Aloha, all!
You have to know that I’m spending most of my time these days either making cards or writing notes in them to send out. That’s one reason why there are not too many blog posts lately. This was about to happen again when I pulled out all of my goodies from the Ornate Garden Suite to design a card to show off here today. But I got things under control and finally made a card.
How Do You Figure Out Where to Start?
I had stamps, paper, ribbon, dies, cardstock – all at the ready! But where was I going to start. In the beginning, I started with one of the dies from the Ornate Layers Dies. But I’d pretty much decided that my main color was going to be Terracotta Tile (just because I like it better than everything else at the moment). And nothing I tried was working the way I wanted to.
So out came the Designer Series Paper (DSP) first. I focused on the colorful floral prints that are a big part of this DSP set and chose the one with the smaller daisies. I cut a piece and laid it on a piece of Terracotta Tile cardstock. And then I stared at it. Nothing was speaking to me at all after that. The next half hour was truly painful as I WANTED TO USE IT ALL! But I had to hold myself back.
And this is what I ended up with. The ribbon is one of the ribbons in the Ornate Gardens suite, and it’s the first time I’ve used it. I have to tell you about this ribbon. I knew I was going to like it. So, when demonstrators had a chance to preorder products in March, I ordered the whole suite AND two extra ribbon combos. The Terracotta Time ribbon is almost all used up as I used it for my main Easter Cards this year. I have a feeling that the Old Olive ribbon is not far behind.
The Three Steps
The first thing I realized was that the cardstock was just too plain to be a part of this card. How do you deal with plain? You texturize! The beautiful Ornate Floral 3D Embossing Folder did that very well. After than, I had no problem using glue to adhere the DSP!
Then I ran the ribbon around the card front. As I was deciding where to place the bow, I realized that the Medium Daisy Punch was a perfect accent for the DSP! So I made a couple of daisies and arranged them around the bow. Perfect placement (IMHO). I loved that I still had some of the Perennial Essence Floral Centers embellishments to add to these delightful little flowers!
Finally I needed a sentiment. As there is a sentiment stamp set in the suite, it was natural for this to become a Thank You card. I chose two of the sentiment stamps – “Thanks” and “ever so much.” And out came the precursor to all this “ornate” stuff, the Ornate Frames Dies. They were in the Stampin’ Up! 2019 Holiday Catalog, and are still available. I used two dies – one for the sentiment itself, and one for the “ornate” frame.
This Will Definitely Be a Long-Time Favorite!
How could this not be a suite that’s on the top of my list of products to use during the rest of the Spring and the Summer of 2020. The best thing about this whole collection of products is that it’s COLORFUL! And in these seasons of a pandemic, colorful means cheerful and we all need cheerful these days. Check out the whole product line on Stampin’ Up! and see if it’s something that might help you cheer up, too!
Happy Stamping!
