Scene Bulding

If you haven't given scene building a try, you must do so! It really is easy and soooo much fun! The first card was made with the Grassy Grove bundle and the New Horizons Designer Series paper.  The card base is Evening Evergreen, with the forest diecut twice from Night of Navy and Misty Moonlight cardstocks. By layering them, offset a bit, it really gives depth to the card, as does the placement of the deer; one behind the trees and two out in front. The sentiment was stamped in Night of Navy ink onto a part of the DSP cut off of the background, then punched with the Washi Label punch. Night of Navy Baker's Twine adds a bit of posh to the card.

The SALE-A-BRATION  stamp set Driving By, has a VW van in it that instantly reminded me of the one my big brother had when he was in college. I made this card for him, coloring the van in the same color as his. I used Blending Brushes to create sky in Balmy Blue, the lake in Misty Moonlight and the beach in Crumb Cake. I stamped grasses from the On The Horizon bundle in Old Olive and diecut more grass from Evening Evergreen. The gates were diecut from the wood pattern of In Good Taste DSP. The mountains were diecut from Evening Evergreen, Basic White and Soft Suede, while the birds were stamped in Basic Gray ink. The pièce de résistance, in my point of view, is the application of enamel pebbles! Tre` realistic!!

Valentines Without Valentine Stamps

How do you make a Valentine's Day card with no Valentine stamps? Easy, you improvise. Think about it, any floral stamp can work, just use a Valentine greeting. But what if you want to make a Valentine for a man? Lots of Masculine stamps would work, just use appropriate colors and a greeting stamp that you have on hand, or type your greeting on a word processing document.

CHALLENGE: Look through your stamps and papers and come up with an un-Valentine Valentine's Day card. 

Need a little nudge of inspiration? Below, I used the SALE-A-BRATION stamp set Driving By. I thought a black and red combo would be good for a masculine card, so I colored the cute little sports car red. Then I looked at all my DSP for a print in black and white. I found one in the Daffodil Afternoon DSP from the SALE-A-BRATION catalog. The cool thing about our DSP, is that is is printed on both sides, so you get the double the patterns. This particular package of papers has daffodil prints on one side and more subdued patterns and colors on the other. I especially liked those sides. The stamp used in the greeting said, "Driving By just to say Hi." I used a piece of post-it note to cover up the word HI. Happy Valentine's Day, and some punched out hearts to make my card.

For the second card, I used the same DSP, Flirty Flamingo, Pale Papaya and Basic White cardstock, along with Oval Dies and Heart Dies.

For this last card, I used the Harvest Meadow DSP, and Poppy Parade cardstock.