Painted Harvest

I have set a goal for myself. Follow along with me for a bit. A while back I pulled all the cardstock, inks, and coordinating products that Stampin'Up! had retired a few years back. I had intentions of selling them so they sat in a basket in my craft room - for over a year! 

My goal is to use up as much of that basket as possible.

One of the colours I have is Always Artichoke - it's a deep green that I used to avoid. Enter inspiration by Pinterest. I searched just the colour to find a stamp set that I have and could add more colours to. 

I came up with the stamp set Painted Harvest (retired). That is a multi step stamp set. Meaning, there are stamps which help build dimension in an image. 

Just a quick search of colour combinations returns my favorite... Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Chocolate Chip to make the sunflower. In total, I used 6 colours on this card. Here's how they look together. 

Let's take a look at a bit of the card. 

Starting with the base, I stamped some of the ferns on Always Artichoke in Always Artichoke ink. This gives a tone on tone effect. 

I used Crushed Curry as the first ink with Cajun Craze as the second ink. The centres of the sunflower is Chocolate Chip, stamped off. The dots are done in first, second and third generation stamping. The sunflower layer is 4" x 2". It's adhered on a Soft Suede piece that's 4 1/4" x 2 1/4". 

Helpful tip, before layering - take out any amounts of cardstock as you can first. I've done a quick tip video (on my Facebook page). I used the the sprig punch and was able to get 2 items from it. I then used those on the card. 

The sprig is stamped with Chocolate Chip on Soft Suede. They are adhered with a glue dot under a leaf (stems are under the sentiment).

The sentiment layer is 2 1/4" x 1". Soft Suede is 2 1/2" x 1 1/4". 

I think I have done enough of a reading piece. Let's finish this off with photos. 

Just Saying, thank you for spending this time with me. As always, if you have questions on any of the products or techniques leave me a comment. 

Christie 

Great parents to Grandparents

I love getting asked to make a special card, with the added challenge of a custom sentiment. 

A friend of mine has friends who have recently become grandparents, to a baby boy. 

Stampin'Up products are so easy to work with. First up, the sentiment... The best parents get promoted to grandparents. 

Easy, really. The stamp set, Make a Difference allows to create your own verse. There's a few options for font too. 

I've recently featured this set in another blog post, so versatile. 

I'm going to TRY and show how TINY these letters are... They are about the size of your fingers pinching. 

My go to suite for babies is the stamp set Little Twinkle, with coordinating moon and stars punch.

The designer series paper is so gender neutral and is in pastel, it's perfect. 

Here's how all this works out to be a card, photo story. 

I love this card, such a quick one to "whip up". 

Just saying, thank you for reading this far. As always, any questions on products or techniques just ask. 

Christie 

welcome to your new home

I was asked by a friend to create a card so she could give one to a friend who had just purchased her first home. One request was to have dragonflies. 

I wanted to challenge myself - using a suite that I didn't love when I received it. 

I'll expand on that for a second. I recently attended Stampin Up's OnStage@Home. Typically that would have been an in person convention, but Covid-19. For the registration and pre-order of OnStage, we could purchase an unknown bundle. I took the chance since it was my first convention and wanted the full experience. We received Dragonfly Garden stamp set, Dandy Gardens DSP, a dual dragonfly punch, and so much more. Being honest, I didn't like the DSP. It's weeds and bees and I just wasn't happy. During OnStage we had many examples and "make and takes" where we participated in creating cards. My mind was changed. I'd had a better look at the paper and was able to see how I could use it. 

So let's use what we have, it's new, it's dragonflies, it's a challenge. 

I drew up my layout and got to work on figuring out my colours. Blackberry Bliss, Calypso Coral, Mossy Meadow and Whisper White. Pulling the colours from the Designer Series Paper. 

I had been asked to have a pretty specific sentiment. Welcome to your new home. I used Make a Difference which has teeny tiny letters to create a handwritten font. 

Side note - There are also stamps which help us to stay compliant with the Angel Policy, handy. 

I had stamped out the sentiment and wanted to add some variety. I looked at my other options for words that could be die cut. Welcome to the Well Said stamp set and its coordinating dies which includes the word Welcome. 

I used that rough copy to figure out what size frame I'd need to have it be an image. 

I used a die from Tasteful Touches. 

Here's how I kept myself straight while stamping the letters. Have a peek. 

I used a pencil line and ruler. Absolute must do is let the ink, completely, dry before erasing the pencil. 

Let's talk about that wee little welcome die. I've used it before and forgot to use the adhesive sheet, I remembered this time - which was such a time saver! 

There are so many components to this card. 

The large dragonfly was stamped in Calypso Coral then I use an aqua painter to blend out the ink a bit. Added a Wink of Stella for sparkle and little dabs of Mossy Meadow (see the tail and body). Set it aside to completely dry (use a heat tool if needed). I used the small punch to get a little dragonfly from a scrap of dsp, then trimmed it a bit between the body and the wings. 

I was ready for the assembly of the card but I needed embellishments. Braided Twine, Gold thread, mini pearls... And dimensionals. That's the outside covered. 

I have been working on decorating the inside of cards lately. This is no exception. BUT I didn't get photos. Using Whisper White (4" x 5 1/4") I stamped the tall floral image on the right and a strip of DSP cut at 1/2" x 5 1/4" along the bottom. 

Ok, you've read a lot, thank you. Here's the rest of the card in photo form. 

As always if you have any questions on the techniques, products or just in general, please comment or send me a message. 

Just Saying, thank you for spending this time with me. 

Christie