JAR OF FLOWERS

The Jar of Flowers stamp set, found on page 16 of the brand new Annual Catalog -- that went live today! -- is so much fun.

Recently I stamped two of the bouquets in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored them in with Stampin' Blends. A few of the flowers, in fact, I stamped and colored twice. After fussy cutting all of the parts, I used Stampin' Dimensionals to pop some of the flowers up over their original counterparts to make a more three dimensional looking bouquet.

The stem stamp was simply stamped onto green cardstock, then fussy cut. After placing the stems onto the bottoms of the bouquets, I added a little bow tied with hemp twine left over from an old Paper Pumpkin kit.

You can see in the photo below that I popped up 

the two larger sunflowers for the 3-D look:

I had found sheets of fairly flat cork at my local Dollar Tree. Snapping up a package of that, I just knew that I would find an awesome use for it.

The cork sheet in action:

To echo the color of the sunflowers in this bouquet, I added the whole thing to a gold colored card base.

The second bouquet I chose to work with was the spring-y looking one shown below. This card is going to be my mom's Mother's Day card.

Once again, I mounted my bouquet onto a piece of the cork, which measures 3" x 4 1/2". It cuts so easily with my Stampin' Up! guillotine paper cutter. I do wish Stampin' Up! would bring that paper trimmer back.

Another common denominator with both of the cards is the Sahara Sand piece embossed with the Old World Paper 3D embossing folder, which is, unfortunately, retired. I don't care; I will keep using it forever because I love its texture so much!

Adding it to a Magenta Madness card base bring 

the pinks in the flowers back into play.

Do you have this Jar of Flowers set? If so, in what creative ways have you used it?

Jarred

Smiles.

#dailycreating DECEMBER 2020

Time to share another month's worth of my creations from #dailycreating. This time they were all done during the month of December. 

#dailycreating is a Facebook group graciously hosted by Visual Artist/Creative Encourager Terry Runyan. The members of this friendly family-like group are encouraged by Terry to do some sort of creative project each day. 

Each Sunday afternoon, Terry posts a list of optional prompts for the upcoming week. Most of the time I follow the prompts. Other times, if a particular prompt doesn't thrill me for some reason, I will go off prompt. And rarely do I ever miss doing my daily creating and posting my results to the group.

Following you will find 12 of my favorite creations from December. As always, I will put the prompt, if followed, above the drawing, as well as any pertinent information I might have on the subject.

Ready? Here we go!

 #thing on thing

secretary bird

#cheetah

#earmuffs

#off prompt

meerkat

#monkey

rhesus macaque

#international tea day

#thing on thing

peacock

#snow

emperor baby penguin

#cardinal

#reindeer

#penguin

macaroni penguin

#scarf

And there you have it. There are couple other drawings from that month that I sort of like, but they were Christmas related, and since today is May Day and we finally got a fairly balmy day, I am not going back to Christmas stuff.

Please remember that these are my original art pieces and are not to be reproduced in any way without my express permission. If you would like a giclee print of any of my work, hit me up and I will be glad to do that for you! Thank you for your respect.

#dailycreating

Smiles.

HELLO

I purchased a pack of the True Love Designer Series Paper (page 11 of the Mini Catalog) recently because it was BLACK AND WHITE! I could make it any color I wanted to work with -- or leave it as is.

The papers in this pack are exquisite and actually beg me to get out my Stampin' Blends to make them even more beautiful.

One of the sheets that especially appealed to me was the one I used as the background of this card:

Millions of teeny tiny flowers and leaves. Precious. Not sure what to do with it. I didn't want to make a completely black and white card. 

Another of the sheets in this DSP pack features lovely clusters of larger flowers. So that's how I proceeded. 

I grabbed one of those sheets and, using Light and Dark Flirty Flamingo and Light Just Jade Stampin' Blends, I went to work coloring one of the clusters. After I finished with my coloring, I fussy cut the bunch.

Putting the fussy cut colored cluster against the miniscule black and white flowers . . . whoa. A no go for sure. 

Adding the larger flowers onto a black die cut circle was the perfect solution. 

Because there was a lot of black around the flowers, even with leaves extending past the edge, I decided to break up all the black by using the Just Jade Stampin' Blend to color three Basic Pearls. 

A close up of the colored flower cluster:

I wanted an equally pretty sentiment in a sort of scrolly font to complement the rest of the card, so I opted for this cute "hello". Unfortunately it is not a Stampin' Up! die. 

Die cut in black cardstock, it too blended in with the little background flowers when placed right against them. Adding it to a 3/4" by 4" strip of Flirty Flamingo cardstock alleviated that situation, plus brought in a little more of the Flirty Flamingo to give the card a nice balance.

It was mounted onto a Call Me Clover card base.

Did you happen to purchse this pack of Designer Series Paper? If so, how have you used it?

Hello

Smiles.

 

HERE'S TO YOU

I must say that, in the past several months, the Paper Pumpkin kits have been real hits with me. The March, 2021 kit, Here's to You, was no exception.

One thing that I did find unnecessary, however, were the separate liners that were supposed to be inserted inside the envelopes. To me, the envelope is a mere conveyance, something in which to put your creation to get to the recipient. In my experience, most recipients rip open the envelope to get to what's inside. Then toss the envelope away and keep the card.

To me, that's an absolute waste of time and energy. In the case of the March Paper Pumpkin kit, the liners were really nice pieces of decorative paper that I wanted to put to much better use than their intended one.

I used this pretty paper on my cards. And none of the cards were made as the instructions suggested, as per my usual modus operandi.

In the first card, I trimmed one of the envelope liners to act as a mat around the scenic piece. Even though the envelope liner was a mass of flowers, by using it in this manner, it just looks like colors that reflect those in the scene. Win! 

Another change I made was adding a small sentiment into the open green space rather than on a separate label. I liked being able to integrate it within the scenery.

I also did not use the card base that was provided, instead substituting a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Petal Pink cardstock that I embossed with the Painted Texture 3D embossing folder. 

A narrow strip of Pretty Peacock cardstock was adhered to the textured background just a bit above the halfway point. Finally, it was all added to a card base of Pretty Peacock.

I will certainly miss the Pretty Peacock color. Every time I fall in love with a color, it retires. 

For the second card, I didn't make all that many changes. Just enough for me to love it as one of my own. 

Once again, I took one of the other envelope liners and cut it as a mat for the main image. I love how these colors echo those used in the image.

I was absolutely not in love with the three strips that were added in the directions that comprised the sentiment. Nope. In place of that, I used a strip that was included in the kit and stamped the sentiment that was on the stamp set. This sentiment is lovely, and I can see it being used as a graduation wish.

I can't take complete credit for one of the ideas in the last two cards. I must admit that I saw the idea of using the light blue spaces on the envelope liner as spots to stamp a sentiment. Brilliant! Thank you to whoever came up with this concept!

Actually the rest of my card was changed up from that original idea. The only thing I appropriated was what I'd already mentioned.

Do you remember the Sassy Salutations stamp set from ages ago? Well, I've never really gotten over that set, and find myself reaching for it when I need a bit of "sassy" zip in a salutation, and when my salutation space allows for a larger font as in this set. I stamped the words in -- you guessed it -- Pretty Peacock.

I added a flag to each of the cards in Calypso Coral upon which the sentiment oval rests. I also added strips of ribbon and a cute little embellishment from the dinosaur stuff of last year. 

Oh, and by the way, the photo below shows what the cards should look like if I'd followed the directions. What fun is that??

Scenic

Smiles.

HAPPY DAY

Some images just beg to be embossed. The beautiful rose stems, from the Flowering Blooms set on page 70 of the current Annual Catalog, is just one of those images. (Hurry! It's retiring!)

Stamped in VersaMark ink, then heat embossed iin gold embossing powder, enabled this image to be a wonderful focal point.

One of the designs from the Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper on page 148 of the Annual Catalog makes a simply beautiful background for the rose. (But hurry! It's retiring!)

The simple sentiment, also embossed in gold, comes from the Itty Bitty Grettings set on page 44 of the Annual Catalog. (Hurry! It's retiring!)

Following I will treat you to a tutorial on how to recreate this card. But HURRY! Several of the products are retiring!!

SUPPLIES:

Brushed gold cardstock (non-Stampin' Up!)

Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper (page 184, Annual Catalog -- retiring!)

Basic White cardstock

Flowering Blooms (page 70, Annual Catalog -- retiring!)

Itty Bitty Greetings (page 44, Annual Catalog -- retiring!)

VersaMark ink

Heat Tool 

Gold Embossing Powder

Die Cutting machine

Stitched Rectangles dies (page 183, Annual Catalog)

Gold Metallic Pearls (page 156, Annual Catalog -- in the new catalog!)

DIRECTIONS:

This card base is not Stampin' Up!. Sorry. It is a brushed gold cardstock that measures 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", and creased at the center.

Onto this gold card base, adhere a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Designer Series Paper from the Forever Greenery pack.

On a scrap of white cardstock, stamp the roses from the Flowering Blooms set in VersaMark ink. Cover the stamping with gold embossing powder. Use the heat tool to heat the embossing..

Use the die that measures 1 5/8" x 3 5/8" from the Stitched Rectangles set to cut out the embossed roses.

Add this to a piece of the brushed gold cardstock that measures 2" x 4". Use Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere this to the card front, leaving about 1" of space at the bottom of the DSP.

On a 1/2" x 1 3/8" piece of white cardstock, stamp a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Greetings set in VersaMark ink and emboss it in gold to match the roses. Add this to the bottom of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Add three of the Gold Metallic Pearls to the white surrounding the roses.

Rosy

Smiles.