I often talk of getting the best bang for your buck when it comes to crafting products. For me that means things that have a variety of uses and/or coordinate with something I already have. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve shown you some new coordinating stamp sets, dies and paper, and today it’s the turn of the Penned Flowers Dies.
TILED BACKGROUND
Before getting to the Penned Flowers Dies though, I first needed to create the card base and simple layers.
Using my Paper Trimmer I began by cutting a piece of Night Of Navy Card. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.
For the background I chose a the tiled pattern in Night of Navy from the Neutrals 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) Assortment. First I cut a 2-3/8″ x 6″ piece and fixed it to the flap of a Basic White Medium Envelope using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow). Then I trimmed off the excess paper with Paper Snips, using the edge of the flap as a guide.
I cut my second piece of DSP at 3/4″ x 3-5/8″ and glued it near the top of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card. Then I fixed the assembled piece inside the card base.
My final piece of DSP was cut to 3-5/8″ x 4-7/8″ then I glued it to a 3-3/4″ x 5″ piece of Basic White Card. However I wasn’t quite ready to attach it to the card base so I set it aside while I worked on the main decoration.
PENNED FLOWERS
Instead of a stamped image or one cut from DSP I decided this card would feature flowers made from paper-pieced card. I’m still exploring the new 2021-2023 In Colors so out came the Fresh Freesia and Soft Succulent Card.
I began by choosing the individual flower dies from the Penned Flowers Dies set. There’s one large one, two medium flower dies and three smaller ones, and I wanted all six. First I placed the dies onto some Fresh Freesia Card and ran them through my Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. Then I set all the cut pieces aside while I continued working.
Next I pressed the Fresh Freesia ink pad onto the surface of the remaining card to make it slightly darker. Then I used the same Penned Flowers Dies to cut out six more flowers.
With the flower pieces ready I chose three leaf dies and cut one of each from Soft Succulent Card and set the pieces aside. Then I pressed the Soft Succulent ink pad onto the card to make it slightly darker, before cutting out another set of leaves using the same three dies.
Now came the fiddly bit, fixing the various pieces onto the background layer that I’d set aside earlier. I started with the outside parts of the leaves in the lighter card, attaching them with liquid glue. Then I took the centre parts of the leaves from the darker die-cut pieces and inserted them into the lighter leaves.
Once the leaves were done I repeated the process combining the outside parts of the lighter flowers with the inside details from the darker ones. I wasn’t going to waste the other parts of the die-cut pieces though. I simply put them in an envelope so I could use them on another project.
CONGRATULATIONS
Now all I had left to do was add a sentiment and I chose “Congratulations” from the coordinating Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set.
Using Night of Navy ink I stamped the simple sentiment onto a 3/8″ strip of Thick Basic White Card. Then using Stampin’ Dimensionals I added it to the decorated layer.
Finally I used more Stampin’ Dimensionals to fix the completed layer onto the front of the card base and my project was done.
I love paper-piecing as a way to get bold areas of colour without actually doing any colouring. It can be fiddly some times, but I think the finished result makes it worth the effort. What do you think?
For some other projects using the Penned Flowers Dies and coordinating Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set see these earlier blog posts:
PRODUCT LIST
BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set and coordinating Penned Flowers Dies using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the two items separately. I’ve included both options below so you can compare them if you wish.
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