Bloom Where You're Planted Suite

Hey Stampers and Wanna Be Stampers! 

We are enjoying a wonderful spring day and I feel summer creeping up ever so soon... can't wait! In other parts of the country, I'm sure your flowers and trees are blooming like crazy. Here, not so much yet! We are starting to get leaves on our trees but I think the flowers, lilacs and more are still sleeping off winter. I'm hopeful!

Are you a plant person? I am a "wanna be" plant person. I have had a love/hate relationship with indoor plants. At one time, I had a bunch and they were a ton of work and I didn't like the pressure of keeping them alive. For most of the past 15 years, I've had only one plant, a pathetic thing that I don't even know the name of. I got this in 1981 and it refuses to die. I give it water when I think of it, which is barely 1-2 times a month. It doesn't grow and it doesn't die. It just stays steady and alive for all these years. I recently was gifted another plant that is somewhat tropical and seems to be "needy". We will see how this goes as I'm not talented at all in this area.

If you are a plant person or even a "wanna be" like me, perhaps you will love the suite I want to feature today. It's called "Bloom Where You're Planted" and is on page 80-81 of the new Annual Catalog. It's a darling suite containing stamps, dies, Designer Series Paper and lattice sheets, all with a plant theme. There are plants, pots and even a macrame hanger. Remember macrame from the 70's and 80's. Wow! I played with this set yesterday and also did a video featuring the products and some ideas with them. Here are some card ideas:

First, you have to know the coordinating Designer Series Paper is amazing! One side of each sheet is plant-themed and the other side is a monochromatic design of brick, wood, stone or plant themed. They work so well together. I also love the color palette of Evening Evergreen, Garden Green, Just Jade, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze and Gray Granite. The card above features some of the plant stamps and many of the die cuts including the planters and macrame plant hanger. This is such a warm and inviting card to me, mostly because of the color scheme.

This card was actually the first one I made, trying out the different plant and planter stamps. They are "Distinktive" stamps so they have a shading effect achieved by stamping, due to the way the stamp is manufactured. Your color saturation won't be as dark but the shading makes it interesting and perhaps more realistic. The Cinnamon Cider brick background is one of my favorites of the DSP pack, I think because the scale is small and perfect for a card sized project. 

I had the fun idea of using the paper lattice as a mask (stencil) and with my blender brush, inked up a background for this card and then removed the lattice. This card features more of the DSP including full plants/planters that are easy to fussy cut or cut with dies. I used some retired oval dies and a larger die from the Tasteful Labels dies. 

I stared at this piece of DSP for quite a few minutes, wondering what to do with it. It was just the plants, no planters. Then, I got the idea of cutting out some of the planters, making my own with the dies and putting them on dimensionals at the bottom of the plants. I love how this turned out! This stamp set also includes some great sentiments with wonderful fonts. 

And, here's my "how-to" video! I go through the products and show the cards up close and also demonstrate how I used the blender brush and lattice as a mask.

Aren't these amazing! For more inspiration, check out the catalog samples and see all the creative ways they combine the stamps and dies with the designer series paper. It will give you ideas galore! I've posted a list of supplies I used below and a click on any of them will take you to the online store. Please reach out if you have questions or need help with an order. I'm here to help!

And, in case you want to see a 40 year old plant that is happy to be ignored, check this out!

I have another newly purchased suite sitting in my stamp room that will be my focus today so I'll be back soon with more!

Happy Stampin'!

Sarah