Stair Step Card

Today I have a stair step card created with peach/pink flowers. Last year I created roses with the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" die and the smaller roses and rose buds with the My Favorite Things "Mini Royal Rolled Rose" dies.  I liked the rose arrangement so much I created two panels and never used the second one, so decided I would use it on a card for a friend who sends me beautiful cards.

 The large moss green doily, behind the roses, was die cut from the Marianne Design "Petras Large Ovals" die set. Right behind the roses is the Memory Box "Calypso Flourish", or you could use the similar Memory Box "Quinn Flourish".  The butterflies were cut out from one of the Webster's Pages design papers. 

Thank you for stopping by.  Hope you are having a great weekend.

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Snowy Tree Tutorial

I am still working on getting all my Christmas cards designed.  I love snowmen, so today I used a very cute snowman by My Favorite Things.  Both the Snowman and sentiment come on this stamp set.   I used the Memory Box "Frosted Christmas Tree" and have a tutorial below on how I created the dimensional snow.  

For the background I used the Sizzix, "Dots" embossing folder.  The white piece of card stock 5.5" square.  I started by stamping the My Favorite Things "Pure Innocensce-Trim the Branches Snowman" using VersaFine Black ink. The Sizzix embossing folder is only 4.5" wide so I had to embossing one side then line it up on the other side and run through a second time.  I embossed it so the "heavier" flakes were on top.  If you look at the card, you can see there are not as many dots on the bottom portion.  The snowman was colored using Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen big brush markers.  I sponged on some like blue chalk around the outside of the snowman.  The sentiment was stamped on a piece of white card stock and the ends punched with the corner of a square punch.  A slightly larger piece of red card stock was cut and punched the same way and layered under the sentiment. 

I added the Memory Box "Snowflake Corner" to the upper left corner.  A large and small Martha Stewart snowflake punch was used to add silver glitter snowflakes.  I used a variety of color of Stickles on the snowman to give him some sparkle.

Snowy Tree Tutorial

 I used the Memory Box "Frosted Christmas Tree.  It was die cut using green card stock.

Place the die, face down, with the die cut next to the Craft Mat.  Spread Modeling Paste over the entire die, being sure to get the paste touching the card stock.

 Cover the entire surface as shown here.

 

 Next, using the tool you spread the paste with,  tap down in the paste to create "ripples".  This will give your snow some texture.

 Carefully pull the die off the die cut tree. This is how the "snow" will look.  It is very easy to smear the paste, so be very careful about touching it.

 With your tree on a clean surface, pour over Rangers Distress Stickles dry glitter, while the paste is "wet".  The glitter will stick and give the snow some sparkle.  Pick the tree up by the very top and shake off extra glitter.  After the paste was completely dry, I added some Diamond Stickles on some of the high points of the snow, for additional sparkle.

I hope you will give this technique a try; it really added a nice texture to the tree.

Here are the links to products used, available from Ellen Hutson, LLC

Sizzix, Dots Embossing Folder
My Favorite Things "Pure Innocence-Trim the Branches Snowman" stamp
VersaFine Black Ink
Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen big brush markers
Memory Box "Snowflake Corner"
Memory Box "Frosted Christmas Tree
Rangers Distress Stickles dry glitter, clear rock candy
Diamond Stickles 

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

 

The doilies in the background are from the Cheery Lynn "Oval Doily Stacker One" doily set.  There are three doilies in this set plus the plain oval which I used for the sentiment.  I really like that these are stacker doilies and you can use just one or even all three together.

The  purple flowers were created using the Cheery Lynn Stacker Flower #4. The center of all the flowers were colored with Susan's Garden Pan Pastels.  The pink roses were created with the MFT "Royal Rolled Rose" die.  The sentiment is from the JustRite stamp set "Spring Rose Medallions".  It was stamped on the center oval from the doily set.   Kaiser Craft pearls were added.  The leaves were die cut using the Marianne Leaves die.  The green "filler" behind the flowers is the Memory Box "Leafy Branch".  To finish the card I added the Spellbinders corners from the "Lattice Accents" die set and a lavender silk bow.

Cheery Lynn "Oval Doily Stacker One" DL183

Cheery Lynn "Stacker Flower #4"  SF4

Susan Garden "Pan Pastels"

MFT "Royal Rolled Rose"

JustRite "Spring Rose Medallions" stamp set

Marianne Leaves (LR0156)

Memory Box "leafy branch" (98282)

Spellbinders Lattice Accents

Silk Ribbon

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

This week we thought it would be fun to create a black and white card.  Please go over to Joan's Gardens to read all the challenge rules and see what the prize is for this week.  Joan has a new way of selecting the winner of the challenge, I think you will love. 

My card was created with one of the new Nellie Snellen embossing folders called "Round Frame 1".  On the left side of the card I added the new Memory Box "Trellis Border".  The flowers were created using the MFT "Royal Rolled Rose" and Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" dies.  The leaves are from the new Memory Box "Fresh Foliage" die.  The sentiment was stamped in the embossed frame with a stamp from the JustRite "Seeds of Summer" stamp set. Along the bottom I added a piece of "Sticky Back Lace",  which comes in a roll.   The black silk bow and black pearls were added to complete the card.  

Nellie Snellen empress "Round Frame 1"

Memory Box "Trellis Border" die 98476

Memory Box "Fresh Foliage" die 98502

JustRight Seeds of Summer" stamp set CR-03755

MFT "Royal Rolled Rose" spiral die

Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One"  S4-351

White Sticky Back Lace

Black Silk Ribbon

Bow Easy

eBosser Die Cutting/embossing machine

Black Pearls

Blooming Violets

Hope you are all having a great weekend.  We are starting to see a little bit of sunshine.  The snow is starting to melt and we can actually see a small portion of our grass!!

Today I designed a card using the Memory Box "Blooming Violet" dies.  This is such a fun die to work with.  I die cut it all out of white card stock then colored the pieces with Copic Markers. Yellow Stickles was added to the center of the flowers. I added the MFT "Fresh Cut Grass die cut along the bottom of the flowers. The purple background was embossed with the eBosser "Dainty Dots" embossing folder.  The white frames are Spellbinders "Locking Loops" frames.  The sentiment is from some stickers from Webster's Pages Mini Messages called "Best Friends Words".   The small butterflies are from the Memory Box"Butterfly Delights" die.  This die cuts 15 tiny butterflies.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

The products I use can be purchased from Joan's Gardens:

Memory Box "Blooming Violet" 98504

Memory Box "Butterfly Delights" 98130

MFT "Fresh Cut  Grass" die

eBosser "Dainty Dots" embossing folder

Yellow Stickles

Websters Pages "Mine Messages "Best Friends Words" WS1082

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge at Joan's Gardens..  

Joan has a fun challenge again this week.  Here are the requirements: 

• Polka Dots
• Vellum
• Oval

For the polka dots, I used a piece of white vellum and embossed it in the eBosser Delicate  Dots embossing folder.  It was layered over pink card stock.  You all know I love to work with vellum, so I decided to create my flowers out of a printed vellum.  I used the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom" die for the largest flower and the MFT "Royal Rolled Rose" die for the two smaller one.  Two rolled roses were die cut out of the vellum for each flower.  Before shaping the flowers I sponged on "Picked Raspberry" Distress Ink on the bottom only of each die cut flower.  Then to get a very full looking rose, I layered two of the die cut roses together, slightly offsetting one on top of the other, then used the self-closing tweezers to roll them up.  I love how delicate the roses look out of vellum.  

The next requirement was to use an "oval".   First I die cut the Joy Crafts (6002/0147) doily then layered the Marianne Design "Oval" (LR0235) on top of it.  I sponged on Spun Sugar Distress Ink around the edges, to make the oval stand out.  In the center of the oval I stamped one of the sentiments from the JustRite "Seeds of Summer" stamp set.  The oval was attached with dimensional tape.

The flowers were added then foliage from the Marianne LR0192, LR0157, and LR0156 die sets were added.  I die cut one pink and one white of the first two and added only white leaves.  The corners are die cut using the Joy Crafts (6002/0136) dies.  The butterfly is from the Cheery Lynn "Exotic Butterfly" set.  It was attached with dimensional tape.  I always think the Kaiser Craft pearls add that special finishing touch, so pink pearls were added to complete this card.

Joy Crafts 6002/0147

Marianne Design LR0235

Marianne Design LR0192

Marianne Design LR0157

Marianne Design LR0156

Joy Crafts Corners 6002/0136

Cheery Lynn Butterfly DL113

eBosser Dainty Dots embossing folder

Kaiser  Craft pearls

JustRite "Seeds of Summer" stamp set CR03755

Spellbinders Spiral Blossom I (S4-351)

MFT Royal Rolled Rose

dimensional tape

Distress Ink, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge over at Joan's Gardens.  The week you are to create a card as follows:

Use Blue, White and Green

Use a Flower that has a pattern

Use an Oval

Use a stamped sentiment

For my card I used a piece of design paper from the "Reflections Collections 6x6" pad by Prima.   The ovals are two dies from the Marianne Design LR0235 die set. Dimensional tape was used under both of the ovals to give it some dimension.  The sentiment is from the Our Daily Bread "Birthday Blessings" stamp set.  The rose was created with the same design paper as the background. I used the MFT "Royal Rolled Rose" die.   Behind it I added pieces from the new Memory Box "Bali Corner".  It was cut twice  and the flowers were cut off the stem from a die cut using blue and white design paper. 

On the left of the oval I added three of the Memory Box "Hollyhock Stems".  I used a piece of green card stock and a piece of design paper layered together for each stem so I could cut off the flowers and attach them to the green stem.  Kaiser Craft blue pearls were added to the center of the flowers.

Marianne Design "Oval Doily" die set (LR0235)

Our Daily Bread "Birthday Blessings" stamp set (D301)

MFT "Royal Rolled Rose"

Memory Box "Bali Corner" 98487

Memory Box "Hollyhock Stem" 98512

Kaiser Craft Blue Pearls

Reflections Collection 6x6" paper pad by Prima

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Park Bench

Wouldn't you love to be sitting out in the park on a bench enjoying nice warm weather.    I used some of the new Poppy Stamps dies to create this relaxing scene. 

I started with a piece of design paper from the Websters Papers "Ladies & Gents and Trendsetter" paper pad for the background.  The bench is the Poppy Stamps "Madison Park Bench".  The side pieces were die cut using brushed gold card stock (to look like metal) and the bench was die cut using black card stock. I love how this die works to create a very dimensional bench.  The lamp post is the Poppy Stamps "Antique Lamp Post" and the flowers are in the new Poppy Stamps "Hanging Flower Basket".  Memory Box has a die with the perfect little flowers for the basket called ""Floral Delights".  To get the tiny leaves I used pieces from the Cheery Lynn "Princess Tree".  I think this little hanging basket is so cute!   The little butterflies were cut from the Memory Box "Butterfly Vine". The wings were sponged with Distress Ink.  

To ground the bench, I die cut a bunch of the MFT "Fresh Cut Grass" and layered it under the bench.   Since I had the butterflies flitting around, I thought it would look cute to add that little Poppy Stamps "Curious Cat" watching them. The corner looked like it needed something, so I created a flower with the Cheery Lynn "Sweet Williams" die.

Poppy Stamps "Madison Park Bench" 881

MFT "Fresh Cut Grass"

Poppy Stamps Antique Lamp Post 858

Poppy Stamps Hanging Flower Basket 885

Memory Box Butterfly Vine 98458

Memory Box "Flora lDelights" 98349

Cheery Lynn "Princess Tree" B1880

Cheery Lynn "Sweet Williams" D137

Poppy Stamps "Curious Cat" 872

Webster's Pages "Ladies & Gents and Trendsetter" paper pad

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

Valentine's Day is fast approaching so this week at Joan's Gardens, our challenge is to create a Valentine for someone special. 

Here are the requirements for this challenge:

• Use pink and white 
• Use at least one heart
• Use a pretty border

For my Valentine, I chose to use the new Memory Box "Bingham Heart".  I love the dainty details in this heart.  It was die cut using green card stock then again using pink.  All the little pink flowers were sniped off and glued onto the green heart.  I die cut a solid heart using the MFT "Layered Heart" die and glued the Bingham Heart along the edges.  The reason I die cut the solid heart is because the background piece was embossed with the eBosser "Gracious Argyle" embossing folder and it would have been hard to stamp the pretty sentiment from the Our Daily Bread "Sentiments Collection" on the embossing.  On the Left side of the card I added the Memory Box "Contempo Circle Border".  In the right side corners, I added a Cheery Lynn die cut corner.  When I stamped the sentiment, the little hearts were outlined in black, so I used the Martha Stewart "Loops Heart" corner punch to get the little pink hearts to glue in the center of the three hearts stamped in the sentiment.  The three little hearts from that punch fit perfectly.  To complete the card, I added Kaiser Craft pink rhinestones along the left side and in the center of the flowers.  

I hope you will join us in our challenge this week.  I am sure there is someone special you who would love to receive a Valentine from you.  

Memory Box Bingham Heart (98499)

Memory Box Contempo Circle Border (98451)

MFT Die-namics Layered Heart

eBosser "Gracious Argyle" embossing folder

Cheery Lynn Corner (B164)

Our Daily Bread "Sentiments Collection" (E334)

Martha Stewart "Loops Heart" corner punch for small hearts on sentiment.

Kaiser Craft Rhinestones 

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Shadow Box

Yesterday I received a bunch of new Memory Box and Poppy Stamp dies from Joan's Gardens.  Wow!  They are all so beautiful I hardly knew where to start. .  Making choices will be hard!  I love working with dies because it is such an easy way to create a quick card.  

I have not created a Shadow Box card for a long time, so decided the Memory Box "Honey Blossom Frame" would look great inside one.  I started with two pieces of card stock cut 7" x 6".  I scored down both sides of all four pieces at 7/8" so with the folds, the width of the front of this card is 5 1/2" x 6".  I used design paper from the Best Creation "A Walk in the Garden" 6x6" paper pad for everything on this card.  I love the little outdoor scene and thought it would create a beautiful background for the "Honey Blossom Frame".  I used the Memory Box "Debutante Frame", which is a solid backing frame, to go behind the die cut "Honey Blossom Frame".  This frame also works with many of the other Memory Box die cut frames.  A piece of 5 1/2" x 6"   design paper was attached to the inside of the shadow box.  Don't attach the die cut frame yet.

To create the front of the shadow box, I first cut a piece of the design paper and glued it to the center portion of the front of the box, like I did for the inside.  The Memory Box "Debutante Frame" die was centered  over that design paper and die cut. Be sure to tape it down so it doesn't move.   Now I have the opening that matches the "Honey Blossom Frame" that will be inside the shadow box.  The front and back pieces were laid flat on top of each other, then the "Honey Blossom Frame" (with pop dots on the back) was placed in the opening and pressed down onto the inside of (the bottom of) the box.  

To complete the decoration on the front (top) of the shadow box, I used a stripped piece of design paper, from the same paper pad, for the sides.  On the front I die the Memory Box "Butterfly Vine Border" twice - once in green and once in purple.  The top portion of the green border was placed on the right side of the frame and the left over part (bottom portion) was attached to the left side.  This beautiful border is 9.6" long and is very easy to divide if you want smaller portions.  The little butterflies were cut off the purple border and glued over the butterflies on the green border.  

You can see in this picture how the "Honey Blossom Frame" is down inside the shadow box.  To add a little more dimension, I die cut one of the new Poppy Stamps cats - this one is the "Large Curious Cat". Poppy Stamps has a lot of new cat and dog dies cuts.   It was attached along the bottom of the frame with a piece of ScorTape.   The trim I used along both sides of the box was die cut using the MFT "Little Open Scallop Strip.  This border is 6" long and fits perfectly down the sides to complete this card.

Best Creation "A Walk in the Garden" Design Paper Pad

Memory Box "Honey Blossom Time Frame" (98455)

Memory Box "Debutante Frame" (98297)

Memory Box "Butterfly Vine Border" (98458)

Poppy Stamps "Large Curious Cat" (874)

MFT "Little Open Scallop Strip" for the border on sides

Pop Dots

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Happy Birthday Pop-up Card

Today I created another pop-up card using a different Sizzix die.  First I will tell you about the front of the card.  I used design paper from the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden paper pad for both the front and inside of this card.  The large green doily is one of the four dies from the Marianne Design LR0240 die set.  On top of the green doily I added the Marianne Design "Calypso Flourish".   The design paper on the inside has beige roses highlighted with a burgundy edging, so I created the same color roses for the front.  I used the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" for the large rose and the MFT (Die-Namics) Royal Rolled Rose for the smaller roses and buds.  The Cheery Lynn Build A Flower #2 embellishments dies were used for the greenery around the buds and also for the baby's breath.   The leaves were die cut using the Cheery Lynn "Rose Leaf Strip".   There are also butterflies on the inside design paper so I tried to duplicate the same type butterfly using the Memory Box "Kaleidoscope" and "Moonlight" butterflies.  It was sponged using Distress Inks. 

When you open the card you are greeted with this fun pop-up.   It was created with the Sizzix "Raising 3-D (PopUp) Platform.  I use the eBosser to die cut it and did not need to use a crease pad to get perfect score lines.   I followed the directions for assembling this pop-up and sponged around the tag before attaching another butterfly like I attached to the front of the card.  I only added adhesive to the right side of the butterfly so it would fold flat when the card is closed.  I used two different pieces of the design paper from the Pink Paislee "Butterfly Garden" pad on the inside.  One of the sheets was cut in half and those pieces attached to the outer edges and another different sheet was trimmed and attached right in the center.  This way I had all the pretty design of the sheet with the butterflies on both sides.    

In this picture you can see the pop-up mechanism better.  I die cut the Cheery Lynn "Happy" and "Birthday" sentiments for the inside and added the pretty Marianne Design embellishment at the bottom.  This is a 5.5" by 6" card.  You can use the Sizzix pop-up in a smaller card such as an A-2 size.  

 

Pink Paislee "Butterfly Garden" Paper Pad

Marianne Design "Doily" (LR0240) Four pieces in this die set

Memory Box "Calypso Flourish" (98343)

Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" (S4-351)

MFT (Die-namics) Royal Rolled Rose

Cheery Lynn "Build A Flower #2" Embellishments

Cheery Lynn Rose Leaf Strip (B241)

Memory Box "Kaleidoscope Butterfly" (98261)

Memory Box "Moonlight Butterfly" (98260)

Sizzix "Raising 3-D (PopUp) Platform (658042)

Cheery Lynn "Happy" sentiment (B226)

Cheery Lynn "Birthday" sentiment (B231)

Marianne Design "embellishment" (6002/0149)

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Friends

 

I want to wish all my blogging friends a very Merry Christmas.  I have received cards from around the world and want to thank you for all your gorgeous creations.  I cherish each and every one of them.  Are you all ready for Christmas Day?  I have been having lots of fun with all my grandkids, my son and daughter.   We have over a foot of snow and the grandkids from San Diego are having so much fun in the snow.  They helped grandpa clean off the driveways then played in the huge piles of snow.  This is my favorite time of the year.  

This is a 5x7 inch card.  I used the new Joy! Crafts Corners in on the top of the card.  In the  center of the card is the new Joy! Crafts Doily.  Within this doily I added one of the My Favorite Things "Decorative Ovals Doily Duo" die cuts.   The sentiment is from the Our Daily Bread "Sentiments Collection"; it was silver embossed.  The sentiment reads "Friends are Kisses Blown to us by Angles".    I had a piece of design paper that has silver embossing on the background, so have coordinated things to match.  The sentiment was attached with dimensional tape.

Below the Joy! Crafts doily, I added the Joy! Crafts "Flourish", which ended up being mostly covered up, but it is a beautiful flourish.  The roses were created with the Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" dies; they were sponged with Spun Sugar Distress Ink prior to rolling them.  The pretty leaves behind the roses are the Joy! Crafts Leaves.  I added some Encore silver ink and silver embossed them.  The pretty silver flourish is the Memory Box "Elegant  Scrollwork" flourish; it was die cut using mirror silver card stock.  Two flourishes were die cut, cut a part, then tucked in behind the flowers.  A few Cheery Lynn "Wreath Strip" pieces were also die cut using the silver mirror card stock and tucked in.  To add a little more elegance to the card, I added white Kaiser Craft Pearls.

Joy! Crafts "Corners" (6002.0135)

Joy! Crafts "Doily" (6002/0147)

Joy! Crafts "Flourish" (6002/0149)

Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" (S5-086)

Memory Box "Elegant Scrollwork" (98153)

Our Daily Bread "Sentiments Collection" (E334) (not yet on blog at Joan's Gardens)

My Favorite Things "Decorative Ovals Doily Duo"

Mirror Silver Card Stock

Cheery Lynn "Wreath Strip" (B216)

Kaiser Craft Pearls

Ranger Detail Silver Embossing Powder

Spun Sugar Distress Ink

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Joan's Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge over at Joan's Gardens.  This week we want you to design a "Thank You" card.  Please go over to Joan's Gardens to see all the challenge rules. 

For my thank you card I have used a lot of new products from Joan's Gardens.  The design paper is from a paper pack from Memory Box called "Viola".  I love all the papers in this pack because it is a 6x6 paper collection with 3 sheets of each of 10 patterns including "juicy purples, royal violets and fields of periwinkle".  I can never have enough purple paper!   

To create the large flower on this card I used the Marianne Design (LR0128) flowers. There are 6 layers to this flower; 3 small and 3 large.  I used the white tool in the "Flower Tool Kit' to roll each the petals up tightly and then pressed down in the center of each flower to "cup" it up even tighter.  It was then sprayed with "Perfect Pearls Blue Patina" to give it a hint of blue.  

The musical score is by Poppy Stamps and the bird cage is from Memory Box; these are new dies available from Joan's Gardens. The birds are from Impression Obsession.  Joan has both the stamps and the matching dies.  I love the chickadee bird stamps in this set but since I wanted a blue bird I chose to just die cut the birds and sponge on color. 

Aren't these cut chickadee bird stamps!  If you like birds, I'm sure you will want to add these stamps to your collection, along with the matching dies.

I added a lot of "frill" behind my flower.  I used the new Memory Box "Calypso Flourish" and Poppy Stamps "Curly Wreath" under the flower to give it a dainty look.  There is a Marianne Design "Forest Branch", Cheery Lynn "Olive Branches", and My Favorite Things "Royal Leaves" behind the flower.  Tiny Cheery Lynn "Darling Daisies" were added and a Kaiser Craft rhinestone added in the center of each.  On the bird cage I added the Marianne Design Ivy. The "Thanks" is Memory Box "Script Thanks".  

I hope you will join us in our challenge this week.  I'm in California now visiting one of my sons and family, then next week we will be going over to Phoenix to visit our other son.  While I am in Phoenix, I will be getting to meet Mike from Cheery Lynn.  It has been a pleasure working with him on the "Build A Flower Series" and I'm looking forward to actually meeting him.  

All the products I used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens:

Marianne Design flowers (LR0128)

Marianne Design "Forest Branch" (LR0150)

Marianne Design "Ivy" (LR0206)

Cheery Lynn "Darling Daisies" (A196)

Cheery Lynn "Olive Branches" (B147)

Poppy Stamps "Bird Cage" (801)

Poppy Stamps "Curly Wreath" 842)

Memory Box Virtuso Music (98356)

Memory Box "Script Thanks"(98240)

Memory Box "Calypso Flourish" (98343)

Impression Obsession "birds" (DIE 003-A)

Impression Obsession "10 Clingables stamps" No Place Like Home (3114-XL)

My Favorite Things "Royal Leaves"

Perfect Pearls "Blue Patina"

Flower Tool Kit

Kaiser Craft Rhinestones

Hibiscus

I worked with a few new products today; they are the MFT Hibiscus die and one of the  Sizzix "Heart and Ornate Frame Set" embossing folders I just picked up at Joan's Gardens.

I used the Hibiscus dies from MFT but I also want to tell you that Memory Box also has a new "Hibiscus Flower" with includes a long stamen; the MFT hibiscus does not have a long stamen.  I will be working with that die next time I create a hibiscus. I die cut the flower using salmon card stock then sponged on Distress Ink "Fired Brick"  in the center.  I die cut the center of the flower in black card stock then used a punch to create a hole in the center.  I had to get creative to figure out how to make a hibiscus stamen and ended up using a yellow pipe cleaner.  I added glue to the top portion of the pipe cleaner, then rolled it in yellow beads.  I poked the pipe cleaner through the hole in the center of the flower and cut off the pipe cleaner so I had just enough to bend along the bottom of the flower so it would stand up.  I attached the flower with a large glue dot.  You have to allow time for the glue to dry before attaching it to your card because the beads will fall off if you handle them too much. The beads stick really well once the glue is dry. These stamens might be a little large but I think look pretty realistic  until I can come up with something different.

I placed the flowers on the side of this 6" x 5.5" card front; I embossed the Ornate Frame on the right side.  When I think of hibiscus, I think about being in San Diego or Hawaii.  I decided to add the sail boat in the center of the embossed frame since these flowers and sail boats, in my head, seem to go together.  The boat is by Marianne Design.  The wave border is a new die from Memory Box called "Oceana Border".  The sentiment is from the JustRite "Anchors Away" stamp set; it was cut out with a Spellbinders petite oval and attached with dimensional dots.

I think I will give this card to one of my grandsons when we go to San Diego.  Both of them will have a birthday in August. 

You can purchase all these products from Joan's Gardens:

My Favorite Things "Hibiscus"

Memory Box "sail boat" (LR0199)

Memory Box "Oceana Border" (98335)

Sizzix "Heart & Ornate Frame Set" embossing folder (657339)

JustRite "Anchors Away (CR-03710)

Spellbinders "Petite Oval" Nestabilities

Strawberry Box

When I started this card I had no idea what I was going to do.  In fact, it wasn't even going to be a card.  I have this cute strawberry box die from Joan's Gardens and wanted to use it for a little box to hold some birthday money for one of my granddaughters.  I kept going and ended up making a card.

 The die I used for the strawberry box is the My Favorite Things "Berry Box".  In this picture you can see the die and the die cut pieces and supplies I used to complete the box.  I love that the die includes very realistic "dimples" in the strawberry and the stem on top looks so realistic.  It was very easy to put together.  This box will hold some money or small pieces of chocolate or even one large piece of extra special chocolate.  Along the top you can see a piece of green hemp that is 20 inches long.  I have threaded a green button on it and placed it in the center. This gives stability to the closure when pulling the hemp tight.  You could use a narrow piece of ribbon if you want.  The red strawberry is pre-scored and holes in the top of each section for easy assembly.  There is a tab to close the box and you can see I added a piece of ScorTape.

 The top has been die cut using green card stock and folded along the score lines.  The hemp was threaded through the four holes in the top then through the button and tied in a bow on the top.

 Another view showing you the top.  I trimmed off some of the ends of the hemp.  When you thread it through the holes in a button, sometimes it wants to fray so that is why I made it longer than needed.

I have included several views so you can see the finished strawberry box.  I attached it to the card with a piece of Velcro.  It looks so real, doesn't it!

For the background on this card I used the Dotted Swiss embossing folder on the red card stock.  The doily is the Spellbinders "Butterfly Circles" die; on top of the Butterfly Circle I added the Memory Box "Quinn Flourish".  This flourish adds such a pretty background for so many things!  Across the top of the card I added some of the little butterflies that came out of the "Butterfly Circle".  I love it when you can use the "left overs" from die cut pieces.  Along the bottom I thought some strawberry flowers would look good.  I use the Cheery Lynn "Darling Daisies" die for the flowers and added a stamen from the Cheery Lynn "Build A Flower #1" die set.  The cute little leaves are from the Cheery Lynn "Flourish Leaf Strip".  On the underside of the card I added a punched border doily; I used the Martha Stewart "Double Arches" punches.  

This card will be put in a small gift bag.  My granddaughter can pull the strawberry off to get the money enclosed.  I think she will like this "unique" card.

All the products used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens:

My Favorite Things "Berry Box"

Spellbinders "Butterfly Circles" S4-329

Cheery Lynn "Flourish Leaf Strip" (B178)

Cheery Lynn Darling Daisies (A196)

Memory Box "Quinn Flourish" (98267)

Martha Stewart "Double Arches" punches

Cuttlebug "Dotted Swiss" embossing Folder

Green Hemp

ScorTape

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your weekend.