Painted Labels Dies – ConstantlyCreating.Me

A “For the Ladies” (Friendship) Card Using Beautifully Braided and Path of Petals Sets for the Tuesday Blog Hop with Amy K

Missing friends lately? Here’s an easy card you can make to remind your special relationships that they’re not forgotten!

Welcome, welcome! Despite coronvirus and economic shutdown and crazy March/April weather nationwide, it is somehow once again time for the Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Stamp with Amy K (Amy Koenders). I’m back today with a friendship card that’s perfect for reaching out during this very odd time in our lives. Today’s blog hop is “for the ladies,” so it was created with my best friends in mind, to celebrate those relationships we’re grateful for and miss having in person right now. Thanks for following along today and stopping in on my page.

I woke up with a layout idea in my head about corner designs that I’ve never really tried before, and I was determined to give it a go. I’ve been working on an editorial project this week, so I didn’t have a lot of extra time to play around with creativity. It was more like “I only have [this much time], so I need to come up with something doable the first time around, and I need to do it now.” No pressure, right? With the layout and only the sketchiest of ideas in mind, I set to finding things that fit. I knew I wanted flowers. I always go to flowers, especially for women. They just brighten up my whole day and make me smile, and who wouldn’t want to make their friends smile?

Side note: you know, it’s always interesting to think about the creative process. At which points do you make decisions and proceed with them regardless of what happens during the interim? When do you redirect and try a different idea, after the first one brings contention? That’s sort of what happened to me here. In my head, I saw a landscape card with the top left and bottom right holding the flowers with the sentiment piece in the middle of the front. I had different options I could use for the background, embossing folders and stamps alike. And though the creative soul in me wanted to try several of the options to see what I liked best, I just kind of had to start with something and go with it.

I tried the Birch background stamp in Sahara Sand first since flowers make me think of trees and the rest of nature. (And because the embossing folder I really wanted to use is no longer current.) Here’s where I had to decide whether to proceed or redirect. I just could not get that stamp to line up correctly to do two beside each other in a horizontal fashion—the pattern on birch trees go horizontally, but the stamp is a portrait. The stamp isn’t big enough to cover one horizontal card front. And it’s not a photopolymer stamp to be able to line it up correctly. I tried to stamp it freehanded. I tried to do it using the Stamparatus. I both eyeballed and measured and frowned when necessary. I came close—but not close enough. And I decided I was tired of ruining cardstock. So rather than waste more time, I picked the one that came out the best and decided it was time to head a different direction.

The cardstock happened to be Very Vanilla, so that determined which shade and style I was going to be using. I cut off the cardstock and glued it on top of a new portrait card base (because I’d gotten ink on the other side of the first card base, of all things). I was suddenly stumped about how to arrange the rest of this card. It shouldn’t have been that hard, but the layout flip was messing with me and I couldn’t agree with myself about what would look like my original idea or what to use. I didn’t like any of it. The size was wrong. There was too much white space behind where I imagined the flowers (that I couldn’t commit to). Or the flowers were warring with the Birch background. All I knew was that I wanted to visibly set off the corners and perhaps also see a smaller diagonal strip and edge border extending from them. So I redirected again.

I kept the card base portrait style but started looking for Designer Series Paper to cover up the corners instead. As a longtime scrapbooker, I tend to fall back on DSP. I grabbed my 6×6 paper shares of current DSP, looking for something that would provide balance and grounding behind flowers. I thought one of the designs in the Perennial Essence DSP—one of the ones that remind me of a galaxy—would work for that job. So I took my little 6×6 square and looked for two blue corners that didn’t include many flowers on it, lopped off a corner where it worked, and then measured that corner against the rest of the DSP square to mark off and cut another for the opposite side. I glued down the blue corners on top of the birch background and stared at it. And decided that I didn’t like the stark color difference of the light background and the very dark corners. Any flowers I tried on top just didn’t please me. Frustration was building once more.

And then I saw it—paper that is so pretty, I almost want to weep. I’ve barely used it myself, other than cutting up some of the papers to give away at a party I demoed last fall. The Pressed Petals Specialty DSP has a paper in it with gorgeous blue flowers on burlap. Blue flowers that matched my Perennial Essence corners. …And then I realized that my last two little squares of that paper had flowers on them. Yes, I know I just said that. Light bulb moment—problem solved. No stamping needed! (This is why I love paper. 🙂 ) Rather than stamping and/or die-cutting flowers, I could merely cut out the ones in front of me and use those on the card, saving time and frustration! And so I did. I rough fussy-cut around one of the smaller blue flowers on my paper and one of large focal flower bunches. Usually I’m much more precise but the non-exactness went well with the rustic feel of the paper and I didn’t worry about it.

Then I had to finish the corners. With the blue galaxy already glued down, I did some mental aerobics and finally decided to offset the corners to show some of the blue and also work in the burlap. I took the square I’d cut into and sliced off the parts of the burlap paper left for the corners (which had a little bit of flowers too) by measuring it up against the corners already on the card. I then left a quarter of an inch margin showing when I glued them down. But that left a jagged edge on each side of the two corners, which felt odd. Here I went back to the layout in my head—I had already been thinking of using vellum to provide another smaller border coming out of the corner toward the center, along with some sort of decorative edge. But the elements were starting to fill up the card, and I wasn’t sure the sizing would work. Since I couldn’t quit looking at the jagged edges of both corners together, I decided to fill in those places with Petal Pink vellum from the Perennial Essence Vellum pack instead, so that’s why the corners are a little different. Accidentally on purpose, I guess. I also used that same vellum shade for the decorative border extending from the corners, and the die is from the Painted Labels dies.

After that it was just a matter of arranging where the bouquet and smaller flower went. I’m still not wild about my final placement of the large bouquet and my tags, but I love the location of the smaller flower next to the tag. In the end I saw that the large bouquet had a straight edge on it from where the paper was cut, so I just lined that up against my card edge, popped it up with 3D foam dots, and stuck it down, after figuring out the placement of the two tags from the Stitched So Sweetly dies with the smaller flowers. I should have brought the tags to the left a little more but I liked how the smaller flower sizes fit neatly into the corner and overlapped the tag. I did pop up the top layer of the tag with the sentiment. 🙂 I cut a piece of the Petal Pink vellum for the larger sentiment tag to give the Very Vanilla sentiment a bit of border and color as well.

I stamped the “Friendship refreshes the soul” sentiment from the Beautifully Braided stamp set in Sahara Sand ink as well as the inside sentiment (“Here’s to always finding joy in one another’s laughter, warmth in one another’s embrace, and love in one another’s love”) from the Path of Petals stamp set. I’ve used the inside sentiment for wedding cards before, but tonight, at least, I think it works for special friendships too. I “painted” the fussy-cut flowers with Clear Wink of Stella to give them some sparkle and added a little bow with our Linen Thread. And I used the Night of Navy Noble Peacock Rhinestones on the card front as well as little Gold Glitter Enamel Dots for the flower centers just for fun.

In the inside of the card, I used the Petal Pink vellum as a background for my sentiment. I just put a little bit of liquid glue underneath the words so that the glue wouldn’t show through. The glue on the back side of the Petal Pink, attaching it to the card base, doesn’t seem to be showing at all because of the layers. The inside sentiment is actually stamped in Blueberry Bushel ink on the tiny-flowered vellum and was heat-set on both sides briefly so that the vellum wouldn’t warp. And then I fussy-cut one last little flower and glued it with a Gold Glitter enamel off the side of the sentiment.

It was nice to feel that my forward progress and my redirections finally made something I actually liked to see. The card has a shabby chic sort of feel to it, which I haven’t made for a while. I may make more of these now that I’ve worked out all the kinks in placement logistics. Hope it inspires you to do one of your own (without all the creative grief!). You can find all the supplies I used on my card in my online store at https://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/default.aspx.

Please continue through the hop to see the awesome projects some of my teammates have made for you this week! It’s a very talented team. Pressing the “Previous” button will take you back to Karen, and “Next” will move you on to Mary. Thanks again for visiting!

https://wp.me/paaNf4-1V2 https://wp.me/p5snyt-cpO

Karen Ksenzakovic–https://wp.me/paaNf4-1V2
Connie Troyer–You Are Here!
Mary Deatherage–https://wp.me/p5snyt-cpO
Akiko Sudano–https://wp.me/paOv8E-13G
Leslie Larkin–https://leslielarkin.com/young-at-heart/
Karen Finkle–https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2020/04/stampin-up-garden-lane-quilted-card-for.html
Julie Johnston–https://wp.me/p8SzmQ-2jk
Amy Koenders–https://wp.me/p2SFwf-j9H

Flowery Eiffel Tower Love Card with Stampin’ Up’s Forever Blossoms, Parisian Beauty, and Last a Lifetime for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Blog Hop

Enjoy a bit of France and flowers as we gear up for all things “love-ly” for Valentine’s Day!

Whew! That’s a long blog title. (And I didn’t even add all the stamp sets!) Maybe you know by now that my preferred style is lots of details and fuss—complication is somehow my specialty. I’ve used all current Stampin’ Up products in my card today, and there are quite a few. Thank you so much for coming to my post! Thumbnails of the products I used will be at the end of post, and clicking them will take you to my online store for more details.

The theme for Stamp with Amy K’s blog hop for this month is “love.” Well, I have a “love” for all things France, so when I was thinking about current Stampin’ Up product I already own that I could create with, of course I turned to the Eiffel Tower. And flowers. I love flowers too. They’re my go-to any time of year. I didn’t have anyone particularly in mind when I created this card; it will likely go to my local gift shop for sale soon. The idea of it came to me while I was driving the other day. The background has changed since, but ideas do that in this craft room. 🙂

I started with an A2 (4.5″ x 5.5″) Thick Whisper White card base and then eyeballed and cut a slightly smaller separate piece of regular Whisper White for a layer on the top. The margin difference is between 1/8″ and 1/16″ because one was too big and the other was too small. I dry-embossed this separate piece with the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder first in one direction, and then I flipped the paper and embossed it in the other direction, which gives it a crosshatched look. I tucked a piece of 1/4″ Petal Pink Metallic-Edge Ribbon around the edges slightly higher than the middle, gluing them on the back side, and then glued my embossed piece down to the card base. (Well, technically, I did a lot of the steps backward, including that part, but do as I say, not as I did!)

The focal part of my card front is the large flower stamp from the Forever Blossoms Cling Stamp Set, surrounded by an embossed die-cut made from the Heirloom Frames Dies and Heirloom Frames 3D Embossing Folders, with the Eiffel Tower stamp from the Parisian Beauty Cling Stamp Set and die-cut flowers from the Cherry Blossoms Dies offset to the side.

I knew I wanted to use Alcohol Blends on the flowers and leaves, but I don’t like coloring large sections with the Blends and making lines, so I felt like watercoloring the background would be best for me. I used the Balmy Blue watercolor pencil in the Assortment 2 pack and an Aqua Painter. (Truthfully, I forgot to color the background until after I’d already distractedly glued the piece to the back of the oval once my flowers were done, so don’t do that. Color it all first; then cut and glue.) Since we can use Memento Tuxedo Black to hold in the colors of the alcohol markers BUT Memento is water-based and will run when touched with water during watercoloring, I decided I’d better heat-emboss some embossing powder on the image after stamping with VersaMark so that I could do both techniques. I’d wanted to try out Stampin’ Up’s new Shimmer White and Shimmer Black Stampin’ Emboss Powders anyway.

I’m actually really impressed with those new embossing powders. I didn’t expect to see the holographic flecks in them, and that feature turns out some neat highlights. The Shimmer White is, of course, white when embossed, but there’s also a mix of silver and holographic flecks that don’t meld together when heated, unlike the white and black colors themselves. And the Shimmer Black includes flecks of silver, magenta, green, blue, and something yellowy that sit subtly on top of the black. The ones in the black are very hard to pick up in the lighting when showing a card, but they’re fun to see. After I heat-embossed the Eiffel Tower with the Shimmer Black, I think my jaw actually fell open—it looked like it was sparkling with diamonds!

When I was working on the oval, I had trouble getting the embossing perfectly centered in the die-cut, and that bothered me—and it also took up more of the card front that way, room I needed—so I trimmed off the excess around the crimped part. It lays flatter now anyway without the extra border edge. Once I had that done, I used it to figure out how I wanted to show my flowers inside it. They are stamped at an angle. I actually had a different angle chosen, but I didn’t glue it in the same way I had set it, so watch that if you do it. Mark a place at the top so you don’t twist it too far to the side. I cut a small section of Shimmery White Cardstock for the flowered piece, which you can see some of in the blue background in closeups. This card is quite shimmery everywhere you look!

To color the flowers, I used my Dark Petal Pink, Light Granny Apple Green, and Dark Granny Apple Green Alcohol Blends, as well as the Color Lifter. I tried to work with the Ivory too, but I had to lift the color right out of it because it felt too dark on the buds I colored. (I used to have a Light Petal Pink Blend and wanted to use it, but at the last show where I was a vendor, the cap didn’t get put back on correctly and I didn’t catch it until it had already dried out. So I have to order a new one.) When I colored the flowers, I went over the centers and extended the color some with the Dark Petal Pink first, then lightly went over everything with the same marker, and then took the Color Lifter to the outside edges of the flowers or buds. I would have also liked to have left some white on the flowers to look more like the DSP in the Parisian Blossoms Specialty Designer Series Paper, but it just didn’t work out that way. The embossing on the flowers and leaves is really where all the shading and shadowing is, so it felt more like reverse coloring as I worked with it. There’s not a lot of space in the flowers that isn’t embossed. I did color right over the embossing, and it does not rub off (though I did not intentionally test that when it was wet).

The Parisian Beauty stamp set is one I won with my Prize Patrol number at November’s OnStage conference, and I hadn’t ordered the matching Parisian Dies yet because I already have a Bigz Eiffel Tower die and several stamp sets having to do with France. In my mind, I saw the SU die-cut at the side of the card and thought I had bought the set until I went looking and remembered. Stampin’ Up’s die-cut is much prettier than the other die I have, so I will be ordering the Parisian Dies after all. For today’s card, though, I had to fussy-cut the stamped/embossed image.

I used the Cherry Blossom dies for the flowers on top of the Eiffel Tower. The stamens and star center were cut out of Champagne Foil and the flowers themselves out of Petal Pink cardstock. I actually doubled the littlest blossom, sandwiching the foil in between to make sure it stayed where it was supposed to. I wanted the blossoms to curl up a bit and had to use the tip of my Tombow Mono Liquid Glue to get the curves I imagined, instead of my large ball tool that was “somewhere.” The dies emboss curving lines in the flowers when cut, as well.

I popped up the Eiffel Tower with Mini Dimensionals to help the height of the knot at the edge of the card, so some of the cherry blossoms on top of it are glued flat and some have been half glued flat and half popped up. The littlest blossom actually has two half Mini Dimensionals at the right and is glued on top of the others otherwise. I knotted a small bow with the 1/4″ Petal Pink Metallic-Edge Ribbon (the last of my sample from OnStage!) and used glue dots under it, on top of the ribbon that was wrapped around to the back, to keep it in place.

To finish the card front, I used the “Always thinking of you” sentiment from the Very Versailles Cling stamp set and stamped it in Jet Black Staz-On ink on a scrap of Thick Whisper White cardstock (with no embossing either way). The Staz-On ink seems darker than the Tuxedo Black Memento ink, and since I had such a dark Eiffel Tower, I didn’t want to go halfway on my ink. To my surprise and delight, my Simply Shammy removed the Staz-On ink from my stamp with just a little scrubbing. Now I don’t have to drag out the pungent Staz-On Cleaner and do the whole paper towel mess! Hooray!

I also used my new Paper Trimmer and even the new Mini Cutter to trim up the sentiment scrap and the first version of my Subtle-embossed piece. The Mini Cutter is only available to demonstrators and those who become demonstrators during Sale-a-Bration, so if you want one, you’ll need to sign up to get it and some other goodies (but I promise it’s worth it!).

The inside of the card is hiding an oops, but I got a lot more creative with what you see versus what I had, so I’m happy about that mistake. I used the largest of the Painted Labels Dies to cut my “label” for the sentiment out of Sahara Sand cardstock. I stamped the “Sending All My Love” sentiment from the Last a Lifetime Cling Stamp Set in Jet Black Staz-On, using my Stamparatus. And then I glued more Champagne Foil to three more blossoms of various sizes (star centers and stamens, both) to two corners of the label. I did not curve those blossoms. 🙂

All in all, I’m pretty happy with this card. I hope you like it too. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think or what you would have done differently—or any questions you may have. Just for fun, I’ve included a picture of the “clean and simple” version of this card to show you what it would look like without the flowers. Somehow it’s a very different feel! Nothing was glued down yet when I took the photo.

We have a very talented team creating for you today, so please “hop” around to the others on this list to see what they made! If you hit the “Previous” button, you’ll go back to Mary Deatherage’s blog, or you can go “Next” to Akiko Sudano’s offering. Both women create amazing cards! Or you can skip around with the links below—you’ll find many you like. 🙂

Karen Ksenzakovic – https://wp.me/paaNf4-1uG
Shirley Gentry – https://stampinwithshirleyg.com/?p=10221
Mary Deatherage – https://wp.me/p5snyt-aZ2
Connie Troyer – You are here!
Akiko Sudano – https://wp.me/paOv8E-KT
Jaimie Babarczy – https://wp.me/p79UhD-3wt
Karen Finkle – https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2020/01/stampin-up-parisian-beauty-for-amys.html
Sue Prather – https://wp.me/p5yitZ-1I8
Leslie Larkin – https://leslielarkin.com/heart-to-heart-bundle-for-amys-inkin-krew-team-blog-hop/
Amy Koenders – https://wp.me/p2SFwf-idu

And if you are interested in the products I used on this card, I’ve added them to the next list, and the thumbnails are direct links to my online store for more information or purchasing.

If you wish to purchase something from my online store, please use the host code WAA2PGYR during checkout. Orders of $50 before tax and shipping also gets you a free gift of your choice worth up to $8, from me to you as my thanks. 🙂 (You’ll also get a free Sale-a-Bration item from Stampin’ Up with every order of $50 before tax and shipping!) If you’re interested in becoming a demonstrator and want to sign up with a great time, I’d love to have you join mine—and Sale-a-Bration is the best time to do it! Recruits who join before March 31, 2020, will receive the brand-new (only available here) Mini Cutter (which is a guillotine-style trimmer), a 6″x6″ sampler pack of Designer Series Paper (48 sheets of most of the DSP from the Mini catalog), a free stamp set of their choice, $125 worth of items for $99, and more. I’ve never regretted it!