Another week is almost in the books! We are hanging in there (pun intended) with winter and more snow and more cold. It's what we do in Montana and while there's a few that complain, the alternative is moving away and very few seem eager to do that! One thing I love about winter is it brings out my nesting instinct. I love to be a homebody and rotate among my hobbies and interests. I just finished a great book that gave me much to think about, especially what it would be like to be blind. The book was "All the Light We Cannot See" and I highly recommend it. We rely so much on our vision, literally and figuratively, yet one of the main characters of this book was blind and she still lived an extraordinary life. Food for thought.....
Today I want to feature a stamp set that did not make my wish list the first time around. I get a little tired of "foliage" themed stamps including flowers, leaves, more flowers and more leaves and a few branches. I already have quite a few sets in my stash and really have to talk myself into buying more. I was able to obtain this one for free with some hostess dollars (you start earning hostess dollars for free product at the $150 level of order and it increases from there). Yesterday, I finally had some time to work with it a little and see what ideas came forth. The set is called "Hanging Garden" and it has some great hanging baskets as well as wonderful sentiments in an interesting font. Oddly enough, the first card I made used no color!
I'm not sure what gave me my inspiration other than the new floral embossing folder was laying on my work table close by as well as some Very Vanilla card stock and things sorta took off from there. I stamped the basket with Black Momento ink, thinking I would color it with my Blends markers, but then I decided I liked the look of going with just black. Anyway, I love how it turned out!
Here's the next one I made:
For this one, I decided to not color the hanging plants again, but try to feature them all. I chose Tranquil Tide as my main color and added Fresh Fig as a contrast. I love this card and how appropriate for so many situations! How often do we tell ourselves to "hang in there" or encourage others to do so.
For my third attempt, I decided to color the basket!
This was easier than I thought and I used the writing tip (not the brush tip) of the markers. I colored the basket first, then worked my card color scheme around the colors I had chosen. The birthday sentiment and the green leaves come from the "Happy Birthday Gorgeous" stamp set in the annual catalog. I was really happy with how much they added to my design.
Lastly, I went back to a more monochromatic feel with Powder Pink:
This is a great way to incorporate 2 sentiments on the front of a card, which isn't always easy! The "Thank You Kindly" sentiment could have also been stamped on the inside of the card, but I like how this ended up. They are a little hard to see, but I added some of our smallest pearl embellishments in the hanging plant for a little bling.
I hope my ideas have shown how you can take one stamp set and make it look very different with color schemes, design and coordinating choices for embellishments and paper. I love to include our Designer Series Paper in almost everything I make as I think it is gorgeous!
Please contact me if you would like any further information about this set or any other Stampin'Up! products. There is a whole world of creativity at your fingertips in our catalogs and online store. All the links are on the right side of this blog.
I've updated my February calendar with lots of new events so check out the SU website link. Classes are a good way to grow your skills if you've been doing paper crafting for awhile or test the waters if you're a newbie! This is an easy hobby to start, even easier to get hooked into!
Happy weekend and Happy Stampin'!
Sarah
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