It certainly feels like yonks since I last wrote a blog post so I just wanted to do a little post to let you know that I am still around and thinking of you :)

So as not to just pop in, say hi, and pop out again I decided to make a quick card to show that I have been thinking of all of you lovely people.

Now, I say “quick”. What I probably meant was “intended to be quick however it turned into a ‘most of the afternoon’ card”. Lol. Ah well, I had fun and I hope that you like the finished result.

Anyway, let’s crack on shall we?

For this card I decided to use the Essential Flower Stamp Set from Hayley and Carol (lovely ladies) over at Dreamees.

I’ve had this set for some time now and have been meaning to sit down and use it for ages as I think that it’s a very handy and useful set to have.

To begin the card I drew a large square in pencil onto some Super Smooth cardstock (to act as a guideline into which I should stamp the flowers).

Given that the square ended up being about eight inches square I’m not sure that there was much point but you live and learn.

I then used some black Ranger Archival Ink and stamped out a load of the largest of the five petal design.

I then changed the stamp to the smallest of the three and changed the ink to a grey Stazon and stamped in the spaces left by the larger flowers.

To add a little pop of colour I chose a bright red Versacraft Ink Cube and stamped out the stamen for the larger flowers in that colour.

I then changed inkpads to a light grey Versacolor and changed the stamp for another stamen design and added an impression onto each of the smaller flowers.

So that was the background all done.

After trimming the cardstock down to about six and a half inches (the design “worked” at that size) I used the Perfect Layers tool to add a couple of layers of coloured cardstock and then mounted the lot onto an eight inch square card blank.

For the next step I wanted to create some flowers for a little bouquet area on the front of the card so I stamped out the flowers again (multiple times) and then cut these out using the direct cut feature on the Brother Scan N Cut.

To give the petals some shape I used the Tonic Flower forming tools, choosing a different sized stylus for each of the three sizes of flowers.

(reminds me of the three little bears in goldilocks, lol).

I then gave some thought to the layout of the bouquet and worked out what size circle mats and flowers I would need.

The circle mats ended up being 8cm, 8.4cm and 8.8cm. To ensure accuracy I again used the Brother Scan N Cut to cut out the circles.

After layering the circles up with some Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue I positioned the stack bottom left of the card front.

Now, here was my opportunity for some bling! (not that I need an excuse LOL).

I used a placement guide that I had designed and had made in order to put some pencil marks where I wanted the gems to be.

Then, using fine tipped tweezers, I applied a mini gem to each of the pencil marks using a tiny dot of PVA glue.

I chose the “thinking of you” sentiment for obvious reasons and stamped it onto Super Smooth paper. I then trimmed this down and layered it onto black cardstock.

I had originally trimmed off the end of the sentiment banner but when applying it to the card I realised that it would look good if the leftover bit was sticking out of the other end of the circle so I applied that too.

I used Pinflair glue gel for both sections in order to help hold their domed shape and give the banner the feel that it was light and floating behind the bouquet.

Earlier on you may have seen pink flowers however I wasn’t planning on using those, I just had them to hand when I was thinking of the layout.

To create the flowers, that were going to work in with the white flowers that I made earlier, I used the Quilled Creations quilling dies to cut strips of red cardstock and then coiled and stuck them.

Having fanned out the petals I then arranged (and fiddled quite a bit with) the bouquet.

I finished off the white flowers with a central red gem and changed my mind about having some pink in the design and reached for a flower punch from which I created three small blooms that I positioned around the outer edge to help fill out the bouquet.

Then, with a sigh of happy contentedness I decided that it was finished and marched off for a cup of tea and a caramel wafer.

Oh, yes, I did come back later and take some pics of the finished card – here be they me hearties…

Not bad eh?

What did you think? I don’t always think that a single range of smaller stamps are enough to cover the vast majority of the front of an eight inch square card but it really does work.

Anyway, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read this post.

I’ll try not to leave it so long next time!

J :)