Thoughtful Branches Sunflower

Today's card share is a birthday card for a friend of mine who really likes sunflowers.

I cut a card base from Garden Green card stock for a 5.5 x 5.5" card. I cut a Soft Suede matte and embossed it with the Cable Knit Embossing Folder. After inking the edges with Soft Suede, I adhered it to the card front with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

Next, I stamped the leaves from the Thoughtful Branches stamp set—22 times—using Delightful Dijon. I had meant to stamp on Delightful Dijon card stock but pulled out some Hello Honey by mistake!

I die cut the leaves with the coordinating dies. I also used the dies to die cut the stem and leaves from Garden Green.

I punched a circle from Soft Suede card stock using the 2" Circle Punch. Using Soft Suede, I stamped the leaf canopy from the Thoughtful Branches stamp set on Soft Suede card stock and then die cut it. I then punched a 2" circle from the die cut and then glued it to the punched circle using liquid adhesive.

Unless you click on the pictures for a closeup look, you won't be able to see the Gold Wink of Stella that was "flicked" over both the embossed matte and the sunflower centre to add a bit of sparkle.

I adhered the stem to the card front using Glue Dots. The circle was turned upside down and then I glued the petals around the circle in two concentric circles. I adhered the flower to the card front over the stem using Dimensionals.

The Banner Triple Punch was used to flag one end of a strip of Garden Green. The sentiment from the Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set and the bee from the Garden in Bloom stamp set were stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. The sentiment was adhered to the centre of the sunflower using a Dimensional.

A Very Vanilla matte was cut for the inside of the card. Two leaves were stamped in Garden Green in the bottom right corner of the matte. A third leaf was stamped on a scrap of Very Vanilla and die cut. It was adhered over the two stamped leaves using Dimensionals. The matte was adhered inside the card using Fast Fuse.

Flourish Thinlits For Global Design Project

I'm in love!

I had my first play today with the Flourish Thinlits and the coordinating stamp set, Flourishing Phrases. I was a little leery about die cutting them with my Big Shot because Stampin' Up has recommended that both the Precision Plate and the new Big Shot Platform be used with these detailed dies.

I'm happy to say that by using a dryer sheet with my magnetic platform, I was easily able to cut my card stock with these dies! To be sure, I ran it through twice but I might have only needed the one run through because the dies cut like butter for me!

Now because every Big Shot is a little bit different, you may not get the same results as me; you might need what is recommended by Stampin' Up and/or you may need to use some shims to cut successfully.

Choosing Soft Suede for my flourish die cut I then coordinated my mattes around that choice. I used a Soft Suede card base to make a 4.75 x 6" card and cut a matte from a piece of Dapper Denim in the 2016-2018 In Color DSP Stack. I also cut two tall and narrow mattes, one from Crumb Cake and one from Very Vanilla.

Some texture was added to the Very Vanilla matte by using the flourish from Timeless Textures to stamp with Sahara Sand after first stamping off. I repeated this process with the Crumb Cake matte with full-strength inking.

Next, I used the now retired Distress Tool to roughen the edges of both mattes and then inked the Very Vanilla matte with Soft Suede and the Crumb Cake one with Dapper Denim.

I lightly sponged Soft Suede onto two lengths of Linen Thread and wrapped them around the top and bottom of the Very Vanilla matte, securing on the back with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

My Marsupial Layering Tool was used to adhere the Dapper Denim matte to the card front and then the Crumb Cake matte was adhered on top. The Very Vanilla matte was adhered using Dimensionals.
After die cutting the flourish from Soft Suede, I cut two of the blossoms again, this time from Dapper Denim. I also punched 10 circles using the 1/4" Circle Punch. The flowers and the circles were glued onto the die cut and then it was glued to the card front.

The sentiment from the Garden in Bloom stamp set was inked with Soft Suede and stamped onto a strip of Soft Suede. The strip was then distressed and inked with Soft Suede. Dimensionals were used at one end of the strip and it was tucked between the two mattes on the card front.

Sahara Sand ink was used on the flourish to stamp the edges of a Very Vanilla matte, stamping off first. Then the large flourish stamp from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set was inked with Dapper Denim and stamped in the bottom right corner. The matte was distressed with the Distressing Tool and then the edges were inked with both Soft Suede and Dapper Denim. The matte was adhered with Fast Fuse inside the card.

I'm really liking this card, especially all the distressing and the wonderful color combination. Feel free to save this color combo if you'd like to use it for your own cards!

I'm entering this card in the Global Design Project #040. Why not come out and play with us?

My one regret is that I wish I had used a baby wipe to dab away a little of the ink from my stamp when stamping the Dapper Denim flourish inside the card. I think that a more distressed version of the stamp would have looked better with the other distressing on the card.

Have you had a chance to play with the Flourish Thinlits yet? Let me know what you think of them by leaving me a comment below!

Garden in Bloom Thank You

I was awake at 6:30 this morning getting our granddaughter, Raine, up and ready to be taken to daycare by my husband. She slept over last night providing us with a wonderful evening enjoying her company. She is such a little character now and the time we spend with her is so precious!

Due to my early start, I was able to design, stamp, and assemble thank you cards for my stamping group by 1:00 PM! Wow! I think I'm on a roll!

I chose a four color scheme for my card design:

Using the solid flower stamp from the Garden In Bloom stamp set, I stamped flowers in both Peekaboo Peach and Flirty Flamingo, stamping some full strength and others stamped off, on a Thick Whisper White matte. I then stamped over each flower with the outline stamp in the opposite color.

Flirty Flamingo and Peekaboo Peach worked very well for this as they blended beautifully when overlapping flowers. To create a pleasing design, I stamped full strength stamps in both colors, in a sort of triangle formation, some flowers full on the matte, others offset, and then filled in with the stamped off flowers. I then used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the now retired, Another Thank You stamp set, with Chocolate Chip.

I inked the edges of the matte with Chocolate Chip and then adhered it to a Flirty Flamingo matte using Fast Fuse Adhesive. This was then adhered to a standard Whisper White card base using Dimensionals to complete the card.

Though the design of this card is relatively simple, it took time to stamp the two-step stamps on each matte. After that, it was relatively easy to complete the cards.

I think the color scheme and card design work well. What do you think?