At long last colour is returning to the gardens and hedgerows. I love watching new plants emerge and flower, and then give way to others as the season progresses. For us spring is predominantly a time for dandelions with the ‘lawn’ in front of the house a sea of yellow. I must admit that since moving to rural Nova Scotia my opinion of dandelions has changed dramatically. No longer are they weeds that must be eradicated using any and all means at my disposal. But rather they are the first food for bees that will eventually pollinate locally grown crops. Eventually, once other food sources are blooming, we do mow the grass. That allows other ‘wild flowers’ to appear, my favourite is the daisy.

While I do like the small lawn daisy, there’s a much taller plant that mysteriously appeared in our garden. I’ve no idea what it is, but the large daisy-like flowers look amazing in the wildflower meadow we’ve been encouraging behind the house. So that’s what inspired today’s project, using the appropriately named Meadow Dies.

DAISY DETAIL

While I could have used coloured card, I wanted something much softer so I decided to cut everything from Thick Basic White Card.

I began by die-cutting the daisy shape using my Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. Also included in the Meadows Dies there’s a couple of small scalloped oval dies and I cut one of those too.

Next, without removing the die-cut pieces from the surrounding card, I then set to work adding colour with Blending Brushes. For the stem, leaves and bud I chose Evening Evergreen, lighter in some places and darker in others. Then on the tiny oval I used Pale Papaya.

Once I’d finished adding the ink, I fixed the tiny oval onto the white daisy head with a little Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). Then I set the daisy aside while I worked on the tag base.

TAILOR MADE TAGS

One of my ‘must have’ products from the Stampin’ Up! 2021/2022 Annual Catalogue is the Tailor Made Tags Dies. This set of dies cuts eight sizes of tag bases (four each in two different designs). Also included are two dies that cut small pieces to reinforce the holes at the top of the tags. Like the Meadows Dies, all the dies in the Tailor Made Tags set fit through the Mini Cut & Emboss Machine.

For today’s tag I chose the #4 (largest) tag with the flat top and oval hole, plus the solid die for the corresponding reinforcing pieces. Then I die-cut the pieces from Thick Basic White Card.

I wanted the white daisy to show up against the tag base so before going any further I pulled out my Blending Brushes again. This time I added a light layer of Night of Navy ink over the surface of the tag base. Then I took two of the die-cut reinforcing pieces and used the Blending Brush to colour these with Night of Navy ink too. In the end I made them much darker than the tag base so they’d stand out.

Finally with the die-cutting and inking done, it was time to put everything together.

I began by choosing the “It’s your day” sentiment from the Days To Remember Stamp Set. Then using Evening Evergreen ink to match the daisy stem, I stamped it in the bottom left corner of the tag.

Next, using liquid glue, I fixed the two hole reinforcing pieces to the back and the front of the tag. Then I glued the assembled daisy at an angle across the tag base.

That just left the white twine from the Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack. After threading it through the reinforced hole at the top of the tag I tied it in a simple knot and I was done.

I really love how this tag turned out. It would be perfect used on a card front too. What do you think?

This isn’t the first project I’ve made using the Meadow Dies, but so far it’s my favourite. You’ll find another project using these dies in my blog post Meadow Dies work without stamped images.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Meadow Dies with the coordinating Quiet Meadow Stamp Set (not used today). This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle below in case you want to explore this option.