July's Stamping Project--Sweet As A Peach

Here’s a project where putting in the effort really pays off. It may seem like it has a lot of fussy steps, but you’ll definitely refine your sponging technique to create some beautiful cards! In case you're wondering, the sketch for this card is from the bottom right corner of July's Sunday Sketches.

Materials

• 6 sheets of 8.5x11” Crumbcake cardstock
• 5 8.5x11” cardstock or 4 12x12” sheets of Very Vanilla
• Scrap pieces of Very Vanilla for tags and blossoms
• Sponge daubers or Stampin’ Sponges
• Yellow-green pencil crayon
• Crushed Curry ink
• Mango Medly ink
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Soft Succulent ink
• Balmy Blue ink
• Pale Papaya ink
• Early Espresso ink
• Evening Evergreen ink
• Sweet As a Peach dies and stamps
• Embossing and die cutting machine
• Birch background stamp
• Scalloped Contours dies
• White acrylic paint and brush
• Scrap paper with a straight edge for a sponging mask
• Glue, tear tape or your favourite adhesive

Instructions

1. Score 8.5x11” sheets of Crumbcake and cut in half to make 12 4.25x5.5” bases.
2. Before folding card bases, stamp all over the front side in Crumbcake with the spotty stamp from Color & Contour (or any kind of spotty stamp you have on hand).
3. Stamp the front edges of the card with the Birch background stamp in Crumbcake ink next.
4. Cut 12 3.25x4.75" Very Vanilla pieces and die cut with second largest scalloped die from the Scalloped Contours set.
5. Get ready to sponge! Sponge Balmy Blue ink  onto the scalloped Very Vanilla fronts using the straight edge of a piece of scrap paper to cover the scallops. Of course, you don’t have to do this—-make it your own and sponge all over the place! Work from the outside in.
6. Stamp 24 single large peaches on Very Vanilla cardstock and die cut.
7. Stamp 24 branches on Very Vanilla cardstock in Soft Succulent and die cut.
8. Stamp 12 two leaf leaves on Very Vanilla cardstock in Soft Succulent and die cut.
9. Sponge a little bit of Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry and Mango Medley ink on the large peaches to give them some dimension and colour.
10. With the light yellow-green pencil crayon, colour lightly on top of the Soft Succulent leaves to add some warmth and dimension to the leaves.
11. Cut 12 0.75x2.25” Very Vanilla tags for sentiments. You can make them longer if you want to extend them across the front of the card. I used Early Espresso and Evening Evergreen ink for the sentiments.
12. Stamp 12 sets of large blossoms on Very Vanilla cardstock and brush white acrylic paint onto each petal.
13. Time to assemble!
14. Affix the Very Vanilla fronts to the Crumbcake bases.
15. Divide the peaches into two piles. One peach will be the front peach and one will be the rear peach.
16. Glue a two leaf die cut to the top of the front peaches.
17. Glue a peach to each of the branches and let dry.
18. Glue the top peach branch to the rear peach branch. You can arrange them as you like. If you want to position them all the same, glue one set together for a model and then place a piece of wax paper over top and match each successive set together.
19. Add blossoms where a gap in the branch shows or wherever you feel like it!
20. Affix the sentiment and you’re done!

If you’re not completely tired of sponging by now, you can sponge a little Crumbcake ink around the edges of the card—I bet even a little gold would look great too!

The Sweet As A Peach set is a great bargain too. Not only do you get a nice number of nature images, you get plenty of sentiments for any occasion too!