Very Simply Susan

Honey Bee was my “must have” set from the Spring Mini Catalog!  I don’t know why, but I love designs with bees. Maybe because bees are a symbol of industriousness, simplicity and working together.  Anyway, I had to have this set and it was in my first order from the new Mini Catalog. Yet, this is the first time I have used it.

I haven’t been very creative this week, so I have been seeking inspiration from the great challenges that go on each week. They can be a great source of ideas. For this card, I looked at Global Design Project’s #GDP226 Sketch Challenge. I thought it looked perfect for what I had in mind. IF you want to see more ideas from this challenge, click on the image below.

For this challenge, I decided to use the Golden Honey Specialty DSP you can earn for FREE during Sale-A-Bration!  This paper features designs that coordinate with the Honey Bee set and one side of the paper features gold embossed designs. Because of the gold on the paper, I decided I had to “go bold or go home”! So, I made sure I had lots of gold accents in the design and made sure I featured the honeycomb design black and gold paper well. The gold embossed Honey Bees were die cut using the Detailed Bees Dies which work with both the stamped images and some of the images in the DSP! I love it when that happens!

For ribbon, I wanted a ribbon with gold, but alas the Gold Edged ribbon is Very Vanilla, which seemed to dull against the white backgrounds in the paper.  So, I took the Light Basic Black Stampin’ Blends and colored the ribbon.  I love this trick because it is very easy to create custom color ribbons using the Stampin’ Blends.  The trick is to always use the lightest shade Stampin’ Blend first. If you need more depth in color, you can always add another coat or choose the dark version of the color.  This tip will save you a lot of mistakes!

Products Used For This Card

Subscribe by Monday, February 10th to get February’s kit!  It looks like a good one! 

This is my 2nd card for Thoughtful Blooms. Who would ever think such a simple stamp set could create so much? This Sale-A-Bration set that you can earn for free with a qualifying order has multiple sentiments as well as a matching flower punch you can also earn! I have loved working with it because of how versatile it is.

I only just saw the sketch for Freshly Made Sketches and Thoughtful Blooms came to mind right away. I needed a quick, easy card that would work for this sketch. Something with enough “design” to it for a challenge, but also clean and simple to fit the stamp set. The Freshly Made Sketches #420 Challenge was the perfect design!

For the background, I used water color paper and did a light wash in Balmy Blue.  The design was stamped in Pear Pizzaz and Daffodil Delight. I used the Happiness Blooms Enamel Dots in the center of each flower. The color used was Pineapple Punch. But it works for Daffodil Delight designs.

Then,  I die cut the stamped design with a Stitched Shape and backed it with a Scalloped Circle from the Layering Circles Dies. The sentiment was stamped on a scrap of the water color paper, punched and layered on punched circle of Pear Pizzaz. The only DSP I even considered was the Pear Pizzaz Gingham from the Designer Series Paper Stack in Subtle colors!  The dainty, 1/4″ Ruched Ribbon in Daffodil Delight tied it all together. Simple and spring like.  Just the look I was after!