Heartfelt Creations Flower Garden

Today I am participating in the Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop.   There are seven designers participating this month. If you came from Olga's blog you started at the beginning of the hop. As in the past, one lucky person leaving a comment on the participating blogs, will win a prize.

 I love working with all the fabulous Heartfelt Creations flower stamps.  They make it so easy to create beautiful dimensional flowers because they have matching Spellbinders dies.  Heartfelt Creations has a complete garden of all types of beautiful flower stamps.  The two Heartfelt Creations stamps sets I used today are "Flirty Fleurs PreCut Set" (HCPC 3439) and "Lilacs/Post Bouquest PreCut Set" (HCPC 3302).  The flowers in both these sets match  the Posy Patch Diecuts (HD 701).  The flowers were stamped with Memento black ink and colored with Distress Inks. Additional flowers were stamped and cut out to make them dimensional.  

Now it is time to see what see what Heartfelt Creations stamps the other designers have used.  The next stop on this Hop is Loretta.  Be sure to stop by all the blogs and leave a comment, because someone will be selected from comments left on one of the blogs to win a $25 gift certificate to Heartfelt Creations.  All comments must be in by Friday, Feb 2 at midnight and the winner will be announced at noon Saturday. 

All the products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens. 

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Butterflies and Roses

Today I designed a card using another sheet of the FabScraps design paper and two  of the new Marianne Design dies from Joan's Gardens.  The name of this design paper is "High Tea Purple Floral". I really love this design paper. I used one of the 12x12" sheets, which is double sided, so used both sides on this card.  The Marianne die on the lower left corner is the "Anja Edge" (LR0 202) and on the lower right side I used the Marianne "Anja Corner" (LR0 200).  The little roses were created, out of vellum, with the Cheery Lynn "Large Rose"(B 155) die.  The two butterflies are from the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterfly" (LD112) die set.  Kaiser Craft sticky back pearls were added to the Marianne die cuts, the butterflies and upper right corner.  To complete the card a pretty lavender silk bow was added.

All these products can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.  

Tomorrow morning I will be participating the the Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop.  Hope you will be back to see what I created this month.

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Welcome to the Neighborhood

Today I have a cute card for a new neighbor.  The tree on this card is a new die you can pre-order from Joan's Gardens.  Isn't it cute.  It is the Marianne Design (LR0 203) tree.  It was die cut twice - once using brown card stock and once using green.  The green leaves were cut off and glued to the brown tree.  I added a dot of glue to one area of the branches and that way as I cut off a leaf, I could place it in the same spot as it was cut off.  I decided to add a few flowers to the tree since Spring should be here soon.  Do you save small flowers, hearts, etc when you die cut a doily or a border?  I do.  I never know if I will use  them, but in this case the little flowers from the Cheery Lynn "Daisy Lace Bracelet" (DL 135) die were the perfect size to add to this tree.  I placed them on the Black Flower Shaping Mat and pressed down in the center with one of the tools from the Flower Tool Kit to give them a little dimension.              

To create the green background, I placed the new Marianne "LR0 202" border along the bottom of a long piece of green card stock that was as wide as the card,  and placed the Memory Box "Modern Landscape" (98257) die up around the middle and ran it thorough my die cutting machine.  The top was cut off above the Landscape.  I left the Marianne border attached to the upper piece and just pushed out the little pieces cut in the design.  A piece of the same green card stock was added behind the die cut design.  A piece of blue card stock was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and attached to the top of the card.  The die cut piece was attached over it.  The sentiment is from the "Homespun Birdhouse" Die-Namics stamp set.  The clouds were die cut using the Memory Box "Puffy Clouds" (98172) die.  

I have a basket of fresh strawberries I need to go clean and get ready for strawberry shortcake.  I'm looking forward to when we can go up to the strawberry fields and pick our strawberries -- yum, yum!

All the products I used can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

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Friendship Brewed to Perfection Plus a New Tool for Creating Rosebuds

Hope you are having a great weekend. Today I have designed a card using the new "Marianne Anja Corner" (LR0 200) and a new All My Favorite Things "Always Time For Tea, Die and Stamp Set" available from Joan's Gardens.  Yesterday I used the Anja Corner die in just one corner of my card, but today I have used it in both upper corners and cut a third one to place in the center.  The Flourish I used is the Die-namics "Fancy Flourish".  The doily used is the Marianne (CR1204) oval. 

Do you love tea pots?  If so, you are going to love this new stamp set from Joan's Gardens.  The "Always Time for Tea" stamp set has so many possibilities for creating a cute tea pot.  I have taken a picture of the set showing all the stamps to create different tea pots, many great sentiments, and also the dies.  Below the dies you can see three different ways I used the stamps to create different designs on the pot. It includes stamps to create different designs on the teapot or you can use the "teapot" stamp to stamp on design paper.  Between the different stamps and the die pieces, the possibilities are endless!  On my card today, I used a small piece of the "High Tea" design paper I used yesterday to stamp the tea pot on, then used the tea pot die to cut it out.  Only the lid, handle, spout, and bottom stamp, so I used VersaMark to stamp on the design paper and  used an old embossing powder I have had for a long time, called burgundy enamelware, to emboss.   The tea cup was die cut using the tea cup die, on a piece of the design paper.  Between the two die cut corners, I added a small, cut out rose, cut from the "High Tea" design paper.   A sentiment from this stamp set was stamped on a narrow strip of card stock and attached above the doily.  A few Kaiser Craft pearls were added to complete the card.

ANOTHER MINI TUTORIAL 

I promised to show you a new tool I discovered.  By accident yesterday, I came across this pair of special pliers in my crafting supplies that makes it easy to create a rosebud, plus helps shape rose petals.     Below is a picture.

These pliers have two totally round points.  This is a great addition to our Flower Tool Kit.   Instead of having to use a bead to shape the rosebud, I found that using this tool shapes the bud very easily.  Here is how I did it.

Start by adding glue to the petal.  Have the pointed end of the petal at the top.  Grip the petal on one side with the pliers and roll it around the closed pliers.

These pliers go down to a point, so when you roll the petal around, it starts shaping just like it did when you use the bead.  Roll another petal around having the point of the second petal on the opposite side, to created a closed pointed "center" of the bud.  You can add three pointed petals, if you want to created a more closed point.

Add glue to another petal, but this time the pointed end should be pointed "down".  I've added glue to the bottom half of this petal, placed the center of the bud in the center of this petal, and rolled the edges around.  If the glue gets on the pliers, it comes off easily when finished.

Continue to add more petals, in the same way alternating them as you go around, until you get the bud just the way (size) you want. Let the glue dry enough to stick together before adding another petal.  To pull the bud off the pliers, place your finger nail at the bottom edge of the bud, slightly open the pliers, and pull the bud off.   You can add the green leaves around the bud while it is still on the pliers, or after you have pulled it off.  

This is a picture of the first layer of the large rose.  The other thing I love about these pliers is that you can use them to roll the edges of the petals, either up or down to give them a realistic look without getting creases, because each side of the pliers is perfectly round.  I have used the self closing pliers to do this in the past, but found using this tool I got a more realistic roll and it is actually easier to get the perfect curl. 

One more thing these pliers are great for is rolling up the "cuties" die cut flowers from Cheery Lynn.  In order to get a "full" looking flower, Cheery Lynn suggests that you glue two strips of the cuties together, alternating the petals.  This makes it very hard too use a quelling tool because the slot in the quelling tool is not very wide.  These pliers work fantastic.  Just add some glue along the lower edge of the strip, pinch one end of it with the pliers and roll it up. These also work great when rolling the Memory Box rolled flowers. So quick and easy - I think you will love them!    You can order these pliers from Joan's Gardens.

As you know all the products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

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Purple Roses

 Today I created a card with a new die I have been so excited to use.  You can get this Marianne Design "Anja Corner" (LR0200) die from Joan's Gardens.  The design paper I used is FabScraps "High Tea Floral" (C41 001A). You can purchase this gorgeous design paper from Joan's Gardens. I love the purple roses in this paper so decided to try and create one of my roses using the Punch Bunch Super Giant Begonia Petals punch to match it.  The petals were punched using an off white lightweight card stock and sponged with Tim Holtz "Seedless Preserves" Distress Ink then lightly sponged with "Spun Sugar" Distress Ink to lightly blend the colors so they matched the roses in the design paper.  

The leaves and flourishes in the design paper are a Sage Green so I used a piece of pearlized sage green card stock to die cut the Marianne Design "Anja Corner".  I wanted to cut the design paper off right below the beautiful embossed corner, so I die cut the design paper and the card stock at the same time in order to match the corners.  I then used scissors to cut around the bottom edge of the embossing and trimmed off a 1/4" border all the way around the design paper.  These pieces were attached to a "Sand" colored 5.5" card.  A string of pearls was added along the cut edge of the design paper.  

I made a new discovery today that I am excited to tell you about tomorrow.  I found a new tool in my craft things that made it very easy to shape my rose and create the rosebud.  Be sure to come back tomorrow and I will have a tutorial showing you all the uses I found for this "new" tool.  The rose was created like the directions in my Rose tutorial.  The bud was created a little different and I will explain that tomorrow.  I used the Spellbinder Leaves and one of the Marianne "leaves" (LR0192) under the rose.  The sentiment is from the "My Favorite Things" Die-namics Polka Dot Greetings.  It was die cut with a Spellbinders Tag.  I used "Seedless Preserves" Distress Ink to stamp the sentiment. 

 A closeup of the Rose and Rosebud

If you haven't been over to see all the new Marianne Design and My Favorite Things added to Joan's Gardens, I think you will enjoying seeing all these new products.

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Aqua and White Flowers

Today I have designed a card using some older products from Joan's Gardens but also some of the new Marianne Design dies that she posted to her blog today.   I have taken pictures to help you see exactly the products I used and how I created this card.

For the beautiful embossed background, I used the Marianne Design (DS0911) embossing folder.  Since I have a portion of this embossed area covered up with a flower, I took a picture so you can see how beautiful this "Cut and Emboss" folder is.  Marianne Design makes the most beautiful embossing folder and your cards will always look very special when you use these gorgeous folders.

I wanted to make a "funky" flower today with polka dots.  I didn't have any design paper I wanted to use, so I made my own using a piece of the lightweight card stock Joan and I use to create our flowers.   I used this background stamp from the Studio 490 "Seriously Art" stamp set.  I like it because the dots are small and close together creating a very pretty Dotted Swiss design.  I used VersaMark Ink and white embossed them on the aqua card stock.  Since this is a long narrow stamp, it was easy to stamp as many repeat rows as I wanted.  I used a portion of this background to die cut the center flower and also used a strip of it for the side border, to coordinate everything on the card.

The flowers I used are from the new Marianne Design Creatables "XL Flower Set with Leaf" (LR0196) package.  You receive three size petals in it plus a leaf.  On the back of the package it explains how to create these a flower with these petals.  You need to cut them has I show in the bottom row above, then glue the together.  Before gluing them back together, I used the tools from the flower tool kit to condition them, "cupping"  for easy assembly.  I left a tiny piece on one side of the cut out petals to make it easier to glue them back together.  Once you get the flowers shaped and glued back together, you just need to glue (stack) them together.

You know I always like to add stamens to my flowers, so I am showing you the die cut and punched pieces I used.  First, the top row is showing the Cheery Lynn "Miniature Rose" (B152) die and the 3 die cut flowers I used for each flower along the left border of the card.  On the far left you can see the Punch a Bunch "Small Sparkle" used for the stamen.  I only added one to each of the small flowers.  On the bottom row you can see the four  "Medium Sparkle" punched pieces used for the large flower.  In order to make the stamen "frilly" I cut down the center of each "spike" down to the center, then used a small stylus and pressed it down into the black shaping mat to make it curl up. All four pieces were glued together, pressed back down in the shaping mat, and added to the large flower.

Under the large flower I added this beautiful Memory Box "Quinn Flourish" (98267).  I die cut two of these flourishes and cut the pretty little flourishes on the ends off, so I could tuck them under the small flowers on the left border.  They are just the perfect size.

This is a picture of the Marianne "Leaves"  (LR0192) used under the large flower.  I used two of the leaves on the right and only one of the leaves on the left.  I use these leave a lot for a pretty embellishment under my flowers.

On the left side border, I used the new Marianne border dies "Anja Lace" (LR0201).  Don't you love the detail in that pretty border.  Up in the upper right corner, I added one of the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" (DL 112).  To finish off the card, Kaiser Craft turquoise and white pearls were added.

Don't you love the great variety of products you can purchase from Joan's Gardens!  She makes it so easy to do one stop shopping.  She is always keeping an eye open for the newest products available.  You know if you do see something she doesn't have on her blog, you can just ask, and she will gladly try and get it for you.  I'm sure you probably know also, that Joan charges $1.00 less than retail, on most products, and she charges you exactly what it costs to ship - no minimum shipping charge.  Be sure to go over and check out all the new products she posted today.

Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge at Joan's Garden.  This week the challenge is to create a 4.25" x 5.5" birthday card using pink, green and a touch of purple.  It also requires you use distressing and piercing.  All the challenge rules will be listed on Joan's blog tomorrow. 

For my card I used a new stamp.  It is the Penny Black "Garden Poems" stamp.  I colored it using Distress Inks Spun Sugar; Shabby Shutters; Peeled Paint; and Vintage Photo.  The yellow was sponged on using yellow chalk from the "Pebbles, Inc" Pearlescent, Jewel Tones, chalk pad.  It gives it a nice little sparkle.  The Fence (LR0205) and Grass (LR0204) die are new dies from Marianne Designs. The butterfly is one of the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" (DL112).  To Distress the edges of the top panel I used the "Zutter Distrezz-it-All" tool.  This tool makes it very quick and easy to distress the edges of your card stock.  A Tim Holtz Piercing Tool was used to to pierce the holes around the design.  The sentiment at the top of the card is from the "Die-namics Polka Dot Greetings" stamp set.  This is a new line of products Joan will soon be posting on her blog. The only thing on this card that is dimensional is the butterfly, and that can be pressed down so it easily mails in a regular A-2 envelope.

I hope you will join us this week in our challenge.   We look forward to seeing your beautiful cards.

AND THE WINNER OF MY BLOG CANDY IS . . .

It is wonderful to have so many blogging Followers and Friends.  I have enjoyed reading all the lovely comments left on my blog and want to thank each of you for your support.  It makes me feel great to know you are all really out there and looking forward to my posts.   I love designing with all the wonderful products from Joan's Gardens, giving you different ideas for using them. Many times we crafters purchase products, then aren't sure what to do with them. Our goal at Joan's Gardens is to give you a lot of inspiration  so you are really using all the crafting supplies you purchase. Joan and I love seeing all your creative cards/projects in our weekly challenges, showing us how you have used these products.  Every comment left on the January 18 post was printed off, put in basket,  and the winner of the $25 Gift Certificate to Joan's Gardens is Georgei.  CONGRATULATIONS GEORGEI.  You may contact Joan when you are ready to go shopping.   

 Georgei said...

Congrats on your 400,000 visit
I to enjoy your cards and the tutorials on your blog
your cards are so very pretty all the this
there is not one that I do not like they are all beautiful
and the work that you put on them
thank for being there
and for Joann garden well I love the dies they are very pretty
would like have some of them
thank you for giveing a chance to win your candy
would be fun shopping at Joann
thank again
have a very nice day
HUGS

Purple Valentine

I have a new heart border I have not used yet, so decided to design a purple Valentine with it today.  Yes, Glenda you tempted me. This is another one of the pretty new dies from Memory Box that Joan recently added to her blog.  The name of this is Memory Box "Cherish Border" (98282).  Doesn't it make a pretty Valentine!  If  you didn't want a dimensional card, you could add a sentiment, where I have the purple flowers, and it would be a beautiful "flat" card.  Here are the other items from Joan's Gardens that I used to design this card:  Cheery Lynn "Francesca" (B159) border at the top; Next is the Memory Box "Cherish Border"  The bottom of the card was embossed with the Cuttlebug "Kassies Brocade" embossing folder.  The flowers were created with all the Cheery Lynn Cuties dies " Cuties 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Cuties 4 is the new flower die that was just released.  These flowers are easy to create.  You die cut them, glue two rows together, and roll them up.  For small flowers you only use a third or half of the strip, and for a larger flower you use the whole strip.  Below the flowers I added the Marianne Design "Garden Branch" (LR0 151).  Tucked in between the flowers are a lot of the pretty little leaves that come with the Marianne Design (LR0 117) rectangle doily.  These are very small leaves and fit it perfectly between small flowers.  For some extra color, I cut apart a piece of lavender trim and placed part of it below the pretty heart border and the other half along the top of the card.  A lavender dotted Swiss bow was added to complete the card.

We have been stuck in the house the last few days because of all the snow and ice. I think we had close to a foot of snow then it rained and made all the streets very icy.  I'm looking forward to it warming up next week.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I was up to today.  Hope you enjoy this card.

Rosebud Tutorial

As promised I have my Rosebud Tutorial for you today. 

Before I begin the tutorial I will tell you about the card I created using the rosebuds. This is a 5.5" x 6" card.  I used one of the Marianne Designs embossing folders that I have not used for a while.  The number on this cut and emboss folder is (DS0909).  It is a perfect background for this card.  On top of the Marianne embossed folder, I have added a beautiful "Cut and Emboss Frame" (6002/0037) by Joy Crafts.  When you die cut this frame, the center is cut out but I wanted it in the frame for this card.  I put the center in the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to give it some texture since I was not stamping on it.  My floral arrangement was placed over it so it is hard to see that.  Around the edges of the frame I attached little Kaiser Craft Pearls.  To complete the background I embossed a piece of card stock using the Sizzix "Thank You Set #5" (656983) embossing folder.  I use this folder a lot.  To finish the edge between the two embossed areas I added one of the new Cheery Lynn borders called "Queen Anne's Lace" (B160).    

In the center of the Joy Craft frame, I made an arrangement with the rosebuds I created.  On the bottom of the arrangement I used the Marianne (LR0192) leaf then added the rosebuds along with a few leaves die cut the Spellbinder Leaf die.  I cut the leaves off the stem so I could tuck them in.  I needed some stems for the rose buds and discovered the stems from the die cut leaves was just perfect.  To complete the card a bow and a few more pearls were added.  As you know, all the products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

Joy Crafts "Cut and Emboss Frame #6002/0037

This picture shows the completed pieces used in the two tutorials.  The stems for the rosebuds are from the stem from the die cut leaves.  

TUTORIAL FOR CREATING MY ROSEBUDS WITH A PUNCH

The tutorial for creating the rose was posted yesterday.

This is the picture I posted yesterday showing the supplies used to create the rose and rosebuds.  The glue is different for the rosebuds.

The  Punch Bunch Super Giant Begonia Petals punch has five different sizes of petals, and for the rosebuds I have used some of the smaller ones. There is not a set number of petals you must use for your rosebuds.  The more you use the larger your bud will be.  

The glue I used for creating the rosebud is the "Crafter's Pick" glue because it is thick and adheres to plastic and more.  The glue doesn't dry immediately, so to make it easy to create the bud, I added glue to the bottom portion of all the pieces for one bud before I started assembling it.

My idea was to find a bead that I could use to shape the petals around to resemble a bud.  You are going to be working with the point of each petal pointed up so you have a point on the bud.

Place the bead into the glue with both the bead and the petal with the small end up.  Notice I have quite a bit a glue because I want the petal to glue tightly to the bead.

Roll the petal around the bead, getting it tight all the way around.  You probably will have part of the bead still visible.

Now place the open side  of the first petal "down" and match up the points.  Press the sides down over the first petal.  You can shape the top of the bud as you go by pressing in all around it.

Here is a picture of the bud with four petals glued around the bead.  Notice all the points are in different places so when all finished you can bend them in to close the gap.

Now you are going to do the exact same thing using the green petals.

Add your second green petal enclosing the bud.

In this picture you can see how you can make different size buds according to the number of petals you use.  

If you missed my tutorial on how to create a rose in full bloom, you will find the tutorial here.

If you create the rose or rosebuds using my tutorial, please link back to my blog.  Thank you.

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