Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

It is time for a new challenge at Joan's Gardens.  It is the time of year when we all start thinking about flowers, so this week we want you to design a  "Flower Pot" card.  I  used the Spellbinders "Flower Pots" dies (S5-060) to create my pot.   If you don't have these dies, you can go over to SCS and there is a written and a video tutorial on how to create "A Flower Pot Pocket Card".

The products I used to create my card are:

Spellbinders "Flower Pots" dies (second to largest) (S5-060)

Memory Box new "Petal Party" flowers (98304)

PunchBunch Medium Sky Flake and Sparkle for stamens

Cheery Lynn "Olive Branches" (B147)

Marianne Design "Ivy" LR0206

Poppy Stamps new "Grassland Border" (825)

Marianne Design "Rectangle  Frame" (CR 1202)

Cheery Lynn "French Lattice Small Frame" (FRM 132)

Sizzix "Ribbon Set" embossing folder (656980)

Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterfly" (DL 112)

JustRite "Starburst Medallion Labels" (CL-03530)

The second to largest Spellbinders Flower Pot die was used.  The bottom of the pot was embossed with the Sizzix "Ribbon Set" embossing folder.  On the back I added the Marianne Rectangle Frame .  I shaped the bottom to fit behind the flower pot. I die cut the Cheery Lynn "French Lattice Small Frame" and cut a piece of it to fit inside the rectangle behind the flowers.  I know this isn't showing up in the picture.   The greenery in the pot are two rows of the new Poppy Stamps "Grassland Border", Marianne Design "Ivy" and Cheery Lynn "Olive Branches".  The sentiment is from the JustRite "Starburst Medallion Labels" stamp set.  The flowers were glued over the greenery.  A Cheery Lynn butterfly was added to complete this card.   NOTE:  My flowers do not pull out of the pot.  There is room on the back for a message.  You can design your card the way I did or follow the tutorial on SCS. 

I hope you will join us this week in our challenge. We are anxious to see your beautiful pot of flowers!   You should go over to Joan's Gardens to read all the details about the challenge and see what the prize will be this week.

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Heartfelt Creations April Release

It is time for a new release from Heartfelt Creations call "Western Elements Collection".  There are five new stamp sets and one new exclusive Spellbinders die designed for Heartfelt Creations.

I have used these five sets to create my card:

HCPC 3466 Alpine Bungalow 

HCPC 3459 Scenery Builders

HCPC 3465 Palisade Farmstead 

HCPC Barnyard Elements

HCPC 3467 Woodland Growth

The cabin scene from the "Alpine Bungalow" set was stamped onto a  card front. I wanted to add the fence from the "Palisade Farmstead" but needed some things in front of it.  I stamped the rock from the "Scenery Builders" set; and the Mushrooms and Flowers  from the "Woodland Growth" set, down on the bottom of the scene.  In order to fit in the fence, I used a craft knife to cut around the top of the rock and around the purple flowers so I could place the fence behind them.  The fence from the "Palisade Farmstead" was stamped using VeraFine Brown ink, colored by sponging with Distress Ink then swiping over it with Distress Stain "Picket Fence" to give it an "aged" look.   These stains have a sponge top and are so easy to swipe and get the coverage you want.  The fence was die cut using the matching Spellbinders die.   There is also additional grass, from the "Scenery Builders" set, stamped behind the fence.  I stamped the mushrooms a second time and cut out just the tops so they would be dimensional in front of the fence.  Before placing the fence behind the flowers and rock, the images were colored using Copic markers.  The Windmill, from the "Barnyard Elements" set was silver embossed and cut out with the matching Spellbinders die. The corners were die cut using the Spellbinders "Antique Frame" die set.

Be sure to go over to Joan's Gardens to see all the sets in this new Heartfelt Creations release.  Also Joan will have a special price on the "I Want It All" package.  

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Happy Easter

In celebration of Easter I have designed a card with some new Spellbinder dies. I used the "Crosses 2" set.  There are 5 crosses in this set and I layered three of them to created the cross in the middle of this card.  Each layer was attached with dimensional dots. For the background, I used the Marianne (DS0908) Cut and Emboss folder.  The little flowers were created with the Cheery Lynn "Miniature Rose" (B152) die.  The flourish below the flowers is the MFT "Fancy Flourish" and the pretty little leaves were die cut using the new Memory Box "Tender Leaves" (98313).  You are going to love this leaf die because it has four small leaves which are perfect to use with smaller flowers.   The corners were die cut using the new Spellbinders "Moroccan Accents" set.

It was very hard to get a good picture of an all white card, but I hope it shows up well enough for you to see all the different elements added.  

Hope you are having a wonderful Easter.  My DH and I will be going to our daughter's house for Easter dinner and to see how much chocolate the Easter Bunny left.

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Get Well Wreath

Today I have designed a card using a few more new dies from Joan's Gardens.  The wreath was created with the Poppy Stamps "Breezy Wreath" (824).  It was die cut twice using two shades of green card stock to give the wreath some dimension.  The little flowers are from the Memory Box "Fancy Blossoms" (98312).  I used the smallest flower of the three flowers in this set.

The embossing folder is the Marianne Design (DS0914) Cut and Emboss Folder.  A piece of design paper from an older BasicGrey Paper Pad (LilyKate). was used on the left side of the card.  The JustRite sentiment is from the "Starburst Medallion Labels" stamp set.  It was stamped then die cut using the Spellbinders "Ribbon Banners" - there are four banners in this set.  The gorgeous border over the design paper is the Memory Box "Tessatina Border" (98302).  Isn't it a gorgeous border.  This border will work perfectly with the Cheery Lynn "French Lattice Small Frame" (FRM132).  The lattice in the border is smaller, which will give you an additional size of lattice.  There is also the Cheery Lynn "French Lattice Large Frame" (FRM133) that this border will work will with. I love having all these coordinating pieces.  Kaiser Craft Rhinestones were added to complete the card. 

I hope all of you are having a great Easter weekend.  Looks like we are going to have some decent weather finally.  The sun is actually shinning today. 

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

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New Dies from Joan's Gardens

Yesterday I received a box of new dies.  Today I was so excited to start designing and had a hard time knowing where to start.  However, I love poppies and thought I would start by designing a card using the new Memory Box "Prim Poppy" (98310) die.  I love how this card turned out.  You know me, I always love to have dimension, so I used the die to cut out the entire image three times using green card stock.  This would become the stems and base for the flowers.  I then die cut the just the flowers six more times using orange card stock.  Each flower was cut off the stem and one each was glued over the green image previously die cut to create orange flowers on green stems.  The other three sets of flowers were shaped to give them dimension.  First I cut down between the petals toward the base of the flower.  It was shaped with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit and the Black Shaping Mat.  A small piece of dimensional tape was added in the center of the flower and a small amount of glue added right at the base then pressed down over the flat orange flower on the main image.  The edges of the petals were pulled out slightly.  I used an orange Copic marker to added some lines and shading to the petals.  

This picture is a close-up so you can see the dimension created by adding a second layer on the flower.

At the top of the card I used the new Memory Box "Latchette Border".  It was sponged lightly with Tea Dye Distress Ink.  Along the bottom I used two different grass dies.  The tall grass is the new Poppy Stamps "Grassland Border" (825) and the shorter grass is the DieNamics  (MFT) "Fresh Cut Grass". Don't you love that tall grass around the poppies!   The butterfly is the Cheery Lynn Mini Butterfly (DL112).

I had so much fun working with these new dies and think you will love working with this new Memory Box "Prim Poppy"  and Poppy Stamps "Grassland Border".

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

This week the challenge at Joan's Gardens is a fun shaped card.  We would like for you to create a "Tri-Shutter Card".  The basic card requires a piece of card stock 5 1/2" x 12".  You will need to score down from the long side at 2", 4", 8" and 10".  Next you can either use your paper cutter or a craft knife and cut from the 2" score line down to the 10" score line either 1 1/4" or  1 1/2" from the edge of the card stock, on both sides.  You then will fold on the score lines; first do a mountain fold, then a valley fold,  then a mountain fold and end with a valley fold.  You then need to reverse the folds on the center section so it will fold out differently. You can see how it will look in the pictures below.   If I haven't made this clear for you, you can go over to SCS and see a written tutorial plus there is a video to show you how to create this type of card.  The challenge will be to create a Tri-Shutter Card; use more than one design paper; something dimensional; and ribbon.  Be sure to go over to Joan's blog to see all the details.

 You can see the mountain and valley folds then the center section must be folded the opposite direction.

This is how your card will look when looking at it from the top to the bottom.  It is a very fun and easy card to create.  The hardest part might be figuring out the folds.

When this card is closed, it measure 4" x 5.5".  The design papers I used are from the  (older) Graphic 45 "The Magic of Oz" pad and the Basic Grey "Capella" Paper Pad.  I created the "Poppy" with the PunchBunch "Begonia Petals" punch.  The stamen was created with the "Large Sky Flake" and "Small Blossom" punches.  The leaf is the Cheery Lynn "Small Leaves #1" (D133).  The fern is the PunchBunch "Medium Fern".  Under the flower are the Spellbinders "Persian Accent" and the Memory Box "Quinn Flourish (98267).  Over the design paper is a piece of Websters Pages Trim.  

On the inside of the card I die cut one of the Cheery Lynn 'Horizon Coved Rectangle Mega Doily" (DL193).  On the right side of it I attached a Memory Box "Willow Dragonfly" (98319).  Another piece of Webster's Pages trim was attached to the right side of the card with ScorTape.  

Thinking of You Today

Today I was playing with the Marianne Design (LR0169) flower to see if I could come up with something new.  I liked these flowers and thought I should give you a tutorial in case you would like to try them.  First to tell you about all the products I used from Joan's Gardens to create this card:  Spellbinders M-Bossabilities "Splendid" for the background; MFT "Oval Open Scallop Doily Duo" for the sentiment; Sentiment from the JustRite "Always & Forever Medallion Labels"; Cheery Lynn "Lace Corner Deco C" (B163); MFT "Leafy Flourish"; PunchBunch "Large Delicate Snowflake" and "Small Sun". 

I die cut a lot of the Marianne (LR0 169) flower using white card stock.  They were placed on the Craft Sheet and misted with water to soften the fibers.  Let them sit for a couple of minutes then dab off the excess water.  Use the "Round Nose Pliers" to shape each of the petals.  I like these round nose pliers, you can can from Joan's Gardens, because both points are perfectly round and do not put creases in the card stock.

This picture shows the nice curl I got using the pliers.

 This picture shows how I placed the pliers right in the center of the petal and wrapped it around the pliers.  After I shaped all the flowers, I used my heat gun to dry them.  Once they are dry, they hold their shape really well.  I layered three flowers to create the "fluffy" flower.  One large delicate snowflake and one small sun were glued together to create the stamen.  I used brown card stock for the stamen and added gold to the points.

I die cut a lot of flowers, so thought I would see if I could shape some buds.  It was really easy.  These petals were also shaped with the pliers then I used a stylus from the Flower Tool Kit and softened the very center of the flower and pressed it down into the black shaping mat.  Glue was added to the lower portion of each petal and then I pushed them up to the center going around one petal at a time to form the bud.  It went together very easily.

I die cut a lot of the MFT Leafy Flourish and arranged them on the left side of the card to resemble a vine.  The flowers and buds were arranged over the vine.  The butterfly was added to complete the card.

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Magnolia Card

Today I have designed a card around the flower behind the bird in the design paper.  This is a 5.5" x 6" card.  I used a sheet of the design paper from the new Pinkpaislee "Spring Jubilee" paper pack.  The flower behind the bird is a magnolia.  I love to find design paper with a flower or flowers and try and create the same flower using punches or dies.

The magnolia was created using the PunchBunch "Medium Pear" and "Large Sun" punches. There are a lot of the large punched suns glued together to create the stamen.  The circle frame behind the flower was created by using the largest Spellbinders "Tear  Drop Circle" die and the third largest Spellbinders "Petite Circle Large" die.

To die cut a perfect frame, I taped the two dies down on the card stock, ran it through to cut it out, then again to emboss the frame.  For the background of this frame I die cut the Cheery Lynn "French Lattice Large Frame" (FRM133) and centered the frame over it to get the die cut design just the way I wanted it, then snipped off the outer part of the lattice frame and glued it to the back of the round frame.  

The Magnolia was glued to the frame and Marianne Design embellishments (LR0 157) and (LR0 192) were tucked under it.  The leaves are from a very old stamp (no name) but you can use any die cut leaves.  To finish the card, I used Rangers "Bisque" Liquid Pearls around the Spellbinders "Tear Drop Circle" frame.  

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

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Give Flight to Your Dreams

It must be April Fool's Day!!!  It is snowing out and I keep seeing pictures of your yards that are in full bloom.  I was really hoping for some sun today.

Today I created a card without any flowers.  I used the beautiful Marianne Design butterfly (CR1205) for the main attraction.  Two butterflies were die cut and layered.  I sponged a darker purple down the center of the butterfly but I don't think it shows up well in the photo.  The pretty doily under the butterfly is from the new Spellbinders "Moroccan Motifs" set.  The corners are from the Spellbinders "Moroccan Accents" set.  Along with other dies, you get two matching corners in this set.  I love it when they include two matching corners in a set of dies.  The design paper is from an old paper pack from Kaiser Craft called "Lilac Avenue Collection".  I used small butterfly stamps from the JustRite "Botanical Dreams" stamp set on the design paper.  The sentiment is also from this stamp set.  

Well that was a quick and easy card.  The butterfly will easily flatten down so it is easy to mail to someone - maybe someone who loves purple!

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

Hope you are having a nice warm day.  I think I will go sit in front of the fireplace and read a book now.

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Pink Lilies

I very seldom case cards designed by others, but my friend Glenda Brooks designed a card for Heartfelt Creations that I really loved and I couldn't resist creating one similar.  You can see Glenda's gorgeous card here.

My card is 5.5" x 6".  A piece of bright pink card stock was layered on top.  The pink layer is covered with a piece of vellum that was embossed using the new Spellbinders M-Bossabilities "Splendid" (EL-005) embossing folder.  The corners are some of the new Cheery Lynn "Lace Corner Deco E" (B165) set.  In the center of the card a large Spellbinders Oval was die cut and sponged with pink ink prior to taking it out of the die.  The large cross from the Heartfelt Creations "Going to the Chapel PreCut Set" (HCPC3451) was gold embossed on white card stock and cut out with the matching dies (HCP719).  The gold cross was die cut with another die from this set (HCP719) using gold card stock.  At the top and bottom of this oval, I placed a die cut flourish from Memory Box "Amira Flourish" (98182).   

Two sizes of Lilies from the Heartfelt Creations Pristine Lilies PreCut Set" (HCPC3452) were white embossed on vellum.  There are two layers for each flower.  The flowers were shaped and small pearl stamens were inserted in the center of each flower.  Leaves from Marianne Design (LR0156).  

Thank you Glenda for the inspiration for this beautiful card.

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Spiral Rose Tutorial

I have received several requests to show how I made the "vintage" roses I have been using lately that were die cut with Spiral Rose dies.  I have several different spiral flower dies and I am using one of the Spellbinder Spiral Rose dies and one from Memory Box for this tutorial.   Before I start the tutorial, I will give you the information about this card.  It is a 5.5" x 6" card.  I used the new Spellbinders border from the "Persian Accents".  The whole border was added along the bottom of the card, and just the top portion of that  same border was cut off and used along the top. The background was embossed with one of the new Spellbinders "M-Bossabilities"  (Elite) folder. 

The roses were created using the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" (S4-351) -- which has only one die. When I made this tutorial I did not have the new Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" (S5-086) which has three different sizes of this spiral flower in one package.  You can do a search on Joan's Gardens blog to see the difference in the two sets of dies.   The flourish is from Heartfelt Creations "Bella Rose Die" (HCD 712).  A couple of Marianne Design Leaves (LR0156) and Ivy (LR0206) are tucked under the flowers.  Pink Kaiser Craft Pearls, a feather and a few little white flowers were added to complete the card.

TUTORIAL FOR CREATING VINTAGE STYLE ROSES USING SPIRAL DIES

 You can use any rose spiral flower die to create roses like these.  Joan's Gardens has many different spiral dies from different companies.  This is the large Spellbinders Spiral Rose.  First I mist the die cut with water and let it sit for a couple of minutes then wipe dry with a paper towel. This makes the card stock easy to shape.

Next I kind of accordian folded the strip as shown above.  When the card stock is damp, it will "crunch" up pretty easy.  You don't want it to be an even "crunch" because this is what is going to give the rose petal it's unique texture.

Here you can see I have done this with two different types of spiral flowers.

 I like to create a lot of these flowers at one time and this is a picture of a lot of them that I have "crunched up".  They need to be dry and you can use the heat gun to dry them before continuing to the next step.

When they are dry, I flatten them out so they are back in the spiral shape but not flattening out the wrinkles.

Use the self-closing tweezers and start rolling the strip to create your rose.  You can make the rose as tight or lose as you want.  Many times I will add a little glue right at the beginning along the bottom edge so that the center will stay tight - maybe 1/4" of glue.  See that large circle in the middle - I put glue over that circle, and once the rose is rolled, that becomes the base and you sit the rolled rose on that circle and hold  it a little while until it sticks.  While they are drying, you can go back and press it down one or two more times just to be sure it is sticking to the base.

Here are all the roses I made one evening.  I die cut a lot of them so I could take them with me when I watch TV and I work on them there.  If you use the card stock we use from Joan's Gardens, you can die cut two at once.  I have several different spiral rose dies and place several on a strip of card stock and with two layers of card stock, have a lot die cut with one roll through the die cutting machine.

I hope this tutorial helps you create your roses.  Of course you can just roll the flower and  it makes a very pretty "smooth" petal rose; you can also shape the petals with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit.

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Joan's Gardens Weekly Challenge

Time for a new challenge at Joan's Gardens this week and I have a fun, very easy project for you to complete.  This is a Post-It Note cover.  It is made with a piece of card stock cut 7 1/2" x 3 1/2" and scored at 3 1/2" and 4".  We want you to use this measurement for your cover and decorate it and insert a 3" square pad of Post-It notes. You can check the rest of the challenge rules out over at Joan's Gardens.  

Here is how I decorated my cover.  To create the pretty little pansies (or are they violets) on my cover, I used the following punches:  Small Ovoid Petal; Large Ginkgo; Small Snowflake, Small stamen.  In this picture you can see the punches pieces right under the punches and below that how I sponged the lower end of the petals and drew in lines.  In this photo, I forgot to include the dark purple petals I used for the top portion of the flower, but they are also the Small Ovoid Petal.  All the petals were shaped with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit on the Black Shaping Mat, then glued to the green snowflake.  Very easy to complete these cute little flowers.  

The background on my cover is an embossed piece using the new Spellbinders E-Bossabilities "Splendid" embossing folder (EL-005).  You are going to love these new Spellbinders embossing folders because they are 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" and can emboss a larger piece of card stock but the best thing is that they are two different embossing folders in one folder - they are two sided.  They emboss very deeply.  I have to tell you they are my new favorite embossing folders.  You can check out all the different designs at Joan's Gardens.  

The pretty little doily behind the flowers is from the Cheery Lynn "Dainty Dutch Deco Frame" (DL141).  You get a square doily frame plus this pretty little round doily all on one die.  The pretty border along the bottom edge was created by using one of the new Cheery Lynn Reflections Boutique Mega Dies.  The one I used is the "Horizon Coved Rectangle Mega Doily" (DL193).  You can cut many different size lace edged doilies with these new Reflections Boutique Dies but I chose to cut one edge off and use it as a border.  Isn't is pretty!   The green flourish is the Marianne Design "Forest Branch" (LR0150).  The butterflies is one of the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" (DL112).

I attached the Post-It Note pad to the inside by just pulling off the back cover and placing it next to the score line.  You could also attach it by using a piece of ScorTape along that edge.  Because I want to give this little pad to a friend, I stamped on the top sheet of the Post-It Note pad.  The "Just A Note" sentiment is from the JustRite "Always & Forever Medallion Labels" and the pretty little border under it is from the JustRite "Vintage Oval Labels" stamp set.  I love all these new JustRite stamp sets because they are now "cling" stamps and all the sets have such a variety of sentiments, labels, borders and other pretty things in each set. If you haven't seen the great variety in these new JustRite sets, you should be sure and check them out at Joan's Gardens.

Well I hope you will enjoy completing this fun little project for our challenge this week.  I am so anxious to see what you come up with.  Be sure to go over to Joan's Gardens to check out all the challenge rules and see what the prize is this week. 

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Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop

It is time for the March Heartfelt Creations Alumni Design Team Blog Hop.  If you have come from Carla Suto's blog you are going in order.  There are 8 designers participating in the hop this month.  You will want to visit each blog and leave a comment.  Someone will be picked randomly from one of the designer blogs and win a $25 Gift Certificate from Heartfelt Creations.

My card was designed using the Heartfelt Creations Autumn Corsage stamp (1229G).  This stamp has berries under the flower but I wanted to use it as a Spring flower because it reminds me of flowers on a rose bush I have, so I cut the berries off.  The image was stamped three times.  The whole image, minus the berries was cut out; just the flower; then the center portion of the flower.    Each layer was colored using Koh-I-Noor pencils and OMS, then the three layers attached using pop dots.  Before layering, each level was shaped using the Flower Tool Kit to give it dimension.

In this picture you can see the dimension of the flower.  The background is a piece of the Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" Mini Deck.  The lace under the flower is the Heartfelt Creations "Decorative Lace Border" (HCD 713).  The flower was attached with dimensional dots.  The small pink flowers were stamped using the Heartfelt Creations "Posy Patch Flowers PreCut Set" (HCPC 3303) and cut out with the matching dies (HCD 701).  They were also colored using the Koh-I-Noor pencils and oms.  Yellow Flower Soft was added to the center of all the flowers.  The border along the top of the card is the Memory Box "Pepita Border" (98256).  The tag is one of the Spellbinders "Ribbon Banners" and the sentiment is from the Heartfelt Creations "Springtime Cardinal Collection" sentiment set.  

Remember to leave a comment below then your next stop will be to Clare's blog.  Enjoy to blog hop and we hope we have given you lots of inspiration along the way.  

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

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