Today I'm here with some exciting news! You know how much I like to play along over at Just Us Girls whenever I get the chance and I was delighted to be asked by the lovely Vicki to be their guest designer for the month of June. Our first challenge for the month of June is Die Week - with layers:
I decided to have a play with the new Pretty Florals Bundle stamps and dies and have a mammoth stamping session! I grabbed the coral and green colour palette over at Color Hues and used the themes of 'bold' and repeat' from the 'choose 2' theme over at Time Out. Here's the card that I came up with:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
Layered Pretty Florals - I do love a good diecut and a layer or two, so this week's JUGS challenge was perfect for me! I decided to really go to town on this card and, somewhat inspired by the framed sample featured on page 47 of the Stampin' Up! annual catalogue, I decided to stamp duplicates of each of the flowers in the Pretty Florals stamp set and then create my layout. Each flower comes in two pieces - a flower head and a stem, with each stem suiting two different flowers. The flower heads are a two-step stamp, but they are super easy to line up. Once I had my images diecut and constructed, I layered them overlapping slightly onto my white cardbase and when I was happy with my layout, I glued them in place and cut off any excess overhanging the edges.
Shades of Coral - I'm not really an orange person (although I do love the new In Colour, Timid Tiger) but there's something about Calypso Coral, a mid point between pink and orange that really appeals to me. In order to get shades of coral for my flowers, I stamped some of the flower bases in Petal Pink (this is much more of a pale coral than a true pink in my view), both stamped off and full strength, and some of the bases in Calypso Coral that I stamped off first, then stamped the second layer on all of the flowers in full-strength Calypso Coral. This gave a good variety and depth of colour, whilst maintaining the overall coral hue. I love the Coral and Garden Green pairing too for a bold and colourful card.
Postage Window Frame - The idea for my frame came from a similar idea I saw on Pinterest. The vellum softens the frame and still allows the edge-to-edge flowers to show through, whilst the postage frame, with a stitched rectangle cut out of the centre adds additional layering and interest. I added a sentiment from Sweet Florals (more layers!) and allowed the diecut portion to overhang the frame slightly:
A few random enamel gems complete my card. I really love this card - so much colour from only three inks and such a bold design! I think if I made it again, I would make a horizontal version rather than a vertical layout to better accommodate that diecut sentiment, but I had that thought after I glued down the base - so that's an idea to try another time! Also, both the Pretty Florals Bundle and Sweet Blooms Bundle are available in the current Stampin' Up! 50% off suite sale (read all about it here if you missed it) - if you buy one bundle, you could get the second half price - what a steal!
Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:
You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
So what dies do you have in your collection that you could layer up and share with us over at Just Us Girls this week? The Design Team have made some amazing cards - why not dig out your dies and join us and play along? Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
