Simple Stamping

Beautiful Day In Rococo Rose

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Beautiful Day Card

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!

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Beautiful Day. This stamp set only contains 5 stamps, but I managed to use all of them in my card (something new for me!). If you would like to see another floral project that features a Monday style card, click here.

Beautiful Day Stamp Set, item # 145915
Beautiful Day Stamp Set, item #145915

As always, I use 1 stamp set for my minimal supplies card. I also use 2 ink pads, and for this card I feature Early Espresso and Rococo Rose. Additionally, this card is completed with 2 colors of cardstock, Rococo Rose and Very Vanilla. Minimal supplies for a Beautiful Day, indeed!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Rococo Rose CS: 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ and 1 x 5″

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

Very Vanilla CS: 3 x 3 3/4″ and 3/4 x 1 1/2″

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!

Rococo Rose Card Base and Bonefolder

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 can be used with any stamp sets you own.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as this technique has you stamping off the edge of your cardstock. Starting at the top, I stamped the big flower from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set in Rococo Rose Ink. I applied the image 4 times around one of the 4 x 5 1/4″ Very Vanilla CS pieces.

Large Flower stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Next, I stamped the Beautiful Day phrase “Always thinking of you” in Early Espresso Ink onto the Very Vanilla CS in the remainder of the space available. I varied the placement of letters from the stamp phrase along the edge of my paper as well. The middle will be covered in layers later on, so don’t focus on that!

Sentiment Stamp from Beautiful Day and Early Espresso Ink

Flag Me

A great way to add paper elements to cards without the use of punches or dies (this is a minimal supplies card, after all) is adding a flagged piece. On my 1 x 5″ Rococo Rose CS, I used my Paper Snips to flag one end. I always start in one corner and cut toward the middle. Next, I cut in from the other corner, continuing each side cut until the flag is complete.

Flagged piece of Rococo Rose CS

It’s time to add some pieces to our card front. I adhered the stamped Very Vanilla piece down first. After that, I attached the flagged piece on the right side of the card front.

Remember that little triangle piece that was cut away when I did my flagging? I added that on top of the flagged cardstock, giving the look of a fancy fold paper. I encourage you to use all your scraps on your projects in unique ways.

Card front assembly part 1

Butterfly Focus

The focus piece of the card is always the most fun part to work on. For this card, I stamped the large butterfly stamp from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set in Early Espresso Ink onto the 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ Rococo Rose CS. I angled the butterfly, allowing the image to fall off the edges.

Butterfly Stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

After stamping the butterfly, I added the trio of flowers stamp in a random pattern on the same cardstock. This time, I used Rococo Rose Ink. I tried to focus on the outer edges of my paper. This little stamp is adorable, it reminds me of sequins, with the small open center on each flower.

Trio of small flowers stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Once this stamping was completed, I adhered the Rococo Rose CS to the 3 x 3 3/4″ layer of Very Vanilla. I love to frame my pieces with additional cardstock, giving them an air of importance. This assembly attaches flat to the card front as well.

Card front assembly part 2

Finishing Touches

It’s time to stamp some more words. This is the fifth and final stamp in the Beautiful Day Stamp Set. Because I wanted the sentiment to be a smaller image on my card front, I chose to mask off part of the stamp.

This is optional, of course. For the masked version, I used a piece of Very Vanilla CS measuring 3/4 x 3 1/4″. If you choose not to mask and want to use the entire stamp image, it is easily completed on a 1 x 3 1/4″.

The Art Of Masking

Masking part of a stamp allows us to use part of the image. This can be done using masking tape, painters tape or washi tape. I prefer painters tape, as it is less sticky than masking tape and stickier than washi. Happy medium!

First, place the tape over the part of the stamp that you don’t want to use. In this case, I am keeping Happy Birthday open for inking and closing off the remainder of the sentiment.

Masking a stamp

Second, ink up your stamp, tape and all. Just pretend the tape doesn’t exist. Make sure the rubber image you want to use has enough ink on it before stamping.

Inked masked stamp

Third, and most important step! Remove the tape before you stamp your image. If you forget this step and leave the tape on, you will have a splotchy mess under the image you wanted.

Masked stamp with ink and tape removed

Fourth and final step, apply the stamp to your paper. I focused on centering the Happy Birthday portion on my cardstock, rather than the complete stamp.

Happy Birthday Stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Masked Sentiment

Masked Sentiment from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Un-Masked Sentiment

Un-masked sentiment from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

The Insider Job

Now that your card is beautiful on the outside, with the addition of your stamped sentiment piece, let’s add some glamour to the inside. I love to mimic some of the stamped images from the front of the card and carry them to the inner layer.

For this card using the Beautiful Day Stamp Set, I stamped the large flower image in Rococo Rose onto the bottom corner of the remaining 4 x 5 1/4″ Very Vanilla CS. Next, I used the smaller trio of flowers in Rococo Rose Ink, stamping them off first before adding them, for a lighter ink image.

Inside Stamping With Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Step It Up!

I like to feature the same Monday Card Recipe with the addition of a few extra details, in an effort to show you that you can always add more. For my stepped up version, I added some Scalloped Linen Ribbon in Rococo Rose under the sentiment popped up by dimensionals.

Other new features here include 2 butterfly punched images, the larger in Very Vanilla CS and the smaller in 2019-2021 DSP, adhered together and given a lift with a dimensional. On top of my butterflies, I added a 2019-2021 Faceted Dot in Rococo Rose.

Stepped Up Version of Beautiful Day Card

Stampin’ Up makes color coordination easy with so many items to choose from. If you need any of the products I used for this card, head over to my online store, https://juliemakson.stampinup.net/, and get them while you can. Some of these items are retiring very soon, so don’t miss out!

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. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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

Rare Blessings In Soft Sea Foam

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Rare Blessings Card in Soft Sea Foam

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!

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Rare Blessings. This one is soon retiring from the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog from Stampin’ Up!. If you would like to see more about the retiring items in 2020, click here.

Rare Blessings Stamp Set, item #149241
Rare Blessings Stamp Set, item #149241

Our Monday card makes great use of many of the stamps from the very lovely Rare Blessings Stamp Set. We are also using two colors of ink, Soft Seam Foam and Poppy Parade, and two colors of cardstock, Soft Sea Foam and Whisper White.

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe


Soft Sea Foam CS: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″ for card base.

Soft Sea Foam CS: 3 x 4″ and 1/2 x 4 1/4″

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

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

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!

Soft Sea Foam Card Base and Bonefolder

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 can be used with any stamp sets you own. It is especially easy when there are “background” style stamps included in your stamp set.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as this technique has you stamping off the edge of your cardstock. First, I used the “splotch” stamp and Soft Sea Foam Ink. I went around the entire outer edge of my card base. It is okay to overlap a bit, and not necessary to rotate the stamp.

Splotch stamp from Rare Blessings used to create background pattern on card base.
This tone on tone technique creates a soft wash of green on the card base.

Floral Details

For the second portion of background stamping, I used the single flower on its stem, with the curled leaf. Again, I stamped along the outer edge of my paper, using the Soft Sea Foam 3 x 4″ piece and Poppy Parade Ink.

When I stamped my flower, I did rotate the image and vary the pattern. Most of this stamping will be covered up as we assemble the card, but the effect is still an important component on our card!

Small flower stamp from Rare Blessings in Poppy Parade Ink.

Flower Focus

Here comes my favorite part! The large floral image. I stamped it in Soft Sea Foam on the 2 /12 x 4″ piece of Whisper White CS. This green is such a light color, the image will be very demure in nature.

Because this image needs a little color, we are adding some. And since this is a minimal supplies kind of card, we are using q-tips to color with. If you have Blender Pens at home, this creates a similar effect.

Large Flower image from Rare Blessings stamped and colored

I dipped the end of the q-tip in my ink pad and immediately touched it off onto my scrap paper. Then, I applied the color in the middle of each flower, gently swirling outward. Practice at home, and keep in mind you can add more color if needed, but won’t be able to take any away.

For further interest, I ripped the end off of my stamped paper. I used the edge of my Soft Sea Foam Ink Pad to brush ink onto the frayed paper. This highlights the rough and jagged design.

If you are not a fan of torn paper, just trim this piece shorter by @ 1/4″, so that it fits on the layered front of your card.

So Sentimental

It’s time to stamp a saying. This stamp set has 4 great sentiments and any of them will work. I designed this card to coordinate best with the stamp “a true friend is the rarest of all blessings”. If you like to have smaller margins of cardstock surrounding your saying, simply trim it to fit.

Sentiment from Rare Blessings Stamp Set
I used Poppy Parade Ink to stamp my sentiment.

Time To Assemble

The stamping is done (for the outside!), so it’s time to put the front of this card together. Ready to layer? Here’s how: start with the 3 1/4 x 4 1/4″ Whisper White CS and add it to the bottom right of the card. Next, adhere the thin strip of Soft Sea Foam.

Card Assembly Step 1

The layers continue with the Soft Sea Foam piece we stamped with Poppy Parade flowers. This one is directly centered over the white cardstock.

Additional layers to card front

On top of that, I layered my large flower focal point. Lastly, I adhered my sentiment piece. The sentiment is adjustable in location to your preferences.

Rare Blessing Card In Soft Sea Foam

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 small flower stamp in Poppy Parade Ink, stamping 3 times. Next, I added Soft Sea Foam splotches along the edges and below the tops of the flowers, to add additional inside interest. Note that the splotches, so light in color, extend beyond the flower images on both sides.

Inside Stamping of Rare Blessings Card

More Is More

Typically, this part of the tutorial is where I show you how I added bling and ribbons and all kinds of extras to my card to enhance the fun. However, this time, instead of adding stuff, I simply changed colors.

Yep, this one was so quick and easy to make, I instantly wanted to make more, but this time I wanted to use:

Pink!

Rare Blessings Card In Rococo Rose

Keeping the Soft Sea Foam, I swapped the Poppy Parade for Rococo Rose. The dusty rose color looks fabulous with the soft green. I picked an additional sentiment from the Rare Blessings Stamp Set to focus on. But then I wanted to try making it in:

Purple!

Rare Blessings Card in Highland Heather

Again, the Soft Sea Foam color is used, this time with Highland Heather. I love purple and green together, so this was a no-brainer. I chose a different sentiment from the last two I previously used. And realized I had one more sentiment in the Rare Blessings Stamp set. So I had to pull out another color:

Blue!

Rare Blessings Card in Pretty Peacock

Pretty Peacock is the perfect blue to mix in with Soft Sea Foam. Perhaps of all the q-tip colored flowers, these turned out the best. And I was able to successfully use all the sentiments in the Rare Blessings Stamp Set. This provides great value for the purchase of this set!

Another Monday, Another Easy 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!

Country Road In Crumb Cake

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Country Road Card

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!

Crumb Cake CS and bone folder

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.

Poppy Parade stamping

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.

Phrase stamp from Country Road

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.

Horse Stamp and Early Espresso Ink

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.

Crumbled Paper Technique

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.

Weathervane Layering Cardstock

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.

Adding layers to the Country Road Card

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.

Office Hole Punch Embellishment

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.

  • Do it yourself dimensionals

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!

Home-made dimensionals

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.

Grass Stamp from Country Road Stamp Set

Step It Up

Stepped up version of Country Road Card

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!

Inspiring Iris In Highland Heather

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Inspiring Iris card in Highland Heather

Monday’s are hard, but in this card making 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 Tutorial, click here.

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Inspiring Iris. This great stamp set is made up of 16 photopolymer stamps, with 3 different kinds of flowers. That’s right…not just iris.

Inspiring Iris has two-step stamping capability. Two-step stamping involves stamping an outer image, and them stamping the filler, or inner, image(s) separately. It is a fast and easy way to add instant color, but this does not limit us to using it as intended, and soon you will see why!

Inspiring Iris Stamp Set, item #149268
Inspiring Iris Stamp Set, item #149268

So with just one stamp set, Inspiring Iris, two colors of ink, Memento Tuxedo Black and Gorgeous Grape, and two colors of cardstock, Highland Heather and Whisper White, we are creating an easy Monday card. Let’s put this one together!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Highland Heather CS: 1 1/2 x 5 1/4″, 2 1/4 x 3″

Whisper White CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ (inside)

Whisper White CS: 2 x 5 1/4″, 2 x 2 3/4″, 3/4 x 1 7/8″

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!

Highland Heather cardbase, bone folder scoring

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 can be used with any stamp sets you own, and every Monday I am showing you how to incorporate this technique into your projects.

For our Inspiring Iris card, we are stamping backgrounds, times 3! Once in black ink, and twice in purple, one with lighter images and one with darker images from the same purple ink pad.

Background #1

Starting with the card base you just folded and scored so nicely, stamp the ‘mystery flower’ (rose? begonia? peony?) leaf filler using Gorgeous Grape Ink that is stamped off. By stamping off (releasing ink) and using the second generation ink, you will get a lighter stamped image. I was able to get 5-6 images in the center of my card base from top to bottom, inverting the stamp orientation each time to vary the look.

Second Generation Stamping

Background #2

On the 1 1/2 x 5 1/4″ Highland Heather CS, stamp the carnation leaf filler (this one resembles a tulip silhouette on a stem) using Gorgeous Grape ink. This time, do not stamp off, use the fully inked stamp to create a darker image in a random pattern. I like to have my flowers peeking inward.

Stamp from Inspiring Iris and Gorgeous Grape Ink

Background #3

Our last background technique involves the 2 x 5 1/4″ Whisper White CS and Memento Black Ink. To get my lines as straight as possible, I took advantage of my grid paper (you could use graph paper or make your own grid if need be).

You can use a post-it note to hold the white cardstock in place, or washi tape. If using washi, be sure to remove some of the “stick” first to avoid tears on your paper during its removal. Simply dab the sticky side of the tape on your clothes to lesson the stick factor.

I carefully lined up the background stamp that resembles circles with diamonds in the middle, and starting from the bottom, worked my way up. On my card, I tried to stamp a full circle each time on the same edge of my paper to make a uniform design. Grid lines keep the tendency on the straight and narrow side.

background stamping technique

Floral Details

The theme of our card is Inspiring Iris, so let’s stamp the iris! First, take the iris outline stamp and use Memento Black Ink on the 2 x 2 3/4″ Whisper White Cardstock. Leave a little blank room at the top, and stamp the lower leaves off the bottom of your cardstock. Don’t crowd your iris, give them room to grow!

Inspiring Iris stamps with Memento Black Ink

While my Memento ink was out, I stamped the sentiment for this card on the 3/4 x 1 7/8″ Whisper White Cardstock. It is easier for me to line up my saying on a small paper. Somehow using larger pieces just leaves room for larger errors, plus do-over’s don’t waste valuable cardstock when minimal scraps are used.

Next, we color our flower. Using the iris flower filler stamp and Gorgeous Grape Ink, stamp over the black flower outline. This stamp is designed to give you high and low color saturation, so it appears that you worked ‘extra hard’ to create this look, without the ‘extra hard’ work.

Lastly, it is time to stamp the leaves. Normally one would use green to create realistic leaves, but this card with minimal supplies gives us the option to use purple or black ink. So purple it is. I created the leaves in a lighter purple by stamping off the Gorgeous Grape Ink first. As well, this creates a variation in color from the flower and leaves.

Iris flower stamping from Inspiring Iris Stamp Set

Finishing Touches

I like to assemble my layers before I add them to the card front. For this card, adhere together the white cardstock stamped with black circles and the purple cardstock stamped with purple flowers. Place this assembly to the far left of your card front. You should be able to see the stamping we did on the middle of the card base peeking out.

Next, adhere the stamped iris on white cardstock to the 2 1/4 x 3″ Highland Heather CS. This layer will overlap the first, longer layer on your card front, and become the focal point of the card.

Adhering layers on Inspiring Iris card

For the final step on the card front, add your sentiment. There should be room toward the bottom right for it to fit perfectly. This is helped by the longer layers positioned previously to the far left, and the sentiment piece being as tiny as possible.

Inspiring Card Assembly

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 iris image to add that inside interest. I stamped the iris lower on the inside corner, with the flowers just over the bottom of my cardstock. I also added the fun circle background stamp in black to create edging on two sides.

Inside the Inspiring Iris card

Step It Up!

Any card can have more! If you have ribbon or bling lying around, it would look fantastic with the beautiful Inspiring Iris card. I chose to add some Stampin’ Up Tri-Color Ribbon, item #149708, as it constitutes 2 out of 3 colors used in this card today: Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather.

Keeping with our purple and white theme, I added a bow using the Whisper White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon, item #151326. And pearls and purple were meant to be together, so onto the card they went!

Inspring Iris Card, stepped up

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://juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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

Rooted In Nature In Early Espresso

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Rooted In Nature card using Early Espresso

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, Rooted In Nature. This expansive tree themed stamp set from Stampin’ Up! replaced the very popular and long lived Lovely As A Tree Stamp Set.

Rooted In Nature Stamp Set, item #148217
Rooted In Nature Stamp Set, item # 148217

You can purchase the coordinating dies, Nature’s Roots, item #146341. This duo is not available as a bundle with the usual 10% savings, as it was released in June of 2018. Bundles are only available during the release catalog period, which is a great reason to pay attention to bundles, purchasing to save while able to do so.

Nature's Roots Dies, item # 146341
Nature’s Roots Dies, item # 146341

However, since we are using minimal supplies, this Monday Card only uses the stamp set. That’s right, one stamp set, Rooted In Nature, two ink pads, Early Espresso and Mossy Meadow, and two colors of cardstock, Early Espresso and Sahara Sand. Please follow along!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Early Espresso CS: 1 1/2 x 5 1/2″ and 1/2 x 3″

Sahara Sand CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ for inside, scraps for sentiment and leaf

Sahara Sand CS: 2 x 5 1/2″, 1 1/4 x 5 1/2″, and 3 x 4″

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 Background

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

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as this technique has you stamping off the edge of your cardstock. Starting at the top, stamp your large tree stump from the Rooted In Nature Stamp Set in Early Espresso Ink on the outer edges of the card base. Overlap, stamping along the top, open (right facing) edge and bottom. I stamped my image a total of 6 times, 2 each per side.

Tree Stump Stamp from Rooted In Nature Stamp Set

Add A Tree

When I stamped the large, deciduous tree from the Rooted In Nature Stamp Set using Early Espresso Ink on the 3 x 4″ Sahara Sand Cardstock, I kept the image to the left, with the tree falling off the side of the paper, starting at a third of the way down from the top. I wanted to make sure I had enough room above and below my tree to add my sentiment and accent piece.

Large Decidious Tree Stamp from Rooted In Nature Stamp Set

Tear It Up

For the layering images on the side of my card, I did some “torn edging”. Starting from the top of both the 2 x 5 1/2″ Sahara Sand and the 1 1/2 x 5 1/2″ Early Espresso, I tore a small amount away form the right edge of each. Pulling downward in a slow easy manner is best, and there is no right or wrong way to make this creative effect.

I stamped the smallest layering Sahara Sand Cardstock, 1 1/4 x 5 1/2″ with Mossy Meadow Ink and the leafy branch stamp from the Rooted In Nature Stamp Set. Each image was stamped from the edges of the paper inward, in a random pattern. When I was done stamping, I also tore the edge of this piece in the same manner as before. As a last step, I used my ink pad to apply Mossy Meadow to the ripped edges of both Sahara Sand pieces.

Leafy Branch Stamp from Rooted In Nature Stamp Set

Some Assembly Required

With the bones of our card stamped and prepped, we can start adding layers to our card front. First, I placed the tree image onto the base, adding it to the far right. Next, I added the 1/2 x 3″ Early Espresso strip to the Sahara Sand Cardstock, beneath the tree with enough room to place part of the sentiment.

The three torn edge cardstock pieces were adhered together before I placed them on the card front. When I put them in order, with the largest piece on the bottom and working upward in size, I made sure to leave a straight edge showing, stair step style. This assembly goes to the left of the card, and overlays the tree stamped image.

Be Strong, Be Happy, Be You

The sentiment for this card is a single stamp, with three sayings stacked one on top of the other. When it is stamped, the words remain “un-inked”, and are the color of the paper you are stamping on. A rectangular “box” around each saying becomes the color of ink you use when stamping.

I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso Ink on a scrap of Sahara Sand Cardstock. Because I wanted to use them individually on my card, I used my Paper Snips to fussy cut each one out. This was really easy for two reasons! First, they are rectangular in shape, no odd parts to trim around. Second, the color of the paper this was stamped on is the same color that it is adhered too, allowing perfect blending of un-perfect cutting.

Sentiment from Rooted In Nature Stamp Set

Once the sayings were fussy cut, I added them to my card front, placing two above the tree and one below it. I chose to keep the sentiment words in the same order that it is listed on the stamp, but you could choose to easily change this up if you wanted to!

Leaf Out

On the remainder of the scrap of my Sahara Sand Cardstock, I stamped the grouping-of-three leaves stamp from the Rooted In Nature Stamp Set using Mossy Meadow Ink. If you had the coordinating dies, you could die cut this image. Because we are working with minimal supplies, I fussy cut mine using Paper Snips.

Afterward, I tipped the outer edges of each leaf onto the Mossy Meadow Ink Pad to darken them. If you have a Stampin’ Sponge, you could create the same effect as well. The cut out leaves were then placed on the card front.

Leaf stamp from Rooted In Nature Stamp Set

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 large tree stump stamp from the front and Early Espresso Ink to add that inside interest to my Sahara Sand Cardstock. Don’t forget to jazz up that envelope with some stamping too!

Step It Up!

When you have more, you can add more. Simple elements don’t make this Monday card any harder than it has to be!

Rooted In Nature Card

This card has a little extra detail in the form of Linen Thread, item #104199, tied in a bow and attached to the leaves with a glue dot, as well as Designer Elements, item #149586, that are adhesive backed for instant application.

Rooted In Nature Card II

The next card also is accessorized, this time with Burlap Ribbon, item #141487, tied with a piece on Linen Thread and attached with Tear And Tape Adhesive, item #138995. It also has gold Metallic Pearls, item #146282, also adhesive backed to make life easier.

Notice I added another set of fussy cut leaves for a fuller look. In hindsight, I would have been happier with the burlap ribbon just a bit higher up. There is always next time…

Easy Monday Cards

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://juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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