Today’s card is one I made last October as part of my personal ‘24 cards in 24 hours’ challenge to mark World Card Making Day. It has a simple layout but involves a couple of ink techniques to add extra interest. For the stamping I chose a sentiment and a couple of the image stamps from the Sending Smiles Stamp Set. While making the 24 cards I tried to vary the colours and designs, but for this one I couldn’t resist using purple which is my favourite colour of all.

SENDING LOVE

I began by cutting a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card. Then I chose the large ‘Sending’ sentiment from the Sending Smiles Stamp Set. Large bold sentiments like this are ideal for an ombre technique. So using the brush tip of the Fresh Freesia Stampin’ Write Marker (from the Subtles collection), I coloured the top half of the stamp. Next I took the Highland Heather marker and used the brush tip to colour across the middle of the word, overlapping the Fresh Freesia a little. Finally from the Regals Stampin’ Write Markers I chose Gorgeous Grape and coloured along the bottom of the letters. With that done I breathed on the stamp surface to re-moisten the ink then stamped the word onto the Basic White layer. Finally I completed the sentiment by stamping “love & big hugs” using Gorgeous Grape ink in the regular way.

Now I chose the 6 petal flower from Sending Smiles and using Gorgeous Grape ink, stamped it above the sentiment. Then without reinking I stamped the flower twice more, overlapping them slightly. After reinking the stamp I stamped it twice below the sentiment to give me two different shades. Finally, I stamped the small centres on each flower using Daffodil Delight ink.

With the stamped design complete I chose the crosshatch design from the Basics 3D Embossing Folders pack and embossed the layer so the smoother side of the embossing was on the stamped side.

COORDINATING FLOWERS

After putting the embossed piece aside I used my Paper Trimmer to cut and score some Thick Basic White Card to create an A2 card base. Then I folded the card along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Finally, keep things really simple I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to mount the embossed layer straight onto the front.

Now I needed to decorate the inside of the card and for that I cut another 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card. Using the same technique from the card front I stamped a cluster of three flowers in the bottom right corner. Then I glued the layer inside the card base.

Finally I stamped a cluster of three flowers in the bottom right-hand corner on the front of a Basic White Medium Envelope. And just like that my card project was complete.

For another project using this same stamp set and embossing folder see my earlier blog post Smiles & sadness.

PRODUCT LIST

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES – The Basics 3D Embossing Folders (pack of 3 different designs including the one used today) are part of the Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives range. All Online Exclusive items are subject to availability and may be discontinued without warning. Look out for more items being added to the Online Exclusives range on March 5th.

If you like the Sending Smiles Stamp Set you may be interested in the coordinating Sending Dies (not used today). However, while the stamp set and dies are still both current, they are no longer available as a discounted bundle.