Selma's Stamping Corner and Floral Designs: Nantucket Arbor

Monday, February 15, 2016

Nantucket Arbor

Good Morning. Today I am sharing the card I designed for my Design Team Post on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog. This card was designed using Susan Tierney-Cockburn's CountryScapes dies. Susan has 31 different CountryScapes die sets making it so simple to create beautiful low-relief dimensional scenes for cards that are easy to make and suitable for mailing.

The top-fold card I created measures 5 1/2" by 7 1/2". Start out by sponging the white background rectangle using stencils cut with CountryScapes Cloud Grass dies. Using the clouds stencil, lightly sponge Broken China Distress Ink to create clouds across the top half of the background. Refer to the photo above. (Click HERE for a video tutorial on the Clouds & Grass die with Susan Tierney-Cockburn). Use grass stencil and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to sponge the area that will fit behind the picket fence. Sponge Tea Dye Distress Ink across bottom of card then sponge Gathered Twigs Distress Ink to create darker spots on the ground
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Die Cut CountryScapes Nantucket Arbor & Picket Fence using Soft Finish Card Stock. Lightly shade using Paynes Grey Tint PanPastel. Draw the gate handle using a fine line black marker. Attach fence to each side with glue, then attach gate using foam tape for dimension.

Die cut CountryScapes Garden Edges Hyacinth using white card stock. Use markers to color flowers purple and leave/stems green. Die cut small flowers and color them purple (the same color used for the hyacinths in the long Garden Edges strip. Glue them in place. Add the row of hyacinths to the left and right, along the bottom of the fence.

Die cut the climbing rose bush using the CountryScapes Flora 5 dies. Tip: Die cut two branches for a fuller bush. Die cut tiny flower pieces and roll to create the little roses. Glue leaves and roses to the branches. Attach along the right side of the Arbor.

Die cut the Birdhouse using the CountryScapes Woods 2 die. Color with markers and attach on left side of Arbor. Use CountryScapes Mini Botanicals - Hollyhock dies and die cut Hollyhock. For shorter flowers, as shown, cut off the bottom of this die cut and use only 5 open flowers from the stem. Attach it to the left side of the card.

Use the CountryScapes Grass die to die cut several rows of grass. For thinner blades, fussy cut a bit (as shown). Glue the rows together so the blades of grass are offset, giving it a fuller and more realistic effect. Use CountryScapes Critters 5 die set to die cut the Canadian Geese. Color with markers and attach with dimensional glue dots at bottom of card. Use CountryScapes Critters 2 die set to die cut birds. I used one each of the bird dies from this set. Attach two birds on the fence and position one so it looks like it is about to land on the birdhouse.