blossom punches, I stamped them with Versamark and embossed the whole blossom, one half at a time, with gold. AMAZING!

I adhered two daisies together and then two of the gold blossoms. A Dimensional adhered the gold blossom to the daisy. This was repeated to create two more flowers. I then colored a Clear Faceted Gem with a black Sharpie and adhered it in the centres of each daisy. Wow!

Next, I cut a strip of Gold Foil and stamped the sentiment with Jet Black Stazon using my MISTI to ensure a clean stamp on a slippery surface. I then used the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to punch each end. A gold Sharpie was used to ink the edges so that the lighter core of the paper wouldn't show.

I threaded four strands of Basic Black Solid Baker's Twine through the openings in the tag and applied Mini Dimensionals to the back of it. I also taped the twine on the back to prevent the tag from sliding around. The tag was placed at the bottom of the striped embossed matte and the ends of the twine were taped to the back. The matte was then adhered to a 4.75 x 6" Basic Black card front.

The daisies were adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

For inside the card, a Very Vanilla matte was stamped with the smaller daisy and stem and embossed with gold to complete the card.

I must say that I am LOVING this card! It turned out even better than I imagined that it would! Unfortunately, the photos do not do this card justice. It is so difficult to get good pictures when you use foil on your cards!

Hope you liked my card anyway!

Summer Daisy

With the glorious weather lately, it's not hard to tell that summer is the topic on everyone's mind. Popular items through my till at Walmart include fans, air conditioners, pools, barbecues and patio furniture. Because of this, I thought it fitting then to create a summer card!

I started by selecting a piece of the Delightful Daisy DSP and then selected colors from within the pattern–Tranquil Tide and Calypso Coral–to use for a matte and card base. I also chose to use So Saffron and Calypso Coral for my letters. Though Daffodil Delight is supposed to be the yellow in the Delightful Daisy DSP, I found it to be too bright for the yellow of this particular pattern.

Next, I lined up the letter stamps from the Letters For You stamp set on my MISTI to spell SUMMER, leaving out the U and leaving a space for a second M.

I used washi tape to hold a piece of scrap paper across the letters as a mask so that I could ink up half of the letter at a time. I started with So Saffron and I inked up the letters first with Versamark and then the So Saffron so that it would ink up better. After carefully removing the mask, I stamped twice onto Watercolor Paper to get the color strength that I wanted. I then masked up the part of the letters I had stamped and then inked the remaining half of the letters with the Versamark and Calypso Coral and stamped two times.

And then, being the linear thinker that I am, I made my BIG mistake.

The MISTI is an amazing tool and is very useful for repeat stamping. What I should have done after stamping the So Saffron, was remove the piece of watercolor paper and replace it with another to stamp the second M. Then do the second masking, stamp, replace the watercolor paper and stamp again. This would have ensured that I had the division line between the So Saffron and the Calypso Coral in the exact same place on both M's.

But I didn't do that! :(

Instead, I took off the M letter stamp and put it in the spot where the second M would go and attempted to mask and stamp to get the colors in the right places.

NOT!

In the end, I measured carefully and was successful at stamping another M correctly and then I was able to die cut all the letters using the Large Letters Framelits. But it would have been so much easier just to replace the watercolor paper with another piece! Regardless, I got what I wanted in the end.

After die cutting the letters, I punched two daisies from Watercolor Paper using the Daisy Punch and then colored them using sponge daubers. I shaped them slightly with a bone folder and adhered them together using liquid adhesive. A Gold Faceted Gem was added to the centre but I decided it needed to be more yellow so I touched it up with a yellow Sharpie.

I cut the DSP and matted it onto Tranquil Tide. The letters were adhered using liquid adhesive and then the daisy with Dimensionals.

The entire matte was adhered to the Calypso Coral card front using Foam Adhesive Strips.

On a Whisper White matte, I used my MISTI to stamp the flowers from the Word Words stamp set onto a corner of the matte using So Saffron. This was repeated and then I selectively added Calypso Coral to some flowers on the stamp using a sponge dauber and stamped it again, twice. This procedure was repeated with the opposite corner of the matte. A sponge dauber was then used to ink all four edges of the matte with So Saffron before adhering the matte inside the card.

I love the combo of Tranquil Tide with the Calypso Coral and I really like this piece of the Delightful Daisy DSP and I hope to find a use for it again soon!

2017 Catalog Launch Prep Part 3: First Prize

Today brings us to the third and final part of my Catalog Launch Prep series. If you missed the two earlier parts, you can reach them here: 2017 Catalog Launch Prep Part 2: Second Prize and 2017 Catalog Launch Prep Part 1: Third Prize. You can also read about the actual 2017 Catalog Launch Party.

Today I feature the card set that was the First Prize at my Catalog Launch.

I started by creating the cards for the card set. I chose a 4.75 x 6" card base and cut it from Thick Whisper White. I cut a matte from Daffodil Delight and embossed it using the Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder and adhered it to the card front using Dimensionals.

I next cut a panel of the Delightful Daisy DSP and
matted it with some Night of Navy. I used half of a Delicate White Doily and adhered it under the Daisy panel which was adhered to the left side of the card front.

Using Night of Navy, the sentiment was stamped on a strip of Thick Whisper White and then it was punched with the Banner Triple Punch. It was adhered to the Daisy Panel with Fast Fuse and to the embossed matte using a Dimensional.

The Daisy Punch was used to punch two Night of Navy Daisies which were curled slightly using a bone folder and then adhered together using liquid adhesive. The 1/2" Circle Punch was used to punch a Daffolil Delight Circle which was adhered to the centre with a Clear Faceted Gem, colored with a sharpie, adhered over top of it. The daisy was adhered to the card front using a Dimensional.

The Envelope Punch Board was used with Daffodil Delight card stock was used to create matching envelopes for the cards.

For the card portfolio, I used a 12 x 12" sheet of Daffodil Delight card stock trimmed to 11 x 9.5". I scored the long side at 2.5" from the bottom and at 5.5" on the short side and used a bone folder to really burnish the folds. Inside, I cut on the centre score line for the 2.5" piece and then cut slivers from each side to reduce the bulk when folding the portfolio.

For the front, I matted two pieces of the Delightful Daisy DSP with Night of Navy. Before adhering the mattes to the front and back covers of the portfolio, I used Tear & Tape to adhere a length of Daffodil Delight 1/4" Double Stitched Ribbon across the middle of the back and front. I then adhered the mattes using liquid adhesive.

Three additional daisies were punched, curled, and assembled as for the cards and then adhered to the front cover of the portfolio. The cards and envelopes were added inside and the portfolio tied up with the ribbon.

I really had a lot of fun preparing these prizes for my Catalog Launch and it was even more fun to share them with the ladies who won them!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my preparations for the 2017 Catalog Launch. If you have visited, drop me a line below to let me know you stopped by–I'd love to hear from you!

Tri-fold Daisy for Mother's Day With 2017 Catalog Sneak Peeks

As soon as I laid eyes on the Delightful Daisy DSP in the 2017-2018 Annual Catalog, I knew I would be using it for my Mother's Day card! There are such lovely colors and patterns in this DSP and they speak to me . . . this is one pack that I definitely will be cutting up to use and I'll probably purchase some more!

My patterned paper was chosen and of course I wanted to use the new Daisy Punch but I still needed to decide on a technique for the card I would make for my mother. After reviewing my pins on Pinterest, I decided to try BJ Peters' Tri-fold Card.

I tried a sample using scrap paper and determined that I wanted a larger format so instead of the standard 4.25 x 5.5" card size, I revamped BJ's design to use my favorite 4.75 x 6" format. This gave me more room to display the lovely daisy DSP and the flower punch seemed to work better with that size of canvas.

Because I love the look of flowers against wood (like in those gorgeous photos of old buildings with wildflowers growing around them) I picked the Wood Textures DSP to complement the flowers.

I started by cutting a piece of Night of Navy card stock to 6 x 11" and then scored on the long side at 2 1/2" and 7 1/4." Mattes for the two front flaps and the inside panel were cut from Calypso Coral as well as a piece of the Wood Textures and a piece of the Daisy Delight DSP for each of the two front flaps. These were adhered using Fast Fuse. A white matte was also cut for the inner panel.

Next, I punched three daisies from Watercolor Paper and sponged them all over with Calypso Coral and then the centre parts with Watermelon Wonder. I tweaked the ends of the petals with my fingers and then bent the petals up a bit. The three were adhered together, offset, using liquid adhesive. I used the 1/2" Circle Punch for the small Night of Navy centre and then used a Navy Sharpie to color one of the new Faceted Gems before adhering it to complete the flower.

The Stitched Shapes Framelits and the Layering Circle Framelits were used to cut a series of circles (refer to my photos showing my Numbered Die Sets):

• #3 Stitched Circle in Night of Navy
• #2 Stitched Circle using the Wood Textures DSP
• #1 Stitched Circle using the Wood Textures DSP
• #2 Stitched Circle in Night of Navy
• Scalloped Circles #2 and #6 in Calypso Coral

I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment, from the retiring Circle of Spring stamp set, on the smaller Wood Textures circle using Night of Navy and then Versamark. It was heat embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder and then it was layered with the smaller Calypso Coral Scalloped Circle and the smaller Night of Navy stitched circle using liquid adhesive.

The remaining Wood Textures stitched circle was adhered to the Scalloped Circle using liquid adhesive. Glue dots were then adhered in the middle of the Night of Navy stitched circle and Gold Metallic Thread was adhered to make a thread nest. The two other circles were then adhered to it using Dimensionals. The flower was adhered using liquid adhesive.

The position for the flower and the sentiment was determined and they were adhered with both liquid adhesive and Dimensionals to the card front.

The small daisy was stamped on the Whisper White matte using Calypso Coral and Old Olive and then a strip of the Daisy Delight DSP was adhered along the bottom of the matte and then it was adhered inside the card to complete it.

I made an envelope from Calypso Coral using the Envelope Punch Board and used the now retired Petite Petals Punch to punch a detail in the envelope flap. To draw attention to the punched detail, I softly sponged Calypso Coral over the area surrounding the punch.

Close up details

Closer yet–check out that dazzling faceted gem!

One last look

I'm so pleased with how this card turned out! I love the flowers against the wood grain and the glint of the gold thread and the sparkle from the flower's centre makes this a distinctly feminine card that I'm sure my mother will love!

I hope you will give the Tri-fold Card a try . . . it has a lot of design potential!