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April Showers Brought…May Flower Cards

May 7, 2020

Flower Cards In Exchange

My latest card exchange just took place! In April, while the showers fell around us and we gathered in our crafty places, flower cards were being made. All this, in an effort to share sunshine and exchange a flower card with a fellow papercrafter.

This exchange was similar to my Val Pal Card Exchange for heart themed cards in January/February. The directions were simple yet again. First, make a card with a flower on it. Next, mail it to me with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Lastly, receive another card-maker’s work in exchange. So fun to swap, even more exciting to see what flower cards everyone came up with!

The Flower Cards

Without further ado, let me introduce the flower cards of May, and delve into the intricate details of each!

Isabella’s Card

Isabella started with a round card base, from a previous Paper Pumpkin kit, that is silver-light blue (blue is her favorite color!). On a punched out pink heart, she drew a lovely flower design, coloring with markers.

The inside of Isabella’s card tells the story. April showers bring May flowers is her theme, with plenty of stormy clouds and rain in April, and beautiful spring flowers, triumphant in May. Besides flowers, Isabella loves to draw dragons. Her card is a masterpiece in art!

Ginny’s Card

The sentiment on Ginny’s card, “you can do it” is so encouraging! As is the bright Daffodil Delight yellow of her fabulous card. The delicate lacy overlay provides an exceptional back-drop for the bright pop of posy.

The leaves on Ginny’s card are stamped and die-cut. The flower is multi-layered, in the die cuts of designer series paper and stamped image, as well as punched cardstock. The center of her flower is a lovely pearl. Altogether, this flower card gives off feel-good positive sunshine-day vibes!

Dolores’ Card

Dolores used the Tulip Builder Punch (one of my favorites!) for her flower garden. The beautiful colors, yellow, red and pink, portray these tulips perfectly. She used a white gel pen to create outlines and dots, creating unique patterns on each one.

The spring green card base and layering piece are corner rounded on all four sides. Dolores’ flower stems and leaves are hand-drawn and colored, a perfect shade, complimentary to the card base. The sentiment, in red, is sweetly placed above the flowers. This card captures the essence of spring in the best possible way!

Jane’s Card

Even though Jane’s card is blue, it certainly doesn’t make us feel that way! Her card base is created with the retiring In Color, Blueberry Bushel. Jane hand-stamped flowers directly, then stamped off for the patterned background.

The leaf sprig on Jane’s card is die cut, with intricate vein detailing. Her gorgeous blue flowers were punched from cardstock and then shaped and curled by hand. The center of each flower is a carefully placed golden seed pearl. This card is such a lovely rendition of the classic blue and white combination!

Linda’s Card

Linda used the popular March Paper Pumpkin kit, No Matter The Weather, to help her create her exchange card. To the adorable girl in the rainboots with the umbrella card front, Linda added some additional, cheerful rainboots, using dimensionals to add depth. She hand-stamped a flower and flourish swirl, popping a perfect pink heart in the center of the latter.

Linda continued her floral theme on the inside, creating two baskets overflowing with stamped and colored flowers. To the top, she added an additional die cut spray of flowers, using dimensionals to give it a lift. Her card has undeniable charm!

Alisa’s Card

Alisa created a card in fun and bright colors on a Crushed Curry card base! Her background lays the foundation, with hand-drawn flowers done in watercolor pencils. A wash of water softened the pencil lines and blended the pinks, yellows, oranges and purples wonderfully.

Alisa hand-stamped and punched the top flower, then watercolored it. The neighboring flowers were punched in pink cardstock. She added additional flowers in tiny stature randomly, and accented her card with yellow, orange and pink embellishments. This card is a real pick-me-up, happy day card!

Holiday’s Card

Holiday created her flower card, starting with a soft gray-blue base. She used excellent layering technique, starting with the yellow and white stripe design paper. Her next layer is done in bright yellow, covered in a variety of hand-stamped flowers that really draw the eye!

For her focal flower, Holiday added a soft orange watercolor washed die cut as a backdrop. On top of that, sits the fun, open-looped 5 petal flower, in a peachy orange color. The center of her flower is an adorable, perfectly sized yellow sticker. The color combinations used here are well chosen, making this card a complete joy to behold!

Steph’s Card

You may be looking at this card and wondering what this one has to do with flowers. Steph took a unique and quirky stab at this, for sure! The April Showers theme plays out well on the front, with a stormy Granite Gray card base and a dozen-and-a-half crystal raindrops. There is even a cloudy sentiment above the pile of (flower embossed, upside down heart) shaped poo that is sitting on die cut grass. But inside…

Steph suggests if life hands you, well, you know…Grow A fresh start. Make the best out of what you are given! The individual letters are hand-stamped in gradient rainbow colors before she die cut them. There are 6 daisy’s, each inked differently, then hand punched. The bees are from a Paper Pumpkin kit, as well as the silver foiled banner. Let’s remember that rain and fertilizer grow the best flowers. This is a laugh out loud, memorable card full of countless details!

Julie’s Card

I chose the stamp set, Grace’s Garden, and the coordinating dies, Garden Gateway, for my flower card. I wanted to create a fun-fold card that would accent the die cut garden gate, and the double easel fold card came to mind.

While it may look technically difficult, it is simple scoring, folding and layering. There was a lot of coloring and die cutting, as well as some sponging, to bring it all together. Tomorrow’s blog post will feature the card recipe and pictoral how-to of the making of this flower card, so come back for more details if you are interested in seeing how this card was created.

Friends Are Flowers In The Garden Of Life

My April Showers Bring May Flower Cards Exchange was so much fun! My request for you to join me in making a flower card for exchange gave me something to look forward to, as cards were received by mail.

Now, as I mail these cards randomly to the participants in return, you have the sweet anticipation of wondering which one of these cards will show up in your mailbox soon!

I truly appreciate all who took the time to participate and share their love of cardmaking with others. There is great joy in the simple sending and receiving of a thoughtful, homemade card! Please continue to craft, create, and send sunshine to others. Be the unexpected flower in someone’s day!

Look forward to the next card exchange, Fall For Cards, with a fall theme, coming this September. I hope to see your participating card, then! More details will follow later…

Country Road In Crumb Cake

May 4, 2020

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Monday’s are hard, but in this cardmaking series, I will show you that stamping shouldn’t be. In fact, it’s quite easy. And with minimal supplies and minimal efforts, you can get fabulous results! To see last week’s Monday Card, click here.

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Country Road. We are using 5 out of the 6 stamps in this set to make our card. This stamp set is soon retiring, so if you want to purchase it, time is of the essence. To view more retiring products, click here.

Country Road Stamp Set, item # 151356 — Country Road Stamp Set, item #151356

As with all our Monday Cards, we are using minimal supplies with minimal efforts to get fabulous results. So with one stamp set, Country Road, two ink pads, Early Espresso and Poppy Parade, and two colors of cardstock, Crumb Cake and Poppy Parade, we will get to work!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

Crumb Cake CS: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″ for card base.

Crumb Cake CS: 2 x 4″, 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″, 2 1/4 x 3″

Scrap of Crumb Cake CS: for wagon wheel and hole punch

Poppy Parade CS: 2 1/2 x 3 1/4″, 3 1/4 x 4″, scrap for star

Stamp and Assemble

This Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be Card starts out with the typical “fold in half” and score with your bonefolder to get a great crisp card base. Let’s not break tradition.

However, my TIP to you is to score once, invert the fold and score again. Your inner crease is now as crisp as the outer one. This makes for a professional looking card base!

Create Your Own Designer Series Paper

With the minimal supplies used in this card, we are not adding designer series paper to it. We are making our own! This great background pattern technique can be used with any stamp sets you own.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as you will be stamping off the edge of your cardstock. Starting with the Poppy Parade 3 1/4 x 4″ CS and Poppy Parade Ink, I stamped the grass image from the Country Road Stamp Set 3-4 times across. It is okay to overlap slightly for this tone on tone look.

Next, I stamped with the phrase stamp, “nothing’s better than…” from the Country Road Stamp Set. Here I used the Crumb Cake CS 2 x 4″ piece and Early Espresso Ink. I did not overlap this stamp, but created a random pattern. I think it looks like newspaper clippings haphazardly assembled.

Both pieces of the newly created background stamped cardstock are ready to be layered on the card front. There is room to keep a gap between the Crumb Cake on the bottom and the Poppy Parade on the top.

Adding background cardstock to card front

Card Focal Point

The focal point of this card is the horse weathervane from the Country Road Stamp Set. I stamped it on the Crumb Cake 2 1/4 x 3″ piece using Early Espresso Ink. This stamp is a tight fit for this paper, so I focused on centering the horse.

Immediately after stamping my weathervane, I folded my cardstock in a crumpling manner. Since my ink was still slightly “wet”, this smeared in a good way.

Next, I held some of the creased folds upward and used my Early Espresso Ink Pad to apply splotches of additional ink. This creates a great “weathered” weathervane. It will be uniquely different each time!

Horse Weathervane Stamp from Country Road Stamp Set

This weathervane is now ready to be layered on our card front. I used the Crumb Cake 2 1/2 x 3 1/4″ piece as the bottom layer. Next, I added the Poppy Parade 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ piece in the middle. Lastly, I adhered the weathered weathervane as the top layer.

When I placed this layering piece on my cardfront, I was sure to add it to the left and keep a balance between the top and bottom stamped background images. I needed to have room to add my wagon wheel next.

Let’s Get Fussy

For the next portion of stamping, I used scraps, Early Espresso Ink and my Paper Snips. That’s right, time to fussy cut. In my video, I noted that a 1 3/4″ circle punch would make quick work of the wagon wheel from the Country Road Stamp Set. (That would make your Monday even easier.)

Wagon Wheel and Star Stamp from Country Road Stamp Set

After fussy cutting my wheel and star, I adhered them together. The star fits nicely in the center of the wagon wheel. For additional color and interest, I used my office hole punch and a scrap of Crumb Cake CS. The tiny circle is the perfect accompaniment to the star’s center.

Do It Yourself Lift Kit

My Monday Cards are uniquely simple, using minimal supplies. I did not mention Dimensionals in the ingredient list. You will not need them. You can make your own. Here’s how:

When adding an element to your card front that already has some layering on it, the top piece may need a lift (somewhere) to help it sit nicely. I simply count how many layers “up” I need to go to make my piece flush. Then I trim some like-color cardstock in the required number of layers.

After I adhere my home-made dimensionals to the back of my card element, I use adhesive to add it to the card front. With the extra lift where it is needed, the wagon wheel sits flush and does not wobble. No one wants a wobbly wagon wheel!

The Insider Job

Your card is beautiful on the outside, now lets make it pretty inside too! I like to mimic some of the outer stamping into a corner of the inside card. This way the card has continuity and there is still lots of room to add your own sentiment or written thoughts.

Here, I used the same technique from the stamping of the grass to add that inside interest. I stamped once in the bottom corner, using Poppy Parade Ink, then immediately stamped again, overlapping the first image.

Step It Up

More is more. If you like to add more, there is always the option to do so. For my stepped up version of the Country Road Stamp Set Card, I chose to add a copper element from Designer Elements to my wagon wheel center. These elements come in gold and silver, additionally.

The Kraft Rope Trim melds seamlessly with our horse and Country Road theme, but sadly is not a current Stampin’ Up! Product. When you add elements to your cards, make them unique with whatever product you happen to have on hand.

Country Road Enjoyment

I hope you enjoyed making this easy card on a hard Monday with me. My video tutorial can be found on my FaceBook page, as well as my YouTube channel. If you need any supplies for this card, please feel free to visit my online store, https://www.juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be!

Sharing Sunshine Digital Stamp Set Part III

May 1, 2020

Creating With Digital Stamps

My Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set review is coming to its conclusion. We have covered purchasing the stamp set and donating to the COVID-19 charities in Part I. In Part II, I gave suggestions on printing and storing the digital stamps. And, each post has offered examples of cards I made using the Share Sunshine Digital Stamps, and insights of creation.

Today, I continue my tips on using the Share Sunshine Digital Stamps. I will also add some pros and cons of these kinds of stamps.

My Number One Tip

I have been learning how to best use digital stamps. And, I have discovered that crazily chopping up all the images is not the greatest idea.

In the included index for the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, there are recommendations as to which punches and dies will coordinate with the stamps. If you want to use some of them, you need enough paper surrounding your image to do so. Pre-chopping images may hinder the use of a die or punch.

Therefore, I highly suggest you carefully choose and then cut to suit your intended purpose. (Or, just print out more images. There is always that option, too!)

Other Great Tips:

Use your cutting tool to get straight lines. In order for you to to use dies and punches, you will be required to cut your paper.

You can also select an image from the file, then copy and paste to print single items. This will give you plenty of room to work with too.

Pros of Digital Stamps

You can print these stamps ahead, store them and use them quickly and easily. There are no limits to the amount of times you can print from your purchased file.

There are no stamping errors here. Gone are smears, shady outlines and crooked images.

I love that these stamps won’t fall off their blocks, or get lost in my crafting piles of creativity. No need to clean them up after using them.

Less inky fingers. I only say less because you may still be inking other stamps to go with these digital images. Still, less inky fingers.

Cons Of Digital Stamps

You aren’t actually stamping. We love to stamp, don’t we?

While the images come in options of black or color, the colors are pre-determined. You don’t get to chose a specific color.

You will need electric, a computer, the internet, a printer and most importantly, printer ink. Makes grabbing a physical stamp and ink pad sound easy, right?

The images are great, but…there are techniques that don’t work. For example, you can’t mask them to use partial images like you could with physical stamps. These won’t work for second generation or shadow images. You can’t heat emboss these images. I bet you can think of even more limitations if you put your mind to it!

Is There A Stamp For That?

There are so many occasions and thoughts, words and phrases that we, as cardmakers, want to express artistically. Digital stamps, like those found in the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, give us the opportunity to voice our feelings.

A digital stamp set is much less expensive than the typical red rubber or photopolymer, manufacturing costs are nil. And a digital stamp set has the ability to pack so much more imagery into the included offering. Space is not limited to a stamp case or two.

Digital stamps may be perfect for beginner crafters with limited supplies. After printing the stamps, they can be simply cut and added to cardstock. Maybe a little designer series paper and some ribbon complete the look, and you have yourself a card! Now, it’s time to share sunshine, by giving that card away…

Have Another Quaran-tini!

Quarantini card made with Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set

All the images on this happy hour card are part of the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set. The “martini” is a perfect example of an image that is not exclusive to social distancing. Long term value, there.

Old Olive was the perfect choice for my cardstock base, and Terracotta Tile embossed with the Eyelet Lace Embossing Folder helped mimic the martini olives. I added Crushed Curry to spice things up, and Old Olive Stitched Edge Ribbon as my embellishment.

A quick coloring job with my Stampin’ Blends make this beverage good enough to get a chuckle out of, without actually imbibing.

There’s No Place Like Home (For Now)

No Place Like Home card made with Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set

The Gray Granite color in the sentiment was replicated in my card base and Neutrals 6×6″ DSP. I wanted “home” to be represented in colors we associate with love: pink and red. Therefore, Blushing Bride and Poppy Parade moved into my neighborhood.

I created the houses using the retired stamp set, Holiday Home, and the retired dies, Homemade Holiday Framelits. When I culled my stamp stash for housing choices, they were indeed vast. In The City, Pop On By, Cozy Cottage and At Home With You were almost used.

As is my tendency, I like to use small strips of leftover cardstock as embellishment. I also punched 2 small hearts using a retired mini punch, to show additional love here.

Things I Miss:

News flash! There is a list of things I miss. It is actually a lot longer than this list, however we only have 5 1/2″ of vertical space to work with on our card front.

I chose the black image from the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set, and kept this one on the dark side (much like the humor here) by using a black card base. I am a huge fan of newsprint type DSP, and I picked a piece from the Call Sail Away Collection.

This card is kept simple on purpose. The focus remains on the list of missed things. I want my recipient to know “YOU” are missed.

What A Year This Week Has Been

And how! We can all relate to this sentiment. I will use this one for any difficult times. I wanted to keep this card extra fun, so I used bright pops of color, Pretty Peacock as my base, and adding in Granny Apple Green and Gorgeous Grape.

The DSP is from the Brights 6×6″ Collection. My fair lady is from the retired stamp set, Just Kidding. She has wonderful opinions to share at any time. I did some great coloring of this image using my Stampin’ Blends.

I stamped the calendar images from the retired set, Project Life, Day To Day. This stamp set also has images of January-December, and Sunday-Saturday. If I could have incorporated more on my card, I would have. (I do have self-control issues from time to time in that regard.)

Share Sunshine!

Regardless if you purchase the Share Sunshine Digital Stamp Set or not, the important thing is to share sunshine. As cardmakers, this is easy to do. Make a card, mail it, and cheer someone up.

Digital Stamps may be a thing of the future. We could see more and more of them being offered by Stampin’ Up!. Taking the time to learn a little about them now will make it easier for you to decide if they are something you want in your craft arsenal.

As always, my online store, https://juliemakson.stampinup.net, is open for business. Get the supplies you need to create the sunshine you will be sharing. Someone will be very glad that you took the time to show them you care!

The Maine Stamper

Julie Makson Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator