Retiring Series: Hello Darling and Painted Blooms

The new catalog is coming... But before we get there, I'm highlighting some of my favorite retiring stamp sets and retiring DSP. I just bought the Hello Darling stamp set and of course it goes on the retiring list. But that's okay, I'm definitely keeping this set for awhile. It is so romantic! I decided to feature the big solid flower but couldn't pick just how. How about layering the sentiment right one top? Perfect. A frame made from beautiful floral paper and a sparkly jewel complete the card!

• Stamps: Hello Darling
• Inks: Blushing Bride; Rose Red
• Cardstock: Blackberry Bliss; Painted Blooms DSP
• Accessories: Rhinestones
• Tools: Floral Frames Framelits

Sympathy and Congrats

One of March-April's featured classes is Special Occasions. You often need a sympathy, congratulations, wedding, and baby card throughout the year, but don't usually make them. This class fixes that problem while using some great new products from SU!

Card #1

The first card made is a sympathy card. I like sympathy cards that aren't fussy or overwhelmingly embellished. I also notice that I tend to lean toward monochromatic sympathy cards. This one hits all those points. 

For this card, I stamped onto vellum and heat embossed it with pearl embossing powder. I then sponged just the center of the flowers. Turning the vellum over, I stamped and embossed the sentiment in pewter. The flowers don't show up well in photographs, but they are gorgeous in person. This is a nice muted card with a bit of sparkle. As a last touch, I added Blushing Bride candy dots to the four corner to help hide the glue dot adhesive.

• Stamps: Flower Shop; Best of Greetings (retired)
• Inks: Versamark; Blushing Bride
• Cardstock: Blushing Bride; Vellum
• Accessories: Blushing Bride Candy Dots
• Tools: Heat embossing gun; Pewter Embossing Powder; Sponge Daubers

Card #2

For my congratulations card, I wanted to play with patterns. I love the Painted Blooms DSP and wanted to highlight it. The contrast between the leaves and subtle watercolor of the blue paper make a nice contrast. Add in the patterned ribbon, and I have a very visually striking card.

• Stamps: Lotus Blossom; Simply Wonderful
• Inks: Island Indigo; Lost Lagoon; Wild Wasabi
• Cardstock: Lost Lagoon; Painted Blooms DSP
• Accessories: Gumball Green Ribbon (retired)
• Tools: Scallop Tag Punch