I love stamp sets and dies that coordinate. In fact when they’re available I tend to buy coordinating products using a ‘bundle’ item number so I can save 10%. Mind you, that doesn’t mean I always use coordinating products together. Oh no. In fact sometimes I go out of my way to see how these items can work by themselves. One of the die sets that really lends itself to this is the new Meadow Dies. that are available in a discounted bundle with the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set. However the dies don’t correspond with any of the stamped images, but are designed to work alongside the stamp set instead. So when I sat down to create today’s fancy fold card I chose the Meadow Dies to show you what I mean.

MEADOW DIES

My original idea was to use the Meadow Dies with the Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. Unfortunately I don’t have any of that to hand right now so I had to change my plan and use Basic White Card instead.

From the Meadow Dies I chose the single flower on a tall stalk. Then I ran it through my Mini Cut & Emboss Machine (all the Meadow Dies fit through the Mini machine). I also chose the open butterfly outline die and cut one of them too.

Next, instead of painting with ink, I opted to use Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers to colour in the die-cut pieces. On the flower head I used light and dark Pale Papaya. Then I used light and dark Evening Evergreen for the stem and leaves.

With the butterfly I started by scribbling some oval areas on the wings with a dark Polished Pink Stampin’ Blends marker. Then I went over the wings with the light and dark Fresh Freesia Stampin’ Blends. After giving that a minute to dry I used the dark Evening Evergreen marker to add some details to the wings. Finally I used the dark Evening Evergreen to colour the butterfly’s body, then set the flower and butterfly aside.

Z-FOLD CARD

I wanted to accentuate the tall flower so decided that a Z-fold card base would be ideal. This is basically a normal card base with the front folded back on itself. It also has the advantage of fitting into a standard envelope.

Using my Paper Trimmer I cut a 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ piece of Gray Granite Card. Then with the long side at the top I scored it at 4-1/4″. I flipped the card over so the other long side was at the top and scored it again, this time at 2-1/8″. Finally I folded the card along the scored lines to create the Z shape, before sharpening the creases with my Bone Folder.

To decorate the card I turned to the Subtles 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper Assortment. I chose a subtle plaid pattern in Soft Sea Foam as the pale green wouldn’t overpower the die-cut pieces.

I began by cutting one piece of the DSP at 2-1/4″ x 6″. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed it to the flap of a Basic White Medium Envelope. With that done I trimmed off the excess DSP with Paper Snips, using the edge of the flap as a guide.

For the card itself and I cut two more pieces of the DSP, each one 1-7/8″ x 5-1/4″. Then using more liquid glue I fixed the two pieces to my Z-fold card base. One piece was attached to the folded back (left) side and one to the visible section on the right. I thought about adding Basic White card to the inside, but Gray Granite is light enough to write on, so I didn’t bother.

Next came the die-cut and coloured flower. Now I realised I should have covered the card with Adhesive Sheet before I die-cut the flower. However as I hadn’t, I used liquid glue to fix the flower onto the left side of the card. That just left the sentiment.

QUIET MEADOW

Despite this being an exercise in using dies that don’t coordinate with a stamped image, I did find my sentiment in the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set. “Heartfelt love and caring thoughts are with you” was perfect in size and feeling so I went with that.

Using Evening Evergreen ink I stamped the sentiment onto a 1-5/8″ x 1-5/8″ piece of Basic White Card. Then I mounted it directly onto the right side of the card with liquid glue.

All that remained was the coloured die-cut butterfly and I wanted it to appear to have just landed on the card. To do this I folded the wings up on either side of the body, then put the butterfly face-down on my desk. Next I cut a Stampin’ Dimensional in half and put the pieces on the back of the wings, either side of the ‘body’. Then I removed the backing from the Dimensionals pieces, before adding a line of liquid glue along the butterfly’s body. Finally I flipped the butterfly over and attached it to the top of the sentiment, pressing along the body with the edge of my Bone Folder. With that my card was complete.

I love how this project turned out. It’s quite a simple layout but the die-cut pieces really add a sense of calm that works beautifully with the sentiment. The pieces of Stampin’ Dimensional under each side of the butterfly’s wings will ensure that they stay popped up unlike its body. What do you think?

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