PAPER PIECED BOUQUET

If you're like me, you love the look of paper piecing. The card I am sharing with you today is done with that technique. Join me in creating a card similar to this one by following the tutorial below!

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Paper Pumpkin Memorable Meadows, March 2024

Black ink

Big Shot

Basket Weave embossing folder

Green Baker's Twine

Stampin' Dimensionals

Sparkle

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Use a deckled edged rectangle die that measures 3 3/4" x 5" to cut a piece of white cardstock. Emboss it with a basket weave embossing folder. Set it aside.

Use the 2 7/8" x 4" deckled rectangle to cut another piece of white cardstock. On this piece, stamp the two- flower bouquet from the March 2024 Paper Pumpkin kit, or any other image that would work for this technique, using black ink.

Select a scrap of Designer Series Paper that would make a good flower, as well as one that would be good for leaves, and a little for yellowish flower centers. With the same black ink, stamp the flower, center and leaf elements onto the DSP. Fussy cut these pieces.

Adhere the pieces over their stamped counterparts.

Use Wink of Stella or any glittery pen you prefer to add a little glimmer to the centers of the flowers.

Tie a bow in a length of baker's twine and adhere it to the stem of the flowers.

Adhere the finished piece to the embossed cardstock.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the finished piece to the white card base.

Paper

Smiles.

TIME AND MEMORY

It's one of those unfortunate aspects of life that we will all need to send out sympathy cardsat times. I experienced the outpouring of wonderful thoughts from others upon the death of my beloved mother not too long ago.

The card I am featuring today is a good example of how a hand created sympathy card can be made. I am working with tricky vellum, so read on to discover how I handled it.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Old Olive cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Vellum

Bloom With Hope stamp set

VersaMark ink

Big Shot

Butterfly die

Embossing Buddy

Platinum Embossing Powder

Basic Pearls

Mini Glue Dots

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a piece of 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this, add a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Old Olive cardstock. And to this, add a layer of coordinating Designer Series Paper that measures 3 3/4" x 5".

Cut a piece of vellum to 2 1/2" x 3 3/4". Rub the Embossing Buddy over this. Stamp the words in VersaMark ink about 3/4" from the top, and emboss it with a Platinum Embossing Powder.

With a Mini Glue Dot in each corner, add the vellum to the DSP.

Place a pearl on each of the corners, covering up the Mini Glue Dots.

From Old Olive cardstock, die cut a butterfly.

Only putting adhesive along the body, add the butterfly to the lower portion of the vellum.

Adhere a pearl on the butterfly's "head".

Gently tip the wings upwards to give the butterfly the feeling of inpending flight.

Comforting

Smiles.

SENDING A SMILE

I apologize for the quality of this photo. The main portion of the card is a shiny metallic cardstock. No matter what I tried, I could not improve on it.

Trust me when I tell you that this is a simply exquisite card -- simple being the key word. In this card, we are letting the Designer Series Paper do pretty much all of the work.

Follow along for a tutorial on making a card similar to this one.

SUPPLIES

White cardstock

Specialty Designer Series Paper

Merry Messages stamp set

VersaMark ink

Big Shot

Something Fancy Dies

Polished Dots

Stampin' Dimensionals

Embossing Buddy

Copper Embossing Powder

Heat Tool

DIRECTIONS

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a piece of shiny metallic Specialty Designer Series Paper (or any other similar paper) with a face-to-face design to 3 3/4" x 5". Mount it to the white card base.

Since this DSP is so gorgeous on its own, we are not going to add too much to the card. Don't you agree?

Rub an Embossing Buddy over a scrap of white cardstock. In VersaMark ink, stamp your sentiment. Emboss it with copper embossing power. Use a label die to cut it out. The die I used is from the Something Fancy set..

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the cut out sentiment to the lower right corner.

Add a trio of shiny gems to finish off the look.

Shiny

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD MARCH 2024

Going through the bird drawings that I did in March shows me that March must have been a pretty good month for birdies. I liked a lot of them! That is so unusual. 

These are my favorites from the month. Above each bird drawing, I will give the name of the bird and where in the world you could find these feathered friends. I hope you enjoy.

 african jacana

sub-saharan africa

european bullfinch

europe and temperate asia

american singer canary

macaron asian islands

cinereous vulture

southern and eastern europe, middle east, central asia into mongolia and china

russet-throated puffbird

northeastern colombia

red-cheeked cordon-bleu finch

sub-saharan africa

hooded pitta

southeast asia

nicobar pigeon

india

eastern meadowlark

southeastern canada, west to the great plains and great lakes regions, 

appalachian mountain corridor

yellow-bellied sapsucker

canada, northeastern u.s.

african fish eagle

southern africa

egyptian goose

africa: nile valley

chestnut seedeater

argentina, brazil, paraguay, uruguay

common buzzard

palearctic

marabou stork

africa

hawaiian honey creeper

the hawaiian islands

red-faced liocichla

bangladesh, bhutan, myanmar, northeast india, nepal, western yunnan

european sparrowhawk

europe, coastal northwestern africa, asia

european eagle owl

iberian peninsula, europe and asia

And there you have it. March in the bag. Thank you so much for continuing on this bird journey of mine. See you in the next installment. April 2024!

birdie

smiles.

STRIPPY THANKS

If you're like me, you have lots of scraps and leftovers lying around from finished projects. Cardstock is so expensive, I really hate getting rid of even the smallest piece. Thus, when I come upon an idea that enables a crafter to make a cute card using up scraps, I'm all in!

You too? Keep reading for a tutorial on how to create a card like this:

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Assorted colors of cardstock scraps

Black cardstock

Big Shot

Amazing Thanks dies

Stampin' Dimensionals

Textured embossing folder

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Cut a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. Use an embossing folder to add texture to this piece. Add it to the white card base.

Cut a piece of black cardstock to 1 1/2" x 5 1/4". This will be the base to which you will add your colored strips.

From assorted scraps of colored cardstock, cut eight strips that measure 1/2" x 3". 

Add the colored strips to the black, starting with the two on the ends and adding them at jaunty angles. It might help if you lay it out first to get the color order and tilts that please you. Then, proceed with the glue.

Using a two-part die that says "Thanks", cut the larger portion from white cardstock and the narrow part from black. Carefully adhere the two word parts together.

Adhere the word over the strippy section.

Wth Dimensionals, add the completed strip to the card.

Strippy

Smiles.

FOLIAGE BIRTHDAY

I am going to make a concerted effort to add more posts to my blog. Initially, I had planned to not renew my website when it came up for renewal this month. But, I decided to keep on keeping on rather than giving up on all my hard work over the many years.

Besides my periodic posts of my bird drawings, I will resume adding tutorials for some of the cards I continue to make. I offer kits to make four cards each month. These blog posts will be the creations for those kits.

One more thing: since I am no longer a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator (ignore that claim in my header. I don't know how to fix it.), I will continue to use my Stampin' Up! products. I will then refer to those items by the Stampin' Up! name. I will also be using non-Stampin' Up! products.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Forest Foliage cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Forest Foliage ink

Big Shot

Oval dies

Unbounded Love dies

Linen thread

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Choose a piece of Designer Series Paper that you think would make a good background. Once your DSP is chosen, pick a piece of cardstock that works well with the colors in the DSP. Cut this coordinating cardstock to 3 1/2" x 4 3/4". You will be doing the next steps on this base.

From the DSP you've chosen, cut it to 3" x 4 1/2". Then cut this into three 1" strips. Evenly add these strips to the coordinating cardstock.

From white cardstock, die cut an oval that measures 1 3/4" x 2 3/4". In coordinating ink, stamp a sentiment that fits nicely in the center of the oval.

From some of the coordinating cardstock, die cut a decorative oval border. Carefully adhere this border to your white oval.

Take a length of linen thread, and after putting adhesive on the back of the oval, make loops, catching the thread on the adhesive as you pass over it. I added tape over the adhesive oncee my loops were in place.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the sentiment piece toward the top of the card.

Leafy

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD FEBRUARY 2024

Unbelievably behind in posting my bird drawings. As you see in the title of this post, the birds I will be featuring are a handful of my favorites from FEBRUARY! 

This series, entitled The Daily Bird, began when I finished my #365birds. Yes, an entire year of daily bird drawings. Now, by calling my current challenge The Daily Bird, I have no ending in sight.

As I always do in these posts, I will indicate above each drawing the name of the bird, as well as  where in the world this particular bird can be found.

waffled curassow

tropical amazonian forest

ring-necked duck

north america

african grey parrot

central africa

clark's grebe

north america

white-naped crane

northern mongolia, southern siberia, korea, japan, central china

fulvous whistling duck

lowland south america, southern u.s., west indies

plate-billed mountain toucan

west slope of ecuador, extreme southern colombia

pale-billed flowerpecker

india

comb-crested jacana

australia

ruddy kingfisher

southeast asia

merlin

north america

green wood hoopoe

africa

And, that's it for the birds of February 2024. Stay tuned for more.

I would be delighted to have prints made of any of my birds for you! Just hit me up for which of them you would like to own. Keep in mind that the photos I have here are quick snapshots of the birds, not the quality you would get in a print.

Birdie

Smiles.

SERENE SILHOUETTES

I know I reported in a recent post that I was going to let my blog, Paper Seedlings, go. I just can't do it though. I feel that I still have too much to offer as far as my original intent for my blog goes: Planting little paper seedlings, ideas that I hope can inspire you, that you will nourish with care, and allow to grow into full-fledged beautiful papercrafting projects.

Although I am no longer an active Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I still love making cards and sharing what I love with my blog readers. I will no longer be purchasing new product from Stampin' Up!. However, I will continue to use my products in my creations, although I will be using more and more retired products. I still have and use a few current items, so you will recognize some things as we go along.

As with any papercrafting projects, there are always lots and lots of ways you can be inspired by my creations and use other products to get a similar effect. 

Let's give this a renewed try together: Me posting creations to inspire you and you actually being inspired by my little paper seedlings.

I will probably only post one photo in each of my blog posts, unless there is something that I think needs additional focus. Then I might include two or more photos.

Beneath each photo, I will include a tutorial on how to create a similar card, only using products you already have on hand.

Ready?

SUPPLIES:

White cardsdtock

Real Red cardstock

Black cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Serene Silhouettes stamp set

Black ink

Dark Real Red Stampin' Blend

Big Shot

Word dies

Red/White Baker's Twine

Basic Pearls

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder

To this card base, add a layer of colorful striped Designer Series Paper that measures 4" x 5 1/4".

Cut a piece of white cardstock to 2" x 4". On this strip, in black ink, stamp the silhouetted flowers.

Add the stamped strip to a 2 1/4" x 4" piece of Real Red cardstock. Set this aside for now.

Cut a 1" x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. Mount this to a 1 1/4" x 5 1/4" piece of Real Red cardstock.

Tie a length of red and white baker's twine into a bow at about the halfway point on this strip.

Add this to the layered piece about 3/8" from the bottom of the stripes.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere the stamped panel about 1/8" - 1/4" from the left edge of the stripes. Adjust the red and white bow so it is tight to the right of this panel.

In black cardstock, die cut the shadow portion of "thanks" and in Real Red cardstock, die cut the main portion of the word. Put the pieces together. Center this on the remaining white strip to the right of the baker's twine.

Add three small red pearls around the sihouette. I used Dark Real Red Stampin' Blends to color Basic Pearls.

I apologize for my header that states that I am an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, although this is no longer true. I had hired someone to do this part of my blog for me. She is no longer doing this, and I tried myself to correct it, but was unable to do it. So, until or IF I can figure out how to fix it on my own, please just ignore that line.

Striped

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD January 2024

I present to you a selection of my drawings from The Daily Bird of January 2024. I will label each drawing with the name of the bird, as well as where in the world the bird can be found.

crested barbet

angola, botswana, burudi, democratic republic of the congo, eswatini, malawi, mozambique, namibia, rwanda, south africa, tanzania, uganda, zambia and zimbabwe

plain prinia

southeast asia

red-breasted merganzer

throughout much of the northern hemisphere

purple gallinule

extreme southwestern united states

king bird-of-paradise

mainland new guinea

collared trogon

mexico, central america, northern south america

diamond firetail

eastern australia

red warbler

mexico

black-hooded oriole

tropical southern asia

black-bellied whistling duck

southern texas, louisiana, arizona, florida, mexico, central america, northern south america, 

the caribbean

masked cardinal

trinidad, far-eastern colombia, northern venezuela

crested penguin

new zealand, subantarctic

pileated woodpecker

canada, pacific northwest, eastern half of the united states

As always, please respect that this is my original art. If you would like a print of any of my bird drawings, please just let me know.

Birdie

Smiles.