Last weekend I was working at a local bazaar that sells home baking and handcrafted items. It’s where I sell a lot of my finished cards and projects and get to meet the lovely people who purchase them. Although I try to keep a good variety of cards in stock, I wasn’t able to help a lady looking for a simple anniversary card (I only had ones for silver and golden anniversaries). So today I decided to remedy that by making this floral card using the Artisan Sketched Garden Designer Series Paper (DSP).

I began by roughly cutting a vase of flowers from a sheet of the Artisan Sketched Garden (DSP to colour in using Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. For the water I used light Pool Party, then added horizontal lines of dark Pool Party down each side. Next I coloured the leaves with light Peaceful Pine before adding a little dark Peaceful Pine to add some depth. I coloured the flowers with light and dark Fresh Freesia, and finished off with dark Highland Heather. Finally, just to add a little subtle sparkle I went over the flower heads with a Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.

With the colouring done I set to work fussy cutting around the edges of the image. While I’m not averse to some fiddly bits, I decided to ignore the white areas between the flowers and the top of the ‘water’, and set the piece aside while I put together the card base.

SKETCHED AND CAMOUFLAGED

For the A2 card base I first cut a 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Fresh Freesia Card. With the long side at the top I scored the card at 4-1/4″, folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then I went searching for some wood effect paper and found it in the Waterside Retreat DSP pack. I cut a strip of the paper 2″ x 5-1/2″ together with a 2-1/8″ x 5-1/2″ piece of Highland Heather Card. Using liquid glue I fixed the DSP onto the card layer leaving a 1/8″ border down the right-hand side. Then I glued the layers to the front of the card base up against the crease.

Next I cut a piece of Basic White Card using the #6 (largest) circle die from the Stylish Shapes Dies. Then using a Blending Brush I added a layer of Lemon Lolly ink to to the die-cut circle. However as I laid the fussy-cut vase on the circle I wasn’t happy with how much the white areas left on the die-cut piece stood out. So I grabbed my Blending Brush and simply added a light layer of Lemon Lolly ink to those areas as well.

At last I was happy and glued the vase to the left edge of the die-cut circle. Then using Basic Black Hybrid ink I stamped “Happy Anniversary” from the Phrases and Frames Stamp Set beside the vase. There was quite a bit of the sentiment layer ’empty’ so I decided to add three clear embellishments from the Ladybug Garden Epoxy Shapes. Now that was complete I added the assembled sentiment to the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

However my project wasn’t quite done. I cut cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card along with a 3/4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of the wood effect paper. Using liquid glue I fixed the DSP down the right-hand edge of the white card, then glued the layer inside the card base.

Finally I cut a 2-1/4″ x 6″ piece of the wood effect paper and glued it to the flap of a Basic White Medium Envelope. Then once I’d trimmed off the excess paper with scissors using the edge of the flap as a guide I was finished. I love the combination of the purples and yellow which really give off summer vibes. I hope you like it too.

STAMPIN’ DREAMS BLOG HOP

So now it’s time for the rest of the Summery Stampin’ Dreams Blog Hop. Click on the links below to see what other Demonstrators have been creating with their Stampin’ Up! products.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS: I bought the Phrases & Frames Stamp Set and coordinating Dies (not used today) using a single ‘bundle’ item number. Doing so meant I saved 10% off the price of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle so you can explore this option further if you wish.