Forever Greenery Surprised Me

After yesterday’s hectic day I decided to take it a little easier this morning. However I hadn’t planned to take it so easy that my blog would be two hours late! I’m so sorry if your morning coffee when cold while you were waiting. In my defence I was playing with the new Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper and got totally absorbed. My original card idea wasn’t turning out how I’d hoped so I just started playing. Before I knew it I had a design that I absolutely love. I hope you think the wait was worth it.

Card with "hello" sentiment from the Forever Fern Stamp Set with leafy embellishments created using the Forever Greenery DSP and Forever Flourishing Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

ENVELOPE FIRST

My aim for today’s project was to show you the new Forever Greenery 1″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP). So I chose a pretty design and cut a 2-1/4″ x 6″ piece. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I attached the DSP to the flap of a Whisper White Envelope. I finished off by trimming the paper with Paper Snips using the edge of the flap as a guide.

So now I was committed to using that design. As I looked at the pattern I saw a couple of leafy stems that looked familiar. So I pulled out another part of the Forever Greenery Suite; the Forever Flourishing Dies. To my delight I found that two of the dies matched the DSP pattern exactly. So of course I simple had to cut them out.

Some of the designs in the Forever Greenery DSP can be cut using the Forever Flourishing Dies from Stampin' Up! #papercraftwithme

MORE DIE CUT PIECES

That got me started and I used more dies from the set to cut out some Vellum Cardstock and Champagne Foil Sheet. Now I had the makings of a leafy embellishment so I didn’t want to ‘lose’ it on a busy background.

At this point I abandoned by idea of having a large piece of the Forever Greenery DSP on the front of my card. Instead I pulled out the Stitched Rectangle Dies.

TIP – To make explanations and project notes easier I separate the 13 dies in the Stitched Rectangles into 3 distinct groups. Group A is the squarish die, B has the 4 long thin nesting dies, and C is the remaining 8 dies that nest together. Then I number each one in each group counting up from the smallest.

So from Pretty Peacock Card I cut a rectangle using the #C3 die. Then I used the #C2 die to cut some of the new Just Jade Card.

For my “hello” sentiment I turned to the Forever Fern Stamp Set. Using Pretty Peacock ink I stamped the sentiment onto some Thick Whisper White Card. Then I die-cut that piece using the #B1 die from Stitched Rectangles.

SIMPLE LAYERS

Now I had pile of die-cut pieces I was ready to assemble my card.

Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored some Thick Whisper White Card. I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create the card base.

Then using liquid glue I fixed the Pretty Peacock piece to the card front. On top of that with Stampin’ Dimensionals I placed the Just Jade panel. Finally with more Stampin’ Dimensionals I added the sentiment layer. However to make the next step a little easier I was careful not to put a Stampin’ Dimensional too close to the left end.

With the layers in place all I had to do was tuck the remaining die-cut pieces under the end of the sentiment. I really wanted the elements to lift naturally so I use Mini Glue Dots to fix each one in place just where it sat under the sentiment strip.

To complete my card I cut a 3/4″ piece of the DSP and fixed it along the bottom edge of a layer of Whisper White Card. Then I glued that inside the card base and I was finally finished.

Oh my goodness, I love how clean and elegant this card looks. There’s a simple colour palette, lots of white space and just a touch of shine. It’s interesting without being too fussy and I definitely want to make more.