Aloha, all!
When I was a child, the month of March meant two things to me: first, the grass in our front yard started turning to green and, second, it meant that St. Patrick's Day was going to be coming soon. Yes, I grew up in a family that was more than half Irish. My mother's family on both sides were immigrants from Ireland (County Roscommon) and my father's family, though possessed of a very German name, had Revolutionary War naval hero, John Barry (County Wexford), as an ancestor. So, when the theme for the current Stampin' Up! Only Challenge (suochallenges.com) came up as "Celebrating Green," what could I do but make a St. Patrick's Day card!
Now, you know that this is a "Stampin' Up! Only" challenge. So where did I find those shamrocks, you might well ask. If you look closely at these shamrocks and at the Stampin' Up! Over the Rainbow Stamp Set, you might see that I used the little watercolor-style heart to form the leaflets of those little shamrocks. I was amazed at how easy it was to stamp those photopolymer hearts into a shamrock. I could see right through the clear block on which I mounted the stamp and these are the three and only shamrocks I stamped. No muss, no fuss!
After that, I had to figure out what I was going to do with those little gems. After a bit of thought, I went with the tried and true technique of die-cutting them with some squares (in this case, the smallest of the Stitched Shapes Framelits squares. And, of course, since the newest 2017 Sale-a-bration FREE products have just been introduced, I had to add in some of the Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper from the brand new 6" x 6" Glimmer Paper Assortment Pack. I'd already worked a bit with this Glimmer Paper and have decided that the best accent color to use with it is Garden Green. So I mounted the matted squares on some Garden Green Cardstock and then onto another layer of the Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper.
For my original design (just below this paragraph) I simply added a stamped Happy St. Patrick's Day greeting from the Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set, stamped onto Whisper White Cardstock, and die cut with a shape from the Bunch of Banners Framelits set.
This is the card that I had at this point. I thought it needed something more, but nothing I could think of at the moment worked the way I wanted. I even asked my husband to come look at the card to see if he thought it looked liked a finished card. Even he hesitated, but then said, "It looks fine." Hmmm. It wasn't until the next morning when I walked in and looked at it again (after all the photographing and editing) and thought, "Gold"! Of course. It needed gold. The first thing that I did was to add some of the Metallic Enamel Shapes. I forget that I have those metallic shapes – I have got to keep them out so I remember how fun they are! And that looked so cool, and really upped the design of the card.
Still, it needed something more. I glanced around and spotted my almost-depleted spool of Gold Metallic Thread. No, I did not take the card apart to get that metallic thread under the squares. I wound some thread around my fingers, squirted some of the glue from the Fine-Tip Glue Pen under the center square on both sides, and just pushed some of that thread underneath. Yes, it might have been neater if I'd just started the card over again. But this was my card design, and I was sticking (literally) to it!
One of the projects that I made for my March Newsletter includes another fun project featuring a different way to create shamrocks. Now's the time to sign up for my newsletter to make sure that you get to see that project (I won't share it here) and get a tutorial for making it!
If you're interested in making this project, here are the products that you can purchase in my very own Stampin' Up! shop online! Just click on any of the pictures below to get to the store and order any of the products you'd like to help you with some fun St. Patrick's Day cards. I've listed each of the stock numbers at the very end should you wish just to enter them all into an order form with little fuss!
Over the Rainbow Stamp Set: 138770
Stitched Shapes Framelits: 145372
Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set: 127802
Bunch of Banners Framelits: 141488
Metallic Enamel Shapes: 141678
Gold Metallic Thread: 138401
Fine-Tip Glue Pen: 138309
Hi Robin! I, and a few others I know, celebrate St. Patrick's Day as our birthday. Previsouly I tried to make really fun and unusual dual cards but the last two years I had major upsets at that time and didn't send anything. Well, this year it should be a surprise to them as I want to do it again. I am contemplating this card and either putting cupcakes in the 1st & 3rd spots or just one in the middle. I think the mint macaron glimmer paper makes it more fun but I don't have any. I like the card on 3/8 also so I might try something fun between the two. Or, go completely out on my own? I just wanted to tell you I enjoy your blog and creations as I seldom take the time to comment and I apologize for that.