Botanical Wedding Card

It happened again the other day.

I was at work at Walmart, waiting on another customer, when I spotted a new magazine in the rack. I quickly recognized the colors of Blushing Bride and Very Vanilla, on a background of green and a card idea started bubbling on the fringes of my mind! Here's the magazine cover that sparked my creative juices:

My vision for this card was that of a bride's bouquet, complete with ribbons and pearls on a lovely green background. To be able to fit in both the bouquet and ribbons, I chose a 5 x 7" format for my card.

I cut a matte that was 4.75 x 6.5" so that it would fit within the embossing folder I wished to use–Craft Concepts Tuscan Tiles. After embossing, I used Garden Green ink with a sponge to color the raised portions of the embossing. I adhered the matte to a 5 x 7" Cucumber Crush card base.

Next, I chose a circle die from the Circles Collection Framelits Dies and used that as a frame to create my bouquet simply by laying it on top of my embossed matte and adding flowers within it.

Using the Botanical Builders Framelits Dies, I cut flowers from Blushing Bride and Pink Pirouette as well as a couple of centres from the Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. I also punched flowers using one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and one from the now retired Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack. I inked the edges of the pink flowers with Strawberry Slush and the Blushing Bride ones with Calypso Coral. I also shaped them using the McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit.

I assembled the few flowers that needed centres and then started adding flowers to the circle die on my card front. I started by adding the largest flowers, filled in with the next largest small flowers and finally the smallest flowers. Once I was happy with the design, I snapped a photo for reference and then removed all but the largest flowers.

Circle die used to arrange the blossoms in a circle.

One by one, I used Multi Medium Matte to adhere each flower to the card front. Once I had filled up the circle, I removed the die and then added pearls to the centre of each blossom.

I used Glue Dots to adhere a bow of Pink Pirouette Seam Binding and a length of Blushing Bride Sequin Trim beneath the bouquet.

On vellum card stock I stamped the sentiment in Calypso Coral using the MISTI and both the Crazy About You and the Number of Years Stamp Sets. I also stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. I die cut the sentiment using a die from the Large Numbers Framelits Dies. I placed two pearls on the front of the sentiment and then positioned glue dots below them on the opposite side to adhere the banner to the card front.

For the inside of the card, I cut a matte from the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used Cucumber Crush to stamp the sentiment from the Beautiful Ride Stamp Set and added some flowers from the Bloomin' Love Stamp Set using Calypso Coral. I added the couple stamp in Blushing Bride to the bottom of the card. I inked the edges with Blushing Bride and then adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

Close up details.

I love the richness created by the embossing and sponging on the card front and the flowers looks so nice on top of it!

Let me know what you think by dropping me a comment below!

Final Valentine Projects

I'm finally finished! Made some treat baskets and a card for Courtney and Steffan and that's it for 2016 Valentines!

The Valentine treat baskets were very easy to assemble. I used the Berry Basket Bigz L Die with various colors of card stock and then embellished each basket by cutting four , 2 1/2" squares of patterned paper, folding each over a side of the basket. They were easily adhered with glue dots.

I made shredded paper for each basket by using my Fringe Scissors to cut strips of card stock and then crinkled the resulting pieces–so easy to make coordinated baskets this way!

Each basket had a few heart embellishments and a ribbon-tied Gusseted Cellophane Bag filled with Hershey's Kisses.

For Steffan's basket, I used Basic Black card stock with a striped patterned paper from the Neutrals Backgrounds DSP Stack. Shredded paper was white. Hearts were cut from both red and black Glimmer paper using the Hearts Collection Framelits Dies.

Courtney's basket was Garden Green and decorated with paper from the Love Blossoms DSP Stack. Rose Red shredded paper and Glimmer paper hearts–Blushing Bride and Dazzling Diamonds sponged with Rose Red– as well as Blushing Bride Sequin Trim and a Watermelon Wonder flower from the In Color Blossom Accents.

Finally, Raine's basket was made with Melon Mambo card stock and patterned paper from the Have A Cuppa DSP Stack. Bermuda Bay shredded paper was used to match the patterned paper and the hearts were all cut from Dazzling Diamonds paper and sponged with Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay inks. A Melon Mambo 3/8" Stitched Ribbon tied in a double bow was the final embellishment.

The card that I made for Courtney and Steffan was a direct case from the card by Dawn Griffith and uses the Beautiful Ride Stamp Set. Her card was so perfect, I didn't want to change a thing! It was a fun technique to use and I can see myself using this for other cards in the future. I'll let you view Dawn's excellent video tutorial rather than repeat the directions for the card here.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my Valentine's Day projects. Hope you enjoy your February 14!

Life Is A Beautiful Ride For Global Design Project #021

Today I wanted to design a card for the Global Design Project because I really liked the colors. Or at least two of them . . . Wisteria Wonder is not one of my favorites because I find it is a kind of watered down color that can take on a real gray tone. However, I can happily play with Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo!

The Have A Cuppa DSP Stack uses this color combination so I thought I would be able to use something from there to help me out.

I started by using my MISTI to stamp the Volkswagen, from the Beautiful Ride Stamp Set, using Basic Black Archival ink on a piece of watercolor paper. The MISTI allowed me to restamp to get a good black outline as it is often hard to get a good first stamp on watercolor paper. I then stamped it again using Versamark so that I could heat emboss it using Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder. I repeated this process for the stack of suitcases.

I used my Aqua Painter along with reinkers to paint the car and then used my Heat Tool to ensure it was completely dry. I cut out the car and suitcases using both scissors and my Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife. This knife is a wonderful tool and it makes it easy to control because you actually wear it on your finger! I'm looking forward to receiving my order of the Fiskars Reverse-Action Fingertip Tweezers which are designed the same way.

I cut a Melon Mambo card base for a 5.5 x 5.5" card size. I chose a Bermuda Bay patterned paper from the Have A Cuppa DSP Stack and cut a matte to go on the card base. I adhered it with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I chose a 4.5" square of Thick Whisper White for the front matte and cut a very thin Basic Black matte to go beneath it.

To work in a bit more color, I decided to "flick" paint droplets onto the white matte prior to attaching the car and suitcases. I used the reinkers again but made sure to use a paintbrush with lots of water on it so that the ink would fly off easily. After using the three colors for the card challenge, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo and Wisteria Wonder, I dried the matte with my heat tool.

I adhered the white matte to the black matte and then used Dimensionals to attach it to the patterned paper matte.

I cut a .75" strip of Basic Black and flagged one end using the Banner Triple Punch. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment using Versamark and then heat embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder. I used Fast Fuse Adhesive to attach it to the matte.

The car was adhered above the sentiment banner using Dimensionals. I then cut a length of twine from the Baker's Twine Combo Pack and separated out the black strand. I used it to tie around the stack of suitcases, mimicking the lines that were on the stamp. I then adhered the suitcases above the car.

To complete the card, I used Copic markers to color three pearls and adhered them to the end of the sentiment banner.

I am entering this card in the Global Design Project #021.

Hope your "ride" is a good one today!