Embellishing a Simple Layout

Aloha, all, and welcome to this month's "VC Rocks!" blog hop!

     VC Rocks is an online community that celebrates Stampin' Up!'s annual convention with a "Virtual Convention" that lasts all summer long.  It's a fun group whose summer-long activities are starting to wind down.  But not before we have one more blog hop, featuring punches and Sizzix design tools!  The whole blog hop roster is listed here at the VC Rocks blog site.  If you came from Elizabeth Kratzer's blog, then you've already seen some fab projects for this hop!  Now onto my project.

     Just about any time I need a quick card, I can come up with something simple that I can get done in just a few minutes.  But when I'm in a hurry, embellishing the card beyond a layer or two and a brad or two seems to be just that much more time I have to spend to make the card.

     But with some of Stampin' Up!'s newest accessories, embellishing is so much easier and quicker!

     To begin, this card is a CASEd card, as in Copy And Share with Everyone.  The original design was in a magazine that Stampin' Up! publishes for its demonstrators.  Every month they have several projects that we can use for classes and for quick Make and Take projects, such as this one.  So the first step towards this card being quick is that I didn't have to design it.

     After that, everything was so easy – and did I mention quick?  I cut the paper to be 11" long by 4-1/4" wide, and ran one half of it through the Sizzix Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.  One of the best features of this embossing folder is that those polka dots are placed in nice neat rows, so there's no fussing to make sure the card stock is in there straight.  Just prop it up against a row of polka dots, and it's straight!

     The flowers were easy, too – just punch them out with two Stampin' Up! punches, add a dot of glue and done!  In this case, the punches were the Boho Blossoms Punch and one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.  I added a Basic Pearl and voila!  Done! 

     Finally, there's the sentiment element, stamped with one of the stamps from the Four Frames Stamp Set and then punched with the Decorative Label Punch, with a sentiment from the Sassy Salutations Stamp Set.  But the newest of the accessories is what I think really makes this card stand out – the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack!  I just laid the paper piercing template over the stamped/punched sentiment and used my Paper-Piercing Tool to punch that delightful outline around the outside.  I used the same template to punch around the oval shape in the middle, too, but the lighting for this photograph washed that out a bit.  Looks fine in person, though!

     So there's the card – oh, and tied up with a piece of the Pool Party Baker's Twine as the final touch.  Fun – and really quick, as long as you have those Stampin' Up! tools around.  You do know that you can order them any time at all by clicking on this link to my Stampin' Up! store.  Or you can send me an e-mail any time and I'll be glad to help you place your order!

     Now back to some projects that take just a bit more time!  And if you'd like to continue on the blog hop, you'll be traveling next to Carey Rogers' Blog, where she has a fun tutorial!