Petals & Bokeh

I’m working on building out my stash of cards that I’ll send during the Lenten season. For several years now I have been sending cards to people during Lent. At our church it is a Lenten tradition (not a required thing, tho) to either give something up (chocolate is a common choice) or to take something on. I have been sending cards during Lent to give a pick-me-up to people and it’s an extra thing that I can do that’s totally in my wheel house. I send at least one card (typically 2 or 3) every day except Sunday starting with Ash Wednesday and going through until Easter Saturday. Because I am sending so many cards, I really need to have a large stash of “thinking of you” or “hello” cards on hand so I can keep up. This batch of cards will make up a portion of that stash, but I’ll still need to make a bunch more.

This card was actually pretty quick to assemble. I layered patterned paper on a black mat and put those on coordinating card bases. I added a strip of Old Olive cardstock and a diecut white circle. The flower cluster is stamped and diecut (I share a helpful tip below) and popped up with Dimensionals. I added a greeting from another company that was just the right size for my card. Ta da!

For this card I used a trick that I learned from a YouTube video. Ya gotta love creators that share their brilliant ideas! This trick works great with any diecuts but it is especially helpful with this stamp set since the flowers and leaves are two different stamps. You do need a stamping platform like the retired Stamparatus or the Misti which is available from lots of stamping stores. I have to say that having this tool has really made my stamping life so much easier – especially for creating multiple cards. Here’s how to do this “trick”:

• Diecut the shape and keep the negative
  • You can do the negative on a different scrap cardstock if you want since it won’t be used on the project
• Diecut several pieces of white (or light neutral) cardstock
• Place the negative diecut in the corner of the stamping platform so it’s tight in the corner and hold it in place with magnets or a grip mat
• Line up the stamp in the negative space and pick it up with the hinged part of the platform
• Place one of the diecuts inside the negative opening so it is snug in the negative space
• Stamp the image with the tool
• Remove the stamped diecut and replace with another – repeat

For the Pretty Petals stamp set, there are two stamps to get the floral cluster. To line up the images properly I started with the leaves. That was essential in order to figure out where the flowers line up. Doing the diecut before stamping actually makes it easy to get the images lined up properly. The Pretty Petals stamps and dies were recently added to the Last Chance area of the store. You can see all of the Last Chance items here. Please note – the Pretty Petals bundle is not discounted more than the normal bundle discount, but the separate parts are discounted quite a bit. So if you want to buy it definitely make sure to get the individual items for maximal savings. I really love this stamp set and I’m sad to see it going so quickly.

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