The color scheme for this week’s Global Design Project is pure genius. I would never have put these together and once I started working on this card, I absolutely fell in love!  Right away I knew I wanted to use this paper from the new Affectionately Yours DSP.  I love these slightly textured DSP’s.  I use the Botanical Garden and framelets a lot and this suite seemed perfect for this color scheme. I really enjoy all the floral bits and pieces you can work with in the botanicals suite.  I generally stamp and then cut a big variety using this suite. Then it is like “flower arranging” to get a card design I like.

I  punch out a circle or square to use as the “vase” for the floral elements while I am “arranging” them. Using a base like this allows you to create the floral design as an embellishment and then you have a lot of flexibility in where you want to put it on the card.  On this card, some of the flowers could overlap the ribbon which would have been hard to do if I put the floral pieces directly on the card.  Having the base piece also allows the floral pieces to “pop” off the card a little more. I think the more dimension you can ge
t with the florals, the prettier it looks.  And lastly, having some 1/4″ cotton ribbon left over in Island Indigo was the icing on the cake. I will miss this cotton ribbon.  If you will too, be sure to order more by May 31st before it retires!

Click on the image below to see what everyone else is creating this week using this totally unexpected color combination!

Another new item featured on this card is the new banner punch and Thoughtful Banners stamps.  I really prefer a punch, so I look for stamps that match punches anytime.  Punches are great for adding fast touches to cards.  If you are on my mailing list, you should have a new catalog by now. Isn’t it wonderful? I can’t stop looking through it! June 1st can’t come soon enough!

Recipe 

Papers: Tip Taupe Taupe, Minto Macaroon, Island Indigo, Affectionately Yours DSP
Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Thoughtful Banners
Tools: Botanical Framelets, Big Shot, Banner Punch
Embellishments: 1/4″ Island Indigo Cotton Ribbon, Mint Macaron Enamel Dots

Who doesn’t love a good pun?  I know I have a corny enough sense of humor to find puns very funny.  A pun is just fun!  And what more fun than playing along with this week’s Global Design Challenge #GDP034!  This week’s challenge is a sketch done by the super talented Teneale Williams. What a talented group over on that side of the Pacific! I really want to go to an On Stage there one day just to meet all these fabulous stampers! The fact the Global Design Challenge has designers from all over the world is one of the reasons I love doing it so much.  Click on the icon below to see what everyone else is doing this week!

Pun Intended is a Hostess set from the new catalog! And I love the name “Pun Intended”. No apologies there.  We have puns and we mean it! At first,  I loved this set for the bee.  And that was going to be the stamp I used for this challenge.  But once I started working on it, I HAD to use the light bulb.  The matching sentiments are too cute.  And the light bulb stamp has so much built into it The little heart and the “whatever those wires are in a light bulb” spell out love! How clever is this stamp?  The challenge sketch has sort of a watercolor looking center to it.  I haven’t done much watercolor, but this seemed like a good time to try it and the obvious choice was yellow to mimic light from a light bulb.  Using my aqua painter I did a light wash of Daffodil Delight on watercolor paper with a stroke or two of Crushed Curry.  The watercolor paper makes stamping fine details a challenge, but with Black Staz-On ink, the photopolymer stamps worked like a champ! The heart on the bulb was inked in using the aqua painter and real red ink.  And it is hard to see, but I colored in the bulb with Wink Of Stella glitter so it glows!

I also felt like I wanted a very humble little bow on the front.  The stamps are so simple, the bow needed to be simple as well.  So, I took the Thick Whisper White Baker’s Twine and used the aqua painter to add some Daffodil Delight ink to it. The card didn’t really need a bow, but adding this made me happy!

And usually I don’t bother showing the inside, But you just have to see it on this card with this stamp set! I love how it turned out.

Recipe

Papers: Watercolor paper, WhisperWhite, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black
Stamps: Pun Intended, Work of Art
Inks: Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Staz On Black, Real Red
Embellishments: Whisper White Thick Baker’s Twine, Wink of Stella Glitter Pen

Today’s card is all about saying good-bye to old friends right now.  I went through all my stamps last weekend and marked all the retiring stamp sets and decided which ones I will keep and which ones will be sold, donated or given away.  Some are really hard to part with such as this one, Ray of Sunshine.  I never used this nearly enough.  The face for the sun is what has always attracted me to the card.  Since I have never really been able to line up the rays of the sun a circle for the face, I have always had to come up with creative ways to work around stamping them!  In this case, I stamped the rays on the back of DSP and then cut them out, leaving some extra at the bottom so I can adhere them to the back of the circle.

I will absolutely hate saying good-bye to the Bohemian DSP!  At first Bohemian and I didn’t really click. loved the colors, but after a while, I learned to love the bold graphics of this paper.  Along with my other good friend, Blackberry Bliss ink they have been much loved, though much under used! Don’t we all have that problem?

I added a lot of gold accents to this card, which is what I always do with Bohemian DSP.  I wish the photograph did the card more justice.  It really does not pop the color or the gold accents, but I couldn’t quite get the light right.  What I really wanted to show off is the center of the card and I think the image shows that. The gold metallic thread behind the sentiment is really beautiful too.  I layered the sentiment over gold foil punched with the same punch(the Washi Tape) as the sentiment.

The sentiment is one of my favorite sayings.  Some people really are your sunshine in life.  Its great to have them around. This card will go to my good friend Scott in Florida who loves all things purple and for all of us who know him,  he really is like having sunshine around!

Recipe

Papers: Delightful Dijon, Bohemian DSP, Botanical Garden, Gold Foil Paper
Stamps: Ray of Sunshine
Embellishments: Gold Sequins, Metallic Gold Thread
Tools: Washi Label Punch