Tag Archives: spring

Springtime Joy Spring Card

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Springtime Joy Spring Card

I can’t resist playing with this bunny and other cute stamps in this set so the result is this Springtime Joy Spring Card. This card has a “Welcome Spring!” greeting, but it could also be an Easter card, of course, or it could be a “Welcome Baby!” card! Bunnies and little chicks are perfect for baby cards as well.

This card uses the Springtime Joy Stamp Set in the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog (Spring Mini). This Spring Mini Catalog goes through June, but eventually it will end and many products in it will retire so you might want to get this stamp set and any others before the rush sets in during June! Just in case!

To make this card a little different and a little more fun, I punched three holes for the bunnies and chick to peek out of! I made the card base of Blushing Bride Cardstock with a layer of Basic White. I randomly used the 1 1/2″ Circle Punch (retiring!). (I had a hard time finding this punch by searching for the name, so just look under “Punches” under Products and scroll through until you find it.) I just punched three holes in the card for the two bunnies and the chick.

On scrap paper I had stamped the bunnies and chick and colored them in with Stampin’ Blends. Then you can punch or cut out the images with plenty of space around them and see how you can place them on the card base with the punched white layer over the top. It is just a matter of a little fiddling to get them placed correctly. I lifted up the white layer leaving the stamped images in place. While holding those in place, I carefully lifted up one side and then the other, sneaking some adhesive underneath so I wasn’t moving the images out of place. I got lucky and it went well!

Before adhering the white layer, I stamped some tulips from the same Spring Joy Stamp Set in Blushing Bride Ink. I wish I would have also stamped the butterflies, but that was an afterthought! I stamped the butterflies later on scraps, colored them in and cut out. I could have popped those up but just adhered them flat t the card and drew in their antennae with a black pen.

The Basic White layer is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. I used pretty many on the underside of the white since I had the punched holes and wanted the card front to be sturdy. The greeting is in the stamp set and I just stamped it on a scrap strip of Basic White, made one end flat against the right side since there wasn’t a lot of space for a greeting on this card and made a flagged end on the other side.

If you aren’t convinced at how adorable the Springtime Joy Stamp Set is, take a look at the cute lamb, also in this set, as you see on THIS CARD.

This Springtime Joy Spring Card is sweet for this Easter weekend or just as a spring card or add another greeting for birthday or thinking of you!

Art Gallery Floral Card For Spring

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Art Gallery Floral Card For Spring

I may have missed the first day of Spring, but this Art Gallery Floral Card For Spring is for the second day of Spring! I was pleased with how this card turned out with “just stamping”. The large flower stamps in the Art Gallery Stamp Set can be used with two-step stamping which adds extra interest, texture, and dimension with the possibility of different colors on the same flower.

For this card, I used pretty bright colors, like Melon Mambo for the card base and for the first top flower. I think with the holidays and winter, I hadn’t used Melon Mambo for a long time and it’s one of my favorites. For the other flowers, I used Daffodil Delight and Highland Heather, plus Mango Melody and Melon Mambo for the smaller flowers.

When you do two-step stamping, one way to do it is to ink up your stamp and then stamp lightly on scrap paper first, then stamp the image on your cardstock. This gives a light image, over which you can then stamp the second stamp, usually a little more detailed, which then shows up darker over the light image but doesn’t fully cover it at all. Or you can do it in reverse…..stamp the detailed image first and then the lighter image. Depending on the stamp, you might even be able to stamp full strength both times if the detail shows up well enough.

With two-step stamping, you can also use two different colors on the stamp. For example, you could stamp the lighter color in yellow and then use an orange shade for the second stamp. It might produce a colorful, shaded version of a flower like you might see in nature.

In order to stamp the large stem and leaf stamp in the set now on my card with not much space in between flowers, I stamped the large flower on scrap paper and then cut it out to use as a mask. After inking up the leaf stamp, I placed the cut out mask over the flower that would get the green ink on it if not covered. Then I stamped the stem and leaf. That way, the extension of the leaf and stem gets stamped over the mask instead of ruining your stamped flower. Then remove the mask and place it on another flower. Maybe don’t ink you the whole leaf image if that works so you don’t get ink where you don’t want it.

For the greeting, I simply stamped it right on the card. I could have made it a layer, but I ended up with that small empty space at the top of the card and it seemed perfect to just put the greeting there. This greeting is also in the Art Gallery Stamp Set as are many other choices in sentiments.

While you can use Basic White or Very Vanilla for the top card layer, for a change I used Shimmery White Cardstock. This is my favorite paper because it has a subtle shimmer. It’s just beautiful! It usually doesn’t photograph because it is so subtle, but in person, you can see it. You can stamp well on it and you can watercolor on it better than Basic White. Use Shimmery White when you just want something a little more special! It’s very nice paper!

Hopefully you are feeling spring where you live! We have certainly had some beautiful spring days to be outside in Houston lately, although it has been a little chilly in the mornings. In spite of our winter storm, our grass is turning green again (maybe a lot of weeds!) and the azaleas are blooming! The bugs are back out (yuck!), especially the mosquito hawks, that like to hang around doors and fly in the house. This is the perfect weather which we have to enjoy until the very hot, humid summer arrives.

Celebrate spring by making a few light, bright, and colorful cards after the doldrums of winter! It will lift your spirits and those to whom you send the cards!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Springtime Joy Gift Bag

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Springtime Joy Gift Bag

Spring will be coming even though many places are in the midst of a very cold winter right now, so I combined hydrangeas and a bunny for spring in this Springtime Joy Gift Bag. This would be cute for Easter treats or a gift or for Mother’s Day in May or any other time!

I started off wanting to make this gift bag with the Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper just as you see, with the border of hydrangeas at the bottom of the bag with room in the plain area for a greeting or whatever I would come up with. I wanted to use that sheet that has the borders of hydrangeas at the top and bottom. Shortly, I realized that if i scored the paper like normal, most of the hydrangea images would end up at flaps at the bottom of the gift bag! So I had to engineer an extra piece of cardstock at the bottom to make the bottom flaps without cutting into the hydrangeas!

I did a little math and added on a 12″ strip of Old Olive cardstock to the bottom of the hydrangea piece.

Springtime Joy Gift Bag Inside Scoring

To make this gift bag, I cut the designer paper at 6 3/4″ x 12″. Make sure your hydrangeas are where you want them before you cut! The Old Olive piece is 2 1/4″ x 12″. I adhered just 1/2″ of the Old Olive to the designer paper because I wanted 1 3/4″ to be the bottom of the gift bag.

Score the bag and Old Olive piece at 1 3/4″, 5 1/2″, 7 1/4″, and 11″. Then turn the paper and score the Old Olive portion at 1 3/4″ and 8″. This gives a 1/2″ lip at the top of the bag I folded over to show the inside color of the bag for contrast.

Springtime Joy Gift Bag Outside Scoring

Cut up from the bottom on all the scored lines up to the edge of the designer paper. Normally this would all be the same paper, of course! Then cut off just the little narrow piece of the Old Olive as shown in the photos above.

Next, crease all the score lines, fold and assemble. Put some adhesive on that narrow side about the cut-off piece and fold the other side over to make the seam. Form into a box shape and fold in the flaps at the bottom, applying as much adhesive as you think necessary to close the bottom of the bag. Reach in from the top of the bag with a ruler or bone folder to press down from the inside on those bottom tabs to make sure everything is stuck together well.

Once you have the bag made, you can embellish however you like. You can even punch some holes in the top and tie ribbon through to hold the bag closed. Just pinch in the sides a little to get the top to close. But on my bag, I just tied a separate bow and adhered it with a couple of Mini Glue Dots.

The little bunny is from the cute spring stamp set, Springtime Joy. You’ll find it in the Spring Mini Catalog on page 22. I stamped the little bunny (the lamb was too big!) in Memento Ink and colored in with several Stampin’ Blends markers. For the bunny, I just used the light and dark Smokey Slate plus a little Crumb Cake and then pink and purple flowers for the little crown. I die cut the bunny with a die in the Tasteful Labels Dies. I wanted a layer underneath it so I just cut a Rococo Rose rectangle to fit underneath and with my Paper Snips, cut those curved corners after I adhered the two pieces together. I popped up the bunny with Stampin’ Dimensionals. The greeting is from the same Springtime Joy Stamp Set and stamped in Rococo Rose Ink to match the paper.

I think it’s a cute little bag, a relatively easy gift bag to make. You’ve probably made one just the same way. With the rest of that same sheet of hydrangea paper, check out the cards I made in this post. It would have been nice if the cards fit in the bag, and I could have made them smaller, but I just made regular size cards as a separate project! I can use this little bag as a decoration around Easter time or as a gift! Just think of this Springtime Joy Gift Bag filled with chocolate Easter eggs or a chocolate bunny!

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A Floral Card For Spring With Brusho

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A Floral Card For Spring With Brusho

Late yesterday spring arrived, finally, and here is a Floral Card For Spring With Brusho to celebrate! My daughter has been visiting for a week (not long enough!) and she wanted to stamp and learn some new techniques! We played around with several things including the Brusho Crystal Colour (yes, that’s how it is spelled!). I haven’t used it much, even though it was something I wanted right away when it came out! There are different ways you can use Brusho. Mostly you just need to play with it!

We used real Watercolor Paper by Stampin’ Up! because that works the best, along with the Aqua Painter. You can apply water to the paper with the Aqua Painter or move the ink crystals around with it. You can also just pick up with crystals mixed with water and use as a watercolor paint to color in an image. The Watercolor Paper is a high-quality cotton paper that absorbs the water and doesn’t pill like Whisper White Cardstock does when you use water on it and try to move color around. Even if you don’t use watercolor paper often, you might like to keep a package or two on hand in case you come across a project you want to try with watercoloring.

The Brusho is fun to use because you get five little pots of color – Brilliant Red, Gamboge (orange), Moss Green, Prussian Blue, Yellow. You can use them individually or combine them or do whatever you want! It is recommended you do not even OPEN the pots as the powder is so fine and you’ll have tiny crystals all over. Just poke a hole or several holes in the lid with a Paper Piercing Tool or push pins or something so you can shake out minute amounts of color when you want them.

For my card, I stamped the flowers from the Petal Palette Stamp Set with Stazon Ink since it is waterproof. Then I just shook out a tiny amount of Brusho onto a clear block and picked it up with my Aqua Painter to color in the flowers and leaves. If the shade isn’t exactly what you wanted, you can go back and add more color for a deeper color or shading or blending.

I just wanted kind of a light blue, sky background for the card so I sprinkled just a very few crystals on the wet watercolor paper (I applied water around the flowers with my Aqua Painter) and kind of let it move on its own and helped it with the Aqua Painter so it went where I wanted it. Very easy and simple, not to mention fun!

The card base is Real Red to match the flowers and the greeting is from the Petal Palette Stamp Set. I had to add a little bit of bling with the Gold Faceted Gems.

My daughter and I also made some backgrounds while we played with the Brusho so we will have to make those into cards or something.

Take some inspiration from this Floral Card For Spring With Brusho and make your own card for spring to send to someone who just might really need a card that day!

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