Sometimes the simplest of ideas take time to bring together. Take this morning for instance. I woke up knowing that I was going to use the new Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set to create a background for a card. But then I thought I’d add embellishments by stamping flower and leaf images from the set and punching them out with the coordinating punches. But when I chose my sentiment from the free Special Moments (Sale-A-Bration Host) Stamp Set all that went out the window. The end result was something much simpler.

BACKGROUND SWIRLS

I began with the large image from the Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set and a 3-7/8″ x 5-1/8″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. I wanted to use a rich colour and so settled on Merry Merlot. Then I simply stamped the image around the edge of the card to create a wide border.

I had already decided that the swirls would form the coordinating feature for my project so carried on with the same stamp and ink. First I stamped the swirls over the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope. Then I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card and stamped across the top left and bottom right corners.

My original idea had me just using Very Vanilla and Merry Merlot for my colour scheme. However at this point I decided to add a third colour, Misty Moonlight.

Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored some Misty Moonlight Card. Then I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create a card base. With that done I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to add the slightly larger Very Vanilla piece to the inside.

Before attaching the main Very Vanilla piece to the card front I first wanted to mount it onto Merry Merlot Card. So I cut a piece 4″ x 5-1/4″ and fixed the stamped background on top with liquid glue. Then I added the assembled layers to the front of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

All I needed now was a sentiment and for that I turned to the Special Moments Stamp Set. From the 21 sentiments in the set I chose “for someone who is Wonderful in each and every way”.

Using Merry Merlot ink I stamped the sentiment in the centre of a 2-1/4″ x 3-1/2″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. Then I mounted it onto a 2-3/8″ x 3-5/8″ layer of Merry Merlot Card with liquid glue. Next I used more liquid glue to fix the layers onto a 2-5/8″ x 3-7/8″ piece of Misty Moonlight Card. Finally I attached the assembled sentiment to the centre of my stamped background and the card was complete.

Despite the fact that this wasn’t what I set out to make today, I absolutely love this project. The combination of colours and shapes makes it a definite masculine / gender neutral card. I like how the different border widths are repeated on the sentiment and background layers. It’s also a design that would work well for lots of different occasions with a simple change of sentiment. I hope you like this one as much as I do. Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

PRODUCT LIST

SALE-A-BRATION – With 21 sentiments the Special Moments Stamp Set probably covers most occasions you’d ever need. I love the combination of fonts and sentiment sizes too. Sadly this stamp set is not available to buy, but rather can be yours for FREE during Sale-A-Bration (January 4th to February 28th). Simply place an order for $120CAD (before shipping and taxes) and select this stamp set as your free item. By the way, on the stamp case the sentiments are shown at 95% of their actual size.

COORDINATING PUNCHES – I mentioned that the Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set has coordinating punches although I didn’t end up using them today. In case you are interested, the coordinating punches are the Strawberry Builder Punch and the Flowers & Leaves Punch.