Fancy Flora

Welcome back to Stamping with Buffy! I hope your week is going well. Mine has been busy, but quite productive so far. My card today was originally for our demonstrator gathering Make & Take. It was so much fun, but, again, it’s a card that looks a lot harder to make than it actually is. It’s all in having the right tools.

Quick story. When Mike & I moved into our house many, many years ago, the “bones” were good, but there were a lot of things we didn’t like. Much could wait (and some is still waiting!), but the carpet and paint were changed right away. After Mike and a helper pulled up the outdated, smelly, ugly carpet, my job was to pull out the staples and carpet strips so we could put the new carpet down. I was having a really hard time and it was slow going. Mike noticed and said, “Oh – try this,” and have me some cool tools. The job was completed in no time, and that’s when I learned: it’s all in the tools.

In the case of this card, the cool tools are stamps, dies, Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, and a couple of spritzers. (And paper and ink, of course.)

I used the Fancy Flora Suite Collection from the January-April Mini Catalog for this card. This suite has two bundles (stamps and dies that you can order as a bundle and save 10%), two sets of special paper – Fine Shimmer and Fancy Flora 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP), Iridescent Pastel Gems, and Pool Party 3/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon. I used both the Two-Tone Flora Bundle and the Something Fancy Bundle for this card.

First, I die-cut the “full page flower die” from the Two-Tone Flora Die Set (when you see the mini catalog, you’ll understand) and the Split Card Textures from the Annual Catalog using Basic White Cardstock. Then I spritzed the flowers with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and Calypso Coral Ink Refill, and the split card texture grid with rubbing alcohol and Soft Succulent Ink Refill. I used about 10 drops of refill, then filled the spritzer with alcohol. You can use more or less refill depending on the depth of color you want.

While that was drying, I stamped the flowers in the Two-Tone Flora Stamp Set using Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral Ink. I also stamped some of the greenery in Soft Succulent Ink. I die-cut them using the Two-Tone Flora Dies.

I switched to the Something Fancy Bundle for the tag. I die-cut the tag from Basic White Cardstock, then used a separate die to cut the little tulip in the corner. So cute, right? But I wasn’t thinking about a sentiment when I did that; I was just playing. As it happened, one of the sentiments from the Something Fancy Bundle fit, so I stamped it in Soft Succulent ink, even though I wasn’t happy with the placement. There was a lot of white space at the top of the tag, but I decided to worry about that later.

I glued the Split Card Texture die-cut to a Calypso Coral card base. I only wanted pieces of the floral die-cut, so I cut it up with Paper Snips until I was happy with what I had left. (My stamping process, in case you haven’t realized, is, “Oh, let’s see what this will look like!”) I played around with the die-cuts until I was happy with their placement, then added them to the card with Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Stampin’ Dimensionals. And I was able to hide the blank space on the tag with the greenery and flowers.

I am super happy with the way this turned out. Since I don’t usually have a plan, I’m always surprised by the end result. Sometimes it ends up like the picture I had in my head, sometimes it’s completely different but I love it, and sometimes it’s a hot mess and ends up in the trash can after I salvage anything I can. In this case, I had planned to use the DSP and maybe Fine Shimmer Paper, because they are both so pretty. But spritzing the card stock was fun. Although you can’t see it well, it’s kind of variegated, which I love.

After watching Amelia make cards when she was little, I realized that the fun for her was the creating part. She was always proud of what she made, but she didn’t stress about it if it wasn’t perfect. She just played with paper and ink. And glitter. Lots and lots of glitter!

So go have some fun! Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!

Note: I won’t post the product list today since most of it isn’t available unless you’re a demonstrator. Contact me if you’d like more information about becoming a demonstrator. We have a cool deal on the Starter Kit coming in January!