Mango Melody

Nature’s Harvest In Polished Pink

Card made with Nature's Harvest Stamp Set in Polished Pink, Mango Melody and Mossy Meadow.

In Color: Polished Pink, Part I

Nature’s Harvest evokes thoughts of fall colors, and Polished Pink does not fit in that category. But anything is possible in cardmaking, as you may know.

Last month, I explored color options in Fresh Freesia. This month, I am exploring another 2021-2023 In Color by Stampin’ Up!: Polished Pink.

I love this bright, cheerful pink. For my featured card, I am pairing it with Mango Melody and Mossy Meadow.

Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set

Are you a nature lover? Even if you’re not, I bet you can identify the flower called Black-Eyed Susan. And the newly released Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set honors that very flower.

The focal flower for my card is naturally yellow and black. As such, the color Mango Melody, a deep yellow, was the perfect choice for my petals. My other color selection, Mossy Meadow, is a gorgeous rich green for the foliage.

Black-Eyed Susan

Stamping the Black-Eyed Susan Stamp from the Nature's Harvest Stamp Set in Mossy Meadow Ink.

I began making my card using the Black-Eyed Susan stamp from the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set. First, I inked it in my Mossy Meadow Ink Pad onto a piece of 2 1/2 x 4″ paper. The image of this awesome stamp has three uniquely facing flowers.

Next, I used a Blender Pen and colored in my stamped image. For the petals, I used Mango Melody Ink. I continued with Mossy Meadow Ink for the leaves and stems. And for the center of the two larger flowers, I used Early Espresso Ink. Between each color, I simply scribbled the old ink off the tip of my Blender Pen, and moved to the next ink pad.

Coloring the Black-Eyed Susan Stamp from the Nature's Harvest Stamp Set using ink pads and a blender pen.

Design Some Paper/Designer Series Paper

When it comes to sentiment stamps, the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set has some lovely ones. And one of my favorite things to do with a sentiment stamp is create a background paper.

For my card, I worked with a piece of Polished Pink Cardstock, 3 1/8 x 4 3/8″ in size. I used Polished Pink Ink and stamped my chosen sentiment from the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set in a random pattern from top to bottom. Be sure to have scrap paper behind your cardstock, as your stamping will spill over the sides.

Background stamping using a sentiment stamp from the Nature's Harvest Stamp Set.

To compliment my Polished Pink Cardstock and pull my other featured colors into this card, I turned to Designer Series Paper. I love that every Stampin’ Up! color is represented in 6 x 6″ assortments. I pulled out the Brights Collection for Mango Melody, and the Neutrals Collection for Mossy Meadow.

Brights and Neutrals DSP Collections.

Nature’s Harvest Sentiment

Do you remember the sentiment stamp from the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set that I used to create my background imagery? I used the same stamp for the focal sentiment too.

This time, I stamped the sentiment using Early Espresso Ink onto a piece of white cardstock that measured 3/4 x 3″. Next, I stamped off using Mango Melody Ink and the “splotch” stamp from the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set, to add a little yellow to my sentiment piece.

Stamping the focal sentiment from the Nature's Harvest Stamp Set.

Polished Pink (And More) Layers

I typically build some of my card layers by adhering them together before I add them to my card front. For my sentiment, I added a back layer in Mossy Meadow. After I centered my Polished Pink stamped cardstock onto the Mango Melody DSP, I attached the stamped flower piece, placing this toward the bottom and left.

Adhering card layer pieces together.

I chose a card base in Early Espresso Cardstock because it is a deep, neutral color that helps to anchor the combination of Polished Pink, Mango Melody and Mossy Meadow. To my base, I adhered a 2 x 5 1/2″ strip of Mossy Meadow DSP, then built my card layers upon it.

Card front in progress.

Nature’s Harvest Finishing Touches

Before I placed my sentiment layer on my card, I added a 7″ piece of Polished Pink Open Weave Ribbon. I attached my ribbon with a small piece of Tear & Tape Adhesive, which I later covered with my sentiment.

Adding Polished Pink Open Weave Ribbon to the card front.

I wanted to give my sentiment some lift, so I applied Dimensionals to the back of it. In this case, the pre-cut dimensionals were already used, so I snipped off some of the edging instead. Even the outer shell is useful, so don’t ever throw it away!

Applying Dimensionals to the back of the sentiment piece.

Once my sentiment was attached to my card, I played with the ribbon a little bit. I tied a small bow around the top of the Polished Pink ribbon using Linen Thread. Then, by adding a couple of Mini Glue Dots beneath my raised sentiment, I was able to loop the dangling bottom Polished Pink ribbon pieces up and under. For this, I found the spatula end of my Take Your Pick Tool most helpful!

Getting fancy with the ribbon.

Nature’s Harvest and Polished Pink

Finished card with the Nature's Harvest Stamp Set.
At the beginning of this color challenge, I wasn’t sure if I could pull off one card that contained Polished Pink, Mango Melody and Mossy Meadow. By choosing the Nature’s Harvest Stamp Set with the Black-Eyed Susan stamp, two of my colors immediately made sense. From there, I just needed to add in some Polished Pink!

I hope you’ll agree that these colors on this card work well together. If you are looking for any of the supplies that went into the making of this card, head over to my online store. And be sure to come back for Polished Pink Parts Two and Three, as I continue to explore this fun In Color with new cards this month.

Butterfly Wishes In Smoky Slate

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Butterfly Wishes Card in Smoky Slate

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!

Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Butterfly Wishes. This wonderful stamp set is a carry-over to the new Stampin’ Up! 2020-2021 Annual Catalog. To see last Monday’s card, which also features a butterfly, click here.

Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set, item #149346

There are 2 stamps in this set that coordinate with the Butterfly Duet Punch. However, since we are using minimal supplies, this Monday Card only uses the stamp set.

Butterfly Duet Punch, item #148523, coordinates with the stamp set Butterfly Wishes, but we are not using the punch for our minimal supplies card.

That’s right, our minimal supplies include one stamp set, Butterfly Wishes, two ink pads, Basic Gray and Mango Melody, and two colors of cardstock, Smoky Slate and Whisper White. Please follow along!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Smoky Slate CS: 3 3/4 x 5″

Whisper White CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ x 2 (one for inside, optional)

Whisper White CS: 3 1/4 x 4 1/2″, 1 1/2 x 3 1/4″ and 1 x 3 ¼

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 bone folder 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!

Smoky Slate Cardstock and Bone Folder

Basic Stamping

I started with the branch stamp from the Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set. Using Basic Gray Ink, I placed this stamp at an angle about half-way down the 3 1/4 x 4 1/2″ Whisper White CS.

Branch stamp from Butterfly Wishes stsmp set
Notice the lighter areas of the stamped image. I did not miss ink coverage when I tapped my stamp in the ink pad. This is a DistINKtive Stamp, intended to give shading with high and low ink coverage.

My focus with the Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set is, of course, a butterfly. I chose the largest butterfly stamp and applied it to my white cs using Mango Melody Ink. I love that this butterfly is so realistic, and is floating with wings back.

Butterfly stamp from Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set in Mango Melody Ink

Generational Stamping I

This Monday card, as all my Monday cards, uses only 2 ink colors. So, to get the look of more than 2 ink colors, this card has generational stamping. That means we are using 1 ink color and getting lighter shaded images by stamping more than once with ink coverage on our stamp.

I brought in the flower stamp and my 1 1/2 x 3 1/4″ Whisper White CS. Next, I stamped in Mango Melody, using the full strength of ink along the edge of my white cs. This is the first generation stamping process.

Immediately after stamping the flower in full ink, I stamped it again in a random pattern on my larger white cs, as second and third generation stamping. Do not clean your stamp off in between applications. You will get lighter images with each generation of stamping.

Generational stamping with the Butterfly Wishes stamp set

Once I had enough light color flowers on the larger piece, I set it aside and continued to stamp fully inked flowers on the edge of my smaller white cs.

Flower stamp from Butterfly Wishes stamp set in Mango Melody

Generational Stamping II

With the great results of generational stamping in Mango Melody, I wanted to do the same with Basic Gray Ink. First, I brought in the Smoky Slate CS 3 3/4 x 5″, and began to stamp the sentiment, “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul” along the top outer edge.

I used the first generation of Basic Gray on the Smoky Slate CS, the applied second and third generations of ink on my larger white cs. I repeated the lighter generations 2 times.

Sentiment from Butterfly Wishes in Basic Gray with generational stamping

After my larger white cs was completed, I set it aside and focused on stamping the sentiment along the edges of the Smoky Slate CS. I find it easier to rotate the cardstock as I stamp the sentiment.

Sentiment stamping along outer edges completed

Sentiment Stamping

The last bit of stamping for the outside of the card went on the 1 x 3 1/4″ Whisper White CS for the sentiment. I used the medium butterfly from the Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set with Mango Melody. First I stamped off, then stamped onto my white cs, to get the lighter second generation image.

Second generation stamping with medium butterfly from Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set

Next, I used the smallest butterfly from the Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set, and with full strength Mango Melody ink, stamped directly over the medium butterfly. This was a little tricky using the Cling Red Rubber Stamp, as it is not see-through like the photopolymer style.

Smallest butterfly from Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set stamped over medium butterfly
This one is not lined up perfectly, but unless you are really looking hard, not horridly off. Home-made cards should have some flaws, right?

Lastly, I stamped the Birthday Wishes stamp from the Butterfly Wishes Stamp set in Basic Gray Ink.

Birthday Wishes stamp from Butterfly Wishes Stamp Set in Basic Gray Ink

Putting It All Together

Now it is time to add all those beautifully stamped layers together on the card front. These pieces lined up very easily! I started with 1 of the 4 x 5 1/4″ Whisper White CS pieces and adhered it to the card base. Next, I layered on the Smoky Slate piece with the sentiment stamped along the outer edges.

Beginning layers to card front

Following that assembly, I adhered together the sentiment and Mango Melody flower stamped pieces of Whisper White CS. I placed that on the large piece of white cs, leaving a small portion of plain white showing at the bottom. This card is very busy, and leaving a small section “void” gives the eyes a resting place.

Layers continue to build on the card front

This completed assembly went on the card front next. All of the layers used in this card line up and center nicely.

Card front completely assembled

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 the tree branch image in Basic Gray and the medium butterfly, stamped off in Mango Melody, to add that inside interest.

Inside card stamping using Butterfly Wishes stamp set

Step It Up!

I love to show you that stamping and making fabulous cards can be so easy. I also like to show you that if you have more and want to add more to your cards, you can!

For my stepped up version, I used the Butterfly Duet Punch, along with the 1 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch on my sentiment piece. Additionally, I used some Whisper White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon and Basic Pearls.

Stepped Up version of the Butterfly Wishes Card

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!