Floral wreath card

The current Lawnscaping challenge asks that we use floral stamps. Lawn Fawn has some fantastic and beautiful floral sets, and the few flower stamps I have are small flower embellishments that came in other Lawn Fawn sets, making for a fun challenge! I opted to make a floral wreath, using the small leaf stamp from Sweater Weather for the leaves stamped directly on the Paper Source Paper Bag coverstock panel, and the flowers from Sweater Weather and Stuck On You, stamped and die cut. I began the card by tracing a circle with light pencil where I wanted my wreath. The leaves were stamped with first and second generation stamping to give more depth without changing colors. I opted to heat emboss the Stuck On You flower to add more depth, as I felt like using foam squares would add too much depth.

I stamped the Thanks sentiment from Thank You Tags in the wreath's center with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and rounded the two opening corners of the card base and panel before adhering the panel.

I finished the card off with a superfine white satin ribbon, adhered with a glue dot (zot).

This card is being entered in to the current Lawnscaping Challenge #127: Beautiful Florals.

Happy National Coffee Day!

Today is National Coffee Day - clearly, one to celebrate! It's also a great excuse to make coffee-themed cards!

I've been inspired recently by Starbucks' images they're using to promote their Fall drinks. I love the use of white space surrounded by fall-themed items, and thought they would translate well to a single layer card - which works perfectly with the current Lawnscaping Challenge: One Layer Cards (http://lawnscaping.blogspot.com/2015/09/hi-there-welcome-back-to-another.html).

For these cards, I decided on one image I wanted in the forefront, then gradually added other images using a masking technique. For instance, in the card below, I first stamped the coffee bean, then heat set the image briefly to help the ink dry. I then stamped the coffee bean on a post-it note and cut it out (i.e.- created the mask), then stuck the mask over the coffee bean stamped on the card. Then, I stamped the coffee mug next, so that it partly overlapped the mask of the coffee bean. The effect of this is the opposite, as it makes it look like the mug is BEHIND the coffee bean after you remove the mask (but don't remove it just yet!). I then heat-set the mug image, created another mask of the mug stamp and stuck it on top of the card, being careful to keep the coffee bean mask on the page, and then stamped the next image so it overlapped the mug. 

I continued this process until I'd stamped all my images, and then carefully removed the masks. The end result is a single-layer card that has a lot of dimension without extra layers! Here are a few more Autumn-themed single-layer cards.

"So what's with all of the random falling leaves?" So glad you asked! Unfortunately, I wasn't super careful with my stamp blocks, so when I was stamping some of the images I ended up adding a small bit of ink where I didn't want it. My solution? Just add a leaf on top! This covered the mistake, and then I added a handful additional leaves to make it look more purposeful. Hooray for Happy Accidents! :)

I'vee also decided that I need to get a new black ink, as these mugs weren't as crisp as I wanted them. I think I'll snag a Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, as I see it used ALL THE TIME on the Lawn Fawn blog, and it clearly works well for others!

This last card (above) ended up being my favorite - no surprise there, with it being a Christmas-themed card! :) I can't WAIT for Starbucks' Red Cups and Holiday Beverages to return!

For the cards above, I used all Lawn Fawn stamps (of course!), pulling from the following sets: Love You a Latte, Deck the Halls, Sweater Weather, and Thank You Tags.

I'm also adding this to the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, which I just now discovered!