NC Demos February Blog Hop – Bug Out!

Wow, how is it possible that we are nearing the end of February already?  Our weather has been pretty mild so far this winter, and we are officially only a few weeks away from Spring!  And we all know that Spring brings flowers, birds, bees, butterflies and many other little critters.  To prove that point, here’s a pic that was taken in my side yard a week or so ago, lol!   Mr.Bee is doing his thing!

You may have just come here from Tina Lesson’s blog.  She always has such great projects that she shares with us 🙂 

For my project, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do this month.  I only have a few sets that worked with our theme.  But the set I decided on is one I’ve have been loving since I ordered it.  And to be honest, it’s a set that I passed several times as I went through our Annual catalog!  One of the other reasons I wanted to use this set is that we just released a coordinating die set to go with it.  Click HERE to see the Coordination Product Release flyer.

Now, let’s talk about how I made this card.  The rectangle die that comes in the set actually only cuts a solid rectangle with the design around the border (see pic #2).  But I wanted a frame,  so I went to my Rectangle Stitched Die set and selected the 4th rectangle starting from the smallest size out (I believe the dimensions are 3 5/8″ x 2 3/8″).  I cut the solid rectangle first, then ran it through again with the Stitched Rectangle die in the center (see pic #3).  The end result is my frame!

The card base is an 11 x 4 1/4″  piece of Shimmer White cardstock, scored at 5 1/2″.  I laid the frame on the front of the card just to get placement for where I wanted to stamp the sentiment, but I did not attach the frame just yet.  I stamped the sentiment using Soft Suede ink.  Next, I removed the frame and took Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede markers and flicked ink randomly around the card front.  Then I attached the frame to the front using Liquid Multi-purpose glue.  I like how it gives you a little wiggle room time to get your object just where you want it before the glue sets.

The flowers were stamped in both Cherry Cobbler and Petal pink and cut using the coordinating flower die.  Then I used Wink of Stella on them, which added a little more color to the stamped image since WOS is waterbased and it gives a slight watercolor effect when you color it over our classic inks.  The large leaf sprig was stamped with Pear Pizzazz and the butterfly in Soft Suede, both cut out with the appropriate dies.  I also used WOS on the butterfly.  Using some scrap gold foil paper, I cut one small butterfly and 2 small leaf sprig pieces.  Then it was just a matter of placing those pieces over the frame.

Everything except the gold leaf sprigs has dimensionals behind them.  The small gold butterfly was added to the top of the frame with Liquid Multi-purpose flue and the card was finished off using Champagne Rhinestones.

For the inside, I had 2 spare butterflies in Petal Pink so I stamped another large leaf spring in the lower right-hand corner and added a butterfly over that and placed the other over the sentiment, which is also part of the stamp set.  And in case you are wondering why the sentiment is stamped on a stitched rectangle piece, I had an oopsy moment.  I didn’t take the time to use my Stamparatus to stamp the sentiment inside and it was crooked 🙁  That will teach me to use the tools I have the first time, lol!!

I really love the color combo on the card.  I got my inspiration from my downline, Nancy Hoffman.  She had been sharing some designs she was working on for her upcoming class and Cherry Cobbler, Petal Pink and Pear Pizzazz were one the combos she used.  I just added Soft Suede to my project.

Cherry Cobbler

Petal Pink

Pear Pizzazz

Soft Suede

Ariel Matera

Jo Anne Hewins 

Amy Kinler

Tina Lesson

Toni Campana – YOU ARE HERE!!

Laurie Meier

Tracie Evans Langley