So Lucky I Live Hawaii!

Aloha, all!

     And, no, I didn't leave out a word in that blog post title!  People around where I live talk all the time about how fortunate we are to "live Hawaii," not live IN Hawaii!  But whether I live Hawaii or live in Hawaii, where I live brought me to today's stamp design.

     One of the online groups to which I belong – the LNStampers – has a challenge every week.  While I love to look at what everyone does with these challenges, this week's just perfectly met my need to get back into my craft room after several days away from home.  The challenge was to make a card that represents the place where I live!  Of course my craft room, being in Hawaii, looks out over luscious gardens.  My husband has a spectacular garden – people take tours of it rather than spend $$$ to go to commercial gardens! – and the thought of making a card to reflect what I see from my craft room was very appealing!

     The Stampin' Up! stamp set featured in this card is called Greenhouse Garden.  No greenhouse on our property – but lots of garden, and lots of hibiscus, along with other flowers and palms and vireyas, and – well too numerous to mention.  To construct this card, I decided I wanted some floral texture to the background layer.  I immediately thought of the Island Floral Sizzix Die.  I cut several of the smaller 5-petal flowers from that die and glued them together.  Then I ran the Peach Parfait card stock through the Sizzix Big Shot with the stacked flowers acting as a texture plate – my own homemade texture plate!  Then, rather than just use a plain old Garden Green brad, I decided I might as well carry the floral theme through and use the Flower Brads instead. 

     To stamp the flowers from the Greenhouse Garden Stamp Set is a 2-Step Stampin' operation.  You first stamp the solid background (in the light color – Peach Parfait) and then stamp the darker lines using the darker color (in this case, Poppy Parade).  I've found that, with this set, you really do need the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the second stamp with the first.  I also used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the stems from the same set.  I stamped and cut out another of the Hibiscus style flowers, as well as the smaller flower, again from the Greenhouse Garden set.  I carried the Garden Green color from the stem onto the mats for both the smaller layered unit as well as the larger card front.  The finish accent is some of the Poppy Parade 1/2" Stitched-Poly Ribbon featured in the Stampin' Up! catalog.

     Here are some recent photos of some of the flowers blooming right now in our garden.  The hibiscus was my theme for this card, but I just had to show off a Vireya (upper right) and one of our orchids (bottom right). 

     Here's the sketch for today's card, complete with the measurements that I used.  Don't forget that all my blog posts from 2010 that included layout sketches (all WITH measurements!) are in my 2010 Card Layout eBook that is now for sale!  For more information, click on the link at the top of the column to the right.  It's really a fun book – I use it myself all the time (go figure).

     Maybe you can use this to make a card that shows off where YOU live!  Join in the fun, but certainly have fun with whatever you do!!