Today’s project marks a huge milestone for me and one I never imagined I reach. This congratulations card is my card design number 2,500. In fact I’ve probably made quite a few more than that as I didn’t start numbering them right away. I have to say that my skills have most definitely improved over the 8 years or so that I’ve been papercrafting. I’m still not sure I have a ‘style’, but this card, using the Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set and coordinating Penned Flowers Dies, is definitely a favourite.

PENNED FLOWERS

When I sat down to create today’s project I had in mind a colour scheme I’d seen somewhere. I should have photographed it but shades of blue, beige and cream are what I remember. So I began by pulling out a couple of blue and light brown ink pads and started playing. In the end I settled on Pool Party and Crumb Cake for the the main colours and started to play.

I decided to use a large floral image for my focal point, taken from the Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set. Then using Crumb Cake ink I stamped the image onto a scrap of Very Vanilla Card. Ordinarily I’d have reached for a green to colour the leaves but that wasn’t part of today’s colour palette. So instead I coloured the leaves and stem using light and dark Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. For the flowers I used light and dark Pool Party, with light Crumb Cake in the open centre.

With that done I cut out the completed flower using the coordinating die from the Penned Flowers Dies set.

Before putting away the stamps I chose the “congratulations” sentiment. Looking through my Very Vanilla Card scraps I found a 1/4″ x 2″ strip and stamped the sentiment onto it with Crumb Cake ink. Then I set the flower and sentiment aside while I prepared the rest of the pieces I needed.

For the card base I chose Crumb Cake Card. Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored the card. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.

SPLATTER TEXTURED LAYERS

Next I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card intended to line the inside of the card. However before gluing into place I needed to add some sort of decoration. My original plan had been to repeat the same floral stamped image but I’ve done that quite a bit recently. So that’s when I started looking for something different.

As I was looking through my embossing folders I came across a twin-pack called Stripes & Splatters 3D Embossing Folders. These are narrow embossing folders designed to fit the Mini Cut & Emboss Machine but then I had an idea.

I took the Very Vanilla layer and slid one of the long sides about 1″ into the embossing folder. Of course with the rest of the card sticking out of the folder, I had to place it sideways on the platform of my full-size Cut & Emboss Machine. Then I ran it through the machine to emboss just that 1″ strip. With that done I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the layer inside the card base.

Next I cut a 3″ x 3-3/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card and embossed the whole thing. I also embossed the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope. From there the rest of the card came together really quickly.

Going back to the small splatter embossed layer I glued the die-cut flower on top. Then I cut a 3-1/8″ x 3-7/8″ piece of Pool Party Card and glued the embossed piece on top of that.

Finally using Stampin’ Dimensionals I attached the layers to the card base, before finishing off with the sentiment.

I love how this card turned out. The colours are really pretty and the addition of the splatter texture adds just the right amount of interest. But what do you think? Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on this milestone design.

For a custom-inked background idea using this same flower image see my earlier blog post Hand penned flowers again.

PRODUCT LIST

STAMP-TACULAR ONE-DAY SALE – The Hand Penned Petals Stamp Set is just one of the stamp sets available at 15% off on Thursday September 15th. Check out the full list of stamp sets in the one-day sale. There’s no minimum order value and no code to add. But you will have to wait until September 15th!