I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, Or Did I?

Hi there! I hope it is warm where you are today–where I am is frigid! However, cold temperatures are a good excuse to stay inside and make cards, right?

Today I worked on two cards, the first of which was on my Evernote list that I mentioned in my Solid Gold Tips For Using The Bloomin' Hearts Framelits Die.

Have you tried using Evernote yet? I have been slowly re-organizing my crafting supplies from another app that no longer meets my needs.

Evernote is wonderful for organizing your crafting supplies (and everything else) because you can tag everything with a few key words and then just do a search to bring up all your Valentine's Day stamps, for instance.

Kathleen Driggers has a wonderful video tutorial on how to create a stamp inventory using Evernote.

What is really cool about the program is that you can run it on your computer, the web, your iPhone (or Android) or your iPad (or Android tablet). So, when you go shopping for craft supplies, you won't buy duplicates of things and you'll end up being able to buy more new things!

One of my favorite purchases from the 2016 Occasions Catalog was the Bundle of the Rose Garden Thinlits Dies and the Rose Wonder Stamp Set. My first card uses both but primarily the dies to create a one layer card.

To start with, I die cut the large rose and leaf combo using Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper. Because this die has a lot of intricacy, I used my special Big Shot sandwich because I wanted a clean cut but I also wanted to catch all the pieces that were cut out by the die so I could use them in the future.
I used the Fine Tip Glue Pen to carefully add adhesive to the die cut and then placed it on the front of a Night of Navy, 4.75 x 6" card front. After putting it into place, I put a piece of scrap paper over top and smoothed over it with my hands to ensure it was adhered.

Next, I stamped a sentiment from the Lovely Amazing You Stamp Set (love this stamp set!)  using Versamark and heat embossed it using white Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Because the card base was dark, I created a matte for the inside of the card using Whisper White card stock. I stamped leaves at the bottom of the card using Night of Navy and then lightly sponged over them using the same ink.

This is a very simple yet effective card to create and can be done fairly quickly! The picture really doesn't do this card justice because you can't see the glimmer from the Dazzling Diamonds paper.

The second card was a little more labor intensive but fun to create!

I knew that I wanted to try cutting the rose from a sheet of patterned paper. I chose to use the Have A Cuppa Designer Series Paper Stack and selected a sheet of hearts in shades of Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo and Basic Gray. I chose to use Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo card stock to coordinate with it. I cut a strip of the patterned paper and adhered it to the left edge of a Bermuda Bay matte.

I used the thinlits to cut out the rose and leaves from a sheet of the patterned paper and I adhered this to a Bermuda Bay matte. I retrieved the dryer sheet on which were stuck the Dazzling Diamonds pieces from my previous card and carefully fit each piece into the openings in the rose die cut. Once I had them all in place, I used the Fine Tip Glue Pen to glue each fragment back into place. To hold each piece while applying the glue, I used my Embellie Gellie Tool, a useful product for holding and releasing little things.

After getting all the pieces in place, I decided that I needed a bit more definition for the rose, so I outlined the rose with a Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker. I liked what it did but it made me feel that I should outline the whole thing! I decided THAT was not happening!

Moving on from there, I stamped the sentiment on Thick Whisper White and then die cut it. This was actually two separate stamps–the sentiment and the little frame around it. I find it easiest to stamp the sentiment first and then line up the frame stamp over it. Then it's an easy matter to line up the thinlit over it to die cut it. I adhered the sentiment onto the card front with Dimensionals.

To provide a bit more definition to the matte, I used a sponge dauber to ink the edges with Basic Black Archival ink. I used my Handheld Stapler to staple a scrap of Melon Mambo Stitched Ribbon onto the top left of the matte. After adhering the finished matte to a Melon Mambo card base, I added a few crystal sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

For the inside of the card, I stamped a section of the rose onto a Whisper White matte using Versamark and then heat embossed it with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. I used both Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay inks with sponges to add a little color to the petals and leaves and then inked the remaining edges with Basic Black Archival ink using a Sponge Dauber.

What do you think?

I think it is really cool that you can create at least two cards using the Rose Garden Thinlits Dies! However, you could go on forever, because as you use the outline of the rose for one card, you cut another paper for the insides of the rose and then you have another outline to create another card and so on and so on . . . :) Kind of like a never-ending card!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about these two cards–enjoy your day!