Greenhouse Flowers

I finally had a fair amount of time to do come crafting last night. I will be involved in another VC Rocks Blog Hop on the 21st and 22nd and was able to get one of the projects for that completed and a second one almost finished. All the projects for this hop will feature items from the new I B & C!

I was also able to get a couple of other projects completed for future blog posts too, but I couldn't wait to share this one. When I first came up with the idea, I wasn't sure it would turn out all that great. I am happy to say that it is way better than I expected. Well, I like it anyway. :)

This is the new Greenhouse Garden DSP from Stampin' Up!. No, the larger floral designs are not ones I would normally go for, but I am really trying to go outside my comfort zone lately and put some variety in my crafting. There is a really adorable stamp set, Friends Never Fade, that coordinates beautifully with this paper. Since it too is not typically my style, I don't have it yet. However, I wanted to show you something using this great DSP-I LOVE the color combos. So, I came up with the brilliant {if I do say so myself} idea to do some paper piecing for the focal point instead of a stamped image. Here is the result...

All of the flowers are cut from the DSP, how great is that?! After cutting out the three main flowers, I then went in and cut around some of the individual petals to give them a little "movement", and also sponged all the edges with Certainly Celery for some added depth. I then layered them using dimensionals, again for some more depth. Here is a close-up.

The other flowers were also sponged with either Certainly Celery or Baja Breeze and then layered on the card. The card base is Early Espresso. The sentiment is from the Level 1 Hostess set Afterthoughts and was the perfect size and style for the card.

I hope you like this card as much as I do.

Enjoy your day!

Because I Care

Here's another peak at the Because I Care Level 1 Hostess set.

Stamp Set: Because I Care
Paper: Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Stipple Brush, Dew Drops, Dimensionals

When I first saw this set I thought that it wasn't one that I would really like. The more I use it, the more it grows on me. I really like hydrangeas, but I don't generally use a lot of flowers in my stamping. What's nice about this one, is it is all one stamp; no trying to line up the stem with the flower, or the leaves with the stem.

Once again, I used one of my new favorite colors Marina Mist. I also used one of my favorite tools, my stipple brush. Stipple brushes give a nice soft effect on paper, and it's so easy to layer color with them. I used Early Espresso, another of the new Core Colors and added some Always Artichoke to soften and warm up the look.

This card only took me about 10 minutes to make. I need to learn to do more cards that quick! :)

Have a great day!

Distressed Razzleberry Birdie

I made this for one of my upline's demo meeting swaps. I definitely would not do this for a LARGE swap; it's a bit time consuming, but so much fun to make and I really like how they turned out.

Rich Razzleberry is the base of this card. The larger mat is Soft Suede and the DSP is from the Cottage Wall collection. For the main image, I colored the Wings of Friendship stamp with Razzleberry and Old Olive markers and then misted the stamp with water before stamping on Naturals White cardstock.

After stamping and cutting out several of the open flowers, I sponged the edges, placed a rhinestone brad in the center and popped them up with dimensionals. I wasn't happy with the size or look of the olive ribbon on it's own, and didn't want the polka dots showing on the soft suede ribbon, so I flipped it over and layered the olive grosgrain on top.

Editing to Add: I used the distressing tool from the Cutter Kit on all the layers. On the focal layer with the bird, I also used my scissors. I opened them up, like if I was going to curl ribbon, placed the edge of the paper in the "v" of the scissors and ran them down the edge of the paper. I then added a few small slices along the edges. Be careful though, you need a light touch when doing this, otherwise you could slice your image in half. Ask me how I know... :)

Enjoy!