It’s time for another simple Sunday project and this design is one I absolutely love. If it seems a little familiar I’m not entirely surprised, as it was inspired by an earlier project of mine. The decorative elements come from the Courage & Faith Stamp Set, while the beautifully scripted “thank you” is from Go To Greetings. Previously I used the two very similar leafy images to decorate a bookmark. Today though I really wanted to show how they’re also perfectly designed to create an elegant frame for any sentiment.

SIMPLE FRAME
I began with the Courage & Faith Stamp Set and choose the pair of more decorative leafy stems. These might seem like mirror images of each other but in reality there are slight differences between them. The most obvious way to tell them apart is with the stem end towards you one image curves to the right and one to the left. With that disctinction made I was ready to start stamping.
First I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card and took out an Early Espresso ink pad. Using the image that curves to the left, I stamped it around the top right corner. Then I stamped it around the bottom left corner. Now I needed the other image and I stamped that in the remaining two corners to create my frame.
Before putting away the stamps I cut another 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. This time I stamped the left-curving image just once, in the centre near the edge of one long side. Then I repeated this on the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope.
With that done I coloured them in very simply using just one set of Stampin’ Blends from the Natural Tones Range. From the Medium Light set I used the one marked SU700 to colour the ‘flowers’ on all my images. Then I switched to the one marked SU800 to colour all the ‘leaves’.
THANK YOU GREETINGS
Now the most complicated part was complete I turned to the Go To Greetings Stamp Set for my sentiment. The space inside the frame would be perfect for any of the large sentiments, but in the end I settled on “thank you”. Once I’d stamped it in the centre with Early Espresso ink I was ready to assemble my project.

For the A2 card base I cut a 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Early Espresso Card. Next, with the long side at the top I scored the card at 4-1/4″. After folding the card along the scored line I sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then, using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow), I fixed the ‘thank you’ layer onto the front of the card base leaving an even border on all sides.
Finally, using more liquid glue I added the other Very Vanilla layer to the inside of the card base and in minutes my project was complete.
This simple design is perfect for creating sets of cards. Just change the colour scheme and they could look very different. Will you try to make this card? Please leave a comment below and let me know how you get on.
For the original bookmark project mentioned, see my earlier blog post Natural Tones.
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