Sunday, July 3, 2016

Floral Grunge

Hello Friends!

Once again I apologize for not being 'on it' in the blogosphere. Life, as we all know, can be hectic, harried and before you know it days turn into weeks turn into months.
So even with work and kids and homelife, I have still been crafting up a storm for Stampin' Up! and creating products for my hand crafted items, The Paper Gift Boutique.

I just finished whipping up stacks of all occasion cards using my new favourite stamp sets. I will admit, when I first saw Gorgeous Grunge, I thought it was not very attractive. I ADMIT IT! I could not see the point of a stamp set that just had splatters. But oh Pinterest, you wicked beast. I caught a glimpse of some of the amazing projects others had used with it and then I had to get it for myself. And now I am hooked! I can't believe how versatile it is. I especially love using it with the Petite Petals and Flower Shop stamp sets. I also splurged and got the Hardwood background stamp set and that just brought it up a notch.

So trying to use some more vintage colors, as opposed to bright pops of color, I used Blushing Bride with Calypso Coral and Island Indigo with Pool Party. Adding either of those comos to Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake gave it that old school feel I was going for. Topped with Linen Thread (or thicker Twine if you can find it) and Basic Pearls, I found that these cards had a simple elegance to them. I tried doing different folding techniques to make them pop in a different way. So check these out.


 So I did a traditional gatefold card, but using the blooms to create a 'closure' for the tag (oh- and I am also a bit obsessed with the font from the various "Endless" sentiment sets. I have Birthday, Thanks and Wishes (a holiday one which works great with the others, but is retired unfortunately). Creating my own sentiments and then using the Tags and Labels Framelits really brings the look together.



I had so much fun with these sets!
I have no idea what these ones are called, to be honest, but the one on the left is a Joy Fold Card.
The ones on the right were inspired by pinterest as well. I really love cutting 'chunks' out and creating a 3D feel with the negative space.
The bottom card has become a go-to unique cut as well- as I used this particular design on plenty of holiday cards last year. (I'll have some of those to show at a later date!)

Cardmaking for the past decade has taught me a lot, as has being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.
 I used to go all out and think cards needed a big splash to be great. I love this simple approach with minimizing and creating uniqueness using different card cuts and layering. The bonus is that you're spending LESS on materials, but still maintain a wow factor.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

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