Take a 6 inch square card blank with the fold at the top. Score a line 3 inches down and crease to make an easel shape card. Create a lacy border on the bottom, I used Martha Stewart Blossom Deep Edge Punch.
To make the background for the card take Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pads – VINTAGE PHOTO and Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pads – SHABBY SHUTTERS. Directly apply the ink pads to the surface of a Ranger Melt Art Non-Stick Craft Sheet. A couple of swipes of colour should do the trick, but you can always add more, try not to mix the colours together on the sheet, as you might contaminate your ink pads. Using Ranger Inkssentials Mini Mister – PACK OF THREE spray the craft sheet with water. Take a piece of white card 5″ x 3.75″, I used A4 300 GSM White Card – 20 Sheets ( as you really need a decent weight card for this technique). Blot the card over the watered ink on the craft sheet to pick up the colour, do this in small sections so you’re picking up the different colour tones. Dry with a heat gun, I used Ranger Heat it Craft Tool, then repeat the process. You can watch this techniqe on my Video Secion – Ranger Distress Ink Techniques.
Next using the Hobby Art – Anna’s Collection – Just For You set of stamps and a VersaFine Ink Pad – Onyx Black randomly stamp the flowers and grasses. Stamp them at different levels so they don’t look regimented, and by over-stamping some of the images it will add to the overall effect. To get a misty effect, stamp the odd image twice without re-inking, this will give the impression that some of the flowers/grasses are in the background. Finally stamp the dragonfly, and apply small dots of Stickles – Stardust glitter glue randomly over the flowers and dragonfly’s wings. Mount onto AC PLAIN CARDSTOCK – BLACK then AC CARDSTOCK – WAVE then finally AC CARDSTOCK – CRICKET. Tie a thin piece of ribbon around the green card before mounting this onto the bottom section of the folded card. Attach a button I used Maya Road Trinket Buttons – Grass to the centre of the ribbon.
‘With Thanks’ was stamped three times onto a narrow piece of white card, which was mounted onto a slightly larger piece of black card, finally being mounted onto a 2″x6″ piece of card was had been punched with the Blossom punch to create a lacy border. 3d foam was used underneath this to create the stopper for the easel.
As the last card took about 45 minutes to make, I thought I would now show how effective the stamps are even when making a couple of pretty quick cards.
I love to use embossing folders, but I also like to use larger cards that are too big to fit fully into even some of the bigger folders that are currently on the market, so I cheated with this one, and you can’t tell at all.
Take a 6″ square piece of white card and cut in half. Emboss the two seperate halves in your chosen embossing folder. I used Embossing Folder – Flourish from Creative Expressions, which is slightly bigger than the Cuttlebug folders. Mount them onto a 6″ square card blank. Cut a piece of white card 5.75″x2″ then using Hobby Art – Anna’s Collection – Just For You, randomly stamp the flowers and grasses as before on the previous card, using VersaFine Ink Pad – Onyx Black. Stamp the dragonfly and bee, and finish off with Stickles – Diamond glitter glue. Mount onto AC PLAIN CARDSTOCK – BLACK measuring 6″x2.25″.
Finally punch a white circle and a slightly larger black one. Stamp the ‘Just for You’ on the white circle, mount onto the black and place on the bottom corner of the card using 3d foam pads.
Take an A6 white blank card and an embossing folder of your choice, I used Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Script Texture and emboss the front of the card. Cut two pieces of white card 2.75″x3.75″ and 2.75″x0.75″ and stamp the large flower and ‘With Thanks’ onto these using Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pads – FIRED BRICK, mount theses onto coloured card which is slightly larger than the white, I used AC PLAIN CARDSTOCK – POMEGRANATE. I doodled a wavy line around the images using a corresponding fine line pen, tied a small rafia bow which I glued in on the stem of the flower, and finally dabbed small amounts of Stickles – Crystal glitter glue onto the flower.
I love this card, the lacey border look so elegant, I think it would be perfect for wedding invitations.
Take an A4 sheet of white card and make a tri-fold card. I used The Ultimate Crafter’s Companion Pro by Crafter’s Companion to make easy, acurate measurements. Unfold the card and measure 3.5″ up from the left hand side, then drew a line from this point to the very top right hand side. With a craft knife and ruler cut between the two points. Use the Martha Stewart Blossom Deep Edge Punch to create the border. Then simply take lots of different coloured ink pads and the Hobby Art – Anna’s Collection – Just For You and build up the garden border, finishing off with the dragonflies and Stickles – Stardust glitter glue. Alternatively use marker pens directly onto the stamps instead of ink pads.
Another set of stamps that would work on all of these cards would be Umount Meadow Flora A5 Stamp Plate from Creative Expressions.