Flower Pot For Global Design Project

You can't imagine my delight when I saw the color challenge for the Global Design Project #29! The colors were definitely my kind of colors! In fact, I had used these colors previously (minus one) in my post, Shake It Off.

It didn't take long for me to plan my design.

I cut an Early Espresso card base for a 4.75 x 6" card and a matte from an Early Espresso text paper from the Neutrals Backgrounds DSP Stack. After inking the edges with Early Espresso, I adhered the matte to the card base and proceeded to punch flowers from Bermuda Bay using the Pansy Punch as well as flowers from Tangelo Twist using the Petite Petals Punch.

Tangelo Twist polka dot paper from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack was used for a flower pot and separate piece for the trim on the pot.

Using a sponge dauber, I inked each flower and used a sponge to ink the flower pot pieces in Early Espresso, applying a bit more shading to the shadow side of the pot.

I assembled the flowers using Multi Medium Matte, adding a Bermuda Bay Candy Dot from the Brights set to each flower.

The trim was adhered to the flower pot using Dimensionals and then a Tangelo Twist Ribbon was tied around the pot. The pot was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. The flowers were also adhered with Dimensionals.

Using a sentiment from the Gift From The Garden, I stamped with Early Espresso onto a strip of Bermuda Bay. I used the Banner Triple Punch to flag one end. I cut a piece of the Tangelo Twist polka-dotted paper for another banner. It was adhered to the card front with Fast Fuse and the sentiment banner was popped up over it with Dimensionals.

For the inside of the card, I used a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used one of the stamps from the Petite Petals stamp set to stamp flowers in both Bermuda Bay and Tangelo Twist around three edges of the matte, stamping more than once before reinking for some of the flowers. I adhered a strip of the Early Espresso text DSP to the right side of the matte, after inking the edges, and then inked the remaining edges of the matte. I adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I chose not to make a shaped flower pot card for this challenge, as I preferred to have the flower pot mounted onto the Early Espresso text DSP. I like the way the card came together!

What do you think? Do you like this color combo? Drop me a comment below!

New Floor and Grateful For You

My husband puts up with a LOT. I can be very moody at times. And demanding. And selfish. But somehow I lucked out and he is always there for me.

A couple of years ago, after our daughter moved out, I took over her old bedroom upstairs and claimed it as my craft room. Eventually, I persuaded him to make it into a REAL craft room and he did a fabulous job of creating a large work table, another counter with cabinets and a smaller counter with cabinets that I use as my cutting and Big Shot area.

Then after Christmas this year, he installed new lighting fixtures for me as well as mounting a picture ledge on the wall above my work table so I could display the cards that I made.

In April, he decided that it was time to replace all the carpets throughout the house as well as linoleum in the two upstairs bathrooms and a new shower for the ensuite bathroom. Our house was turned upside down as furniture was moved from one room to another as the carpeted areas were being done.

My craft room had existing carpet (being a bedroom in an earlier life) but I persuaded Bob that bare floors would work better for me in a craft room so he agreed to put in laminate flooring for me.

Craft room before new floors.

As much as I was looking forward to the new floors, I was beside myself thinking about the huge job of moving everything out of the room so he could do the floors and then moving everything back. I was sure it would take over a week until I was back in my favorite spot crafting again. You know how a simple job always seems to become more complicated once it's started? That is what I was expecting to happen.

But my fears were not realized after all!

Sunday night we had moved everything out of the room in preparation for the new floor. Monday was the first day of Bob's summer holidays and he spent it installing my floor! He started around 9:00 am and finished laying the flooring about 3:30 pm. We were able to move everything back into my room that night!

The beginning of the new floor.

Almost finished!

So this is what my craft room looks like now:

View from the doorway–look at that floor!

My chandelier in the corner over my Silhouette Cameo & printer.

My wonderful large work table with picture ledge for my cards over top of it.

Punch storage on the wall by the door.

My cutting and Big Shot work station complete with Ott light.

Storage with my rolling platform for my two boxes of dies on the floor in front.

Shows new lighting over my work table as well as my picture ledge for my cards.

New light over window work area.

To show Bob my appreciation, I made him a special card for his efforts.

I started by embossing a Basic Black matte with the Arrows Embossing Folder. I then used my Embossing Buddy to give a good coating to the embossed piece. I then used my Brayer and Versamark ink to ink up the matte. I heat embossed it using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder to give it a two-tone look. I adhered the matte to a Basic Black card base using Dimensionals.

Next, I cut a 4 1/8 x just under 1 1/2" piece of Tempting Turquoise and used the Triple Banner Punch to flag one end. I then used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the For All Things stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.
I adhered the banner to the matte using Fuse Fast Adhesive.

Using Tempting Turquoise and MISTI, I stamped two flowers on Whisper White card stock, one from Flower Shop and one from Petite Petals. I used both the Pansy and the Petite Petals Punches to cut out the flowers.

I used a few glue dots to serve as an anchor for some Whisper White Baker's Twine on the left side of the banner and then used a Dimensional to adhere the larger flower on top. The smaller flower was adhered next, using Multipurpose Liquid Glue. I used a black Sharpie to color a White Perfect Accent and placed it in the centre of the flower.

The final touch was to add a little Wink of Stella to the flower petals!

I did not add a matte to the inside of the card because I planned to write in it using my White gel pen.

I'm not sure you can see the two-tone effect well in the pictures but the shine of the embossed areas on the black really add to the texture of the card.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog today. Drop me a comment below!


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Bittersweet Card Class

June 19 was the wind-up for our monthly card class. I always look forward to each of our card classes but because this was the last class before our summer break, it was also a little sad to think we wouldn't be stamping together for two whole months!

At our wind-ups, we always bring food to share and last year we started having our food first so that we could socialize as a group before we got down to the stamping end of things. It's always fun to sample the different treats and though we didn't know who was bringing what, it all worked out well!

Just before we broke up to head down to the craft room, the group presented me with two lovely gifts and a handmade card! Such sweet ladies! As I started to read the card, I got a little emotional so I saved it to finish reading later. The gifts and the card were much appreciated!

The two cards we made for this class were very different in nature.

The first card was a fun, lighthearted card to construct. Using the Sprinkles of Life stamp set can't be anything but fun, right?

The ice cream image was stamped in each of three colors of ink–Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, and Island Indigo–on the coordinating card stock and then punched with the Tree Builder stamp.

The cone was stamped on Tip Top Taupe and fussy cut. It was adhered to a Whisper White matte and then each layer of ice cream was stacked on top using Dimensionals.

The sentiment was stamped in Bermuda Bay and then a length of Coastal Cabana Thick Baker's Twine was knotted around the matte. It was then adhered to a Bermuda Bay matte with Dimensionals and then adhered to the Bermuda Bay card base using Fuse Fast.

A Wink of Stella pen was used to highlight the ice cream layers.

Close-up showing the shimmer from Wink of Stella pen.

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?!
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Our second card was designed to be a sympathy card.

The MISTI and the woodgrain stamp from the Build a Bouquet stamp set was used to stamp with Versamark on a 4 x 5.25" Basic Black matte. It was heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and then the matte was trimmed to the size of the stamp. It was adhered to the black card base using Dimensionals.

On a strip of Basic Black card stock 5 x 1" (just shy of 1") the sentiment from the You've Got This stamp set was stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with the gold. The Triple Banner punch was then used to flag each end. It was adhered to the matte using Dimensionals.

The Pansy Punch was used to cut two flowers from Gold Foil and one from Basic Black. Two flowers were punched from Basic Black and one from Gold Glimmer using the Petite Petals punch.
Each group of punched flowers were put together and pierced through the centre using the Piercing Tool and Piercing Mat.

Two 1/8" brads were heat embossed with Gold and one was colored black with a Sharpie marker. These were used to attach the flower groups. The three flowers were adhered with Dimensionals at the top of the card.

A matte of Naturals Ivory card stock was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Gold. The edges were also inked and embossed. The matte was then adhered to the inside of the card.

I think that the gold embossing gives a rich look when used on black. Have you tried embossing on gold? Let me know in the comments below and link me up to your creations!

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