As I often like to say, late for this year early for next!
I planned on making a dozen Easter cards as I hinted earlier in a blog post. Only four were delivered, oops.
Six were made with Fresh Freesia and six with Pale Papaya inks and cardstock. Remember Pale Papaya is a departing In-Colour while Fresh Freesia joins the Subtles line. These cards were tricky even though they were sketched out beforehand. I wasn't completely happy with how they looked. Also, silly me, I mismeasured the scalloped pieces. Instead of using the right-size die, I used a slightly smaller one. So not only did I run into design problems, there were technical challenges. It's an inevitable part of the creative process and not always a bad thing.
The sentiment, flowers, and rabbits are stamped with Early Espresso ink. I love the warmth Early Espresso brings to cards because it's not as cool or stark as black. I also used another departing die set for the branches and once I added the branches into my design I liked it a lot more.
Now, Full of Love is a retiring item, but I want to spotlight it, because as a thrifty crafter, I appreciate double duty sets. If you carefully ink the floral parts, you now have eight different edges for borders. The thin line style also coordinates with other thin line stamps in my collection. When looking through the catalogue, think beyond the literal image and you may surprise yourself with all the possibilities!
Supply List for 12 cards
- Three sheets of 8.5 x 12" Fresh Freesia cardstock
- Three sheets of 8.5 x 12" Pale Papaya cardstock
- 1 12x12" sheet of Basic White cardstock or large white scraps
- Fresh Freesia, Pale Papaya, and Early Espresso inks
- Full of Love stamp set
- Easter Bunny stamp set and Bunny Punch
- Scalloped Contours dies
- Hand-drawn Dots background stamp
- Any die set that contains branches
- Lightweight vellum or white office paper
- Stamparatus
- Sponges for inking
- Chalk pastels or other colour tools
- Dimensionals and other adhesives
- Scoring, cutting, and sponging tools
Instructions
- Score each sheet of cardstock in half but don't cut the sheets in half just yet.
- Stamp with matching ink all over the right side of each sheet using the Hand-drawn Dots background stamp. Stamp on and stamp off to create an overlapping pattern. I stamped more around the bottom edge of the card to create a gradient effect. Once you are happy with your stamping, cut the sheets in half to make 12 bases.
- Die cut 12 scallop shapes from the Scalloped Contours set using the 3.25x4.5" die.
- Cut 12 2.5x3.75" rectangles from basic white cardstock.
- Cut 12 2x3.25" rectangles from basic white card stock.
- Sponge the corresponding rectangles with either Fresh Freesia or Pale Papaya ink. Feel free to mix or match as you desire--after all, it's your card :-)
- Stamp the edges of the white rectangles, both large and small, with a stamp from Full Of Love, using Early Espresso ink.
- Stamp your Easter sentiment in Early Espresso ink, centering it on the smaller rectangle. A stamping platform like the Stamparatus is a great helper here.
- Stamp 12 rabbits in Early Espresso ink and punch them out with the coordinating punch. I used chalk pastels to color the rabbits. You can use pencil crayons or watercolour pencils. The fun thing about pastels is that they leave a soft look and you can erase color away to make some interesting patterns and shapes.
- Die cut 12 sets of three branches from your chosen set. You can use any die cut set you have on hand which will make a nice silhouette--leaves, branches, flowers, or whatever you like. I used light opaque vellum that I had some scraps of but office paper or scraps of white cardstock also work.
- Sponge around the card bases with matching ink. You can even sponge the edges of the scalloped pieces to give them a little oomph!
- Now all the pieces are cut and coloured, it's time to assemble them. I found it easy to assemble the scalloped card fronts before attaching them to the base.
Until next time...
