Sponging And The Tropical Chic Bundle

Sitting down to play in my craft room today I was drawn, once again, to work with the Tropical Chic Bundle. I was inspired by a card designed by Vicki Papaioannou.

I started by cutting a square of Watercolor paper slightly bigger than the square die found in the Tropical Thinlits Dies. I chose to work with Watercolor paper instead of Whisper White because I find it more forgiving when sponging.

Granny Apple Green was sponged over the whole piece and then I sponged wide edges with Garden Green, followed by some Crumb Cake.

The watercolor paper was die cut using the square die with the palm leaves. It should be noted that this die does not cut the square edge around the piece itself; this was die cut using the #9 square from the Layering Squares Framelits. (See my Numbered Die Sets.) Due to the sponging of the piece prior to die cutting,  the resulting leaves had a very dimensional look, possessing both shadows and highlights and gradations of color.

A 4.75 x 6" Crumb Cake card front was cut and I used sponges with both Crumb Cake and Soft Suede to ink it after carefully masking off the back of the card base using Post It Notes.

Granny Apple Green was selected for the matte and was embossed using the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder. (This embossing folder makes a great tie in with the Tropical Chic Bundle!) The edges of the matte were sponged with both Granny Apple Green and Garden Green. It was adhered to the card front using a piece of fun foam to provide even dimension across the card.

Next, I cut a Crumb Cake matte to go behind the green die cut. The the die cut was glued on top using liquid adhesive. The completed matte was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

I used sponges to color two more pieces of Watercolor paper and then on one, stamped the sentiment using Versamark. This was heat embossed using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and then die cut using the outline die for the palm branch. The other piece was used to die cut a palm branch and large palm leaf. All die cuts were sponged with Garden Green and a touch of Soft Suede inks.

The sentiment and two other die cuts were adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. For a little added interest, some of the now retired Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes were adhered.

For inside the card, I used another piece of Watercolor paper and stamped it repeatedly with the palm branch stamp using Garden Green. I then added a few stamps of the same branch using Granny Apple Green. The edges were sponged with both Granny Apple Green and Garden Green before adhering the matte using liquid adhesive.

This shows the result of the sponging on the Watercolor paper.
(This the only photo of my process I remembered to snap!)

Product List

Watercolor Paper

[122959]

Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146990]

Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[120953]

Tropical Chic Clear-Mount Bundle

[148399]

Layering Squares Framelits Dies

[141708]

Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad

[147095]

Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

[147089]

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad

[147116]

Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad

[147115]

Versamark Pad

[102283]

Stamping Sponges

[141337]

Layered Leaves Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[143704]

Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109129]

Heat Tool

[129053]

Big Shot

[143263]

Big Shot Magnetic Platform

[130658]

Liquid Multipurpose Glue

[110755]

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

Rooted in Nature for Mother's Day

Not everyone celebrates Mother's Day with the gusto with which a lot of us do. Knowing that my daughter would not be doing anything special that day, I made her a special card to let her know what a great job I think she is doing with her own daughter. In creating this card, I CASEd a card by Mary Deatherage.

I used a similar color scheme to Mary's in my card but mine used more color.

Starting with a standard card base cut from Crumb Cake, I added a Lemon Lime Twist matte that had been embossed using the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder. The edges were sponged with Old Olive and a strip of the Share What You Love DSP adhered across it, wrapped with some Linen Thread. The matte was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

The tree slice was stamped on Thick Very Vanilla using Crumb Cake and then it was fussy cut before heavily inking the edges with the ink. The pine tree stamp was inked using Stampin' Markers in Old Olive and Soft Suede and then stamped twice on Thick Very Vanilla. They were die cut with the matching dies.

The sentiment from the set was stamped on with Old Olive on a strip of Old Olive and then the Triple Banner Punch was used on it. The sentiment, tree slice, and trees were layered onto the card front using Dimensionals.

Inside the card, a tree was stamped and then the edges of the matte were sponged with both Lemon Lime Twist and Old Olive.

I simply love how this card turned out! The Lemon Lime Twist gives such a spring-like freshness to everything and pairing the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder with the tree stamp, (even though the tree is coniferous and the leaves are deciduous) seems to really work well together.

I hope my daughter loves it as much as I do!

Thankful Vintage Leaves

In creating today's card, I had planned to use a new technique but unfortunately, the technique did not produce the results that I wanted so I will save that one for another day! Luckily, I still had the color scheme and rough card design so I set forth to create it.

I started by stamping three oak leaves and one poplar leaf, from the Vintage Leaves stamp set, on Thick Whisper White using Night of Navy. These were die cut using the coordinating framelits.

Next, I stamped the sentiment from the Painted Harvest stamp set on Gold Foil with Jet Black Stazon and then die cut it using the #3 oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.

After cutting a Night of Navy matte, I used the Layered Leaves Embossing Folder to dry emboss it. My plan was to adhere this matte to the Thick Whisper White card front but it didn't look right so I decided that a little bit of gold would help. Instead of using a large piece of Gold Foil when only a tiny edge of it would be seen, I decided to use a trick that I learned.

I cut a second matte from Thick Whisper White and then dragged my Versamark along the edges. I heat embossed the edges using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder. Now, when I placed my embossed matte on top, my design looked better but it still needed something else. While I thought about it, I adhered the embossed matte to the one with the gold edges and then tied a length of the Night of Navy Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon around both mattes.

The three oak leaves were adhered using Dimensionals and a little bit of liquid adhesive. The gold oval was adhered over the leaves with the poplar leaf adhered on top of that. It was then that I realized that I had forgot to add some flecks of gold with my Gold Wink of Stella! Too late now.

After finishing with my mattes and sentiments, I decided to stamp leaves around the edge of the card front. With the mattes then adhered with Dimensionals, the card design was perfect!

The Whisper White card front stamped

I stamped three offset oak leaves on the inside of the card and called it done!

I'm thrilled with how this card turned out! Love the navy and gold together. And what's not to like about leaves?

Hope YOU like my card! Would love to hear from you in the comments below!