Hello and welcome to spring!!!

If you are anything like me, you long for spring. It is like the whole world comes alive after the deadness of winter. The longer days… the budding trees… the flowers popping up everywhere… What is there not to love about spring.

And, I’ll tell you another thing! Being stuck at home right now, it is a whole lot easier with the sun shining and setting later than it would be if it was only light for 6 hours!

And, what better way to spend your time stuck at home avoid people than being locked up in your craft room working on spring projects?

That’s exactly what I did today.

With out theme being Spring has Sprung, I was thinking of what to do without being over the top and almost Easter-y. There can be a fine line. So, I took a sentiment set from 2019-2020 Annual catalog and a great graphic background stamp from the 2020 January-June Mini Catalog.

I present to you the marriage of A BIG THANK YOU and BREATHTAKING BOUQUET with the ceremony conducted by Embossing Powder and the Heat Tool! 🙂

For this first card, I used clear embossing powder on Whisper White cardstock. I then sponged the colors on (Highland Heather, Calypso Coral, Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, and Granny Apple Green). This is a technique called Emboss Resist. I used a Highland Heather card base and stamped the sentiment in the same color. For a little extra touch, I added pearls that I colored green using the Light Old Olive Blends.

For the next card, I stamped the image and embossed with Black Embossing Powder. I then used both colors from both sets of Water Color Pencils to color the flowers. I got rid of the coloring lines by using the Blender Pen. I stamped the image in coordinating colors (Balmy Blue, Rich Razzleberry, and Calypso Coral) then punched it out using the Label Me Fancy Punch. I used the Leaf Punch to punch out a couple leafs from Pear Pizzazz cardstock. I used Dimensionals to mount onto a Rich Razzleberry card base.

This third card uses the same basic idea as the card above but I just did a little more coloring. I added some of the Braided Burlap Trim (secured in the back with a couple glue dots on each side). The sentiment was stamped in Calypso Coral and punched out using the Label Me Lovely Punch. I added a couple more of those Old Olive Pearls.

Those are the Springy looks that I created using this pair of stamp sets. But, I saw beyond the Spring-y-ness. I saw the beauty of this background stamp. It is not named Breathtaking Bouquet for nothing. Plus, let’s be honest… I can never just do a card or two for you… I always have to be extra! LOL 🙂

How about it in a simple black and white?

Or a little black and white with a splash of Terracotta Tile? What about that ribbon? It’s from the new catalog coming out in June! It ties great! (I colored in the large flowers using the Chalk Marker.)

But, I think I really saved the best for last…

Does this look a little familiar? My most favorite Designer Series Paper ever was from a couple of catalogs ago and was part of the Love Affectionately suite. This Night of Navy and Copper color scheme reminds me of it. The frame that I cut out of the Copper Foil in the background was die cut using the new Ornate Frames dies coming in the new Annual Catalog. I added a bit of Copper Trim for interest. I used the Tailor Tag punch for the sentiment but trimmed off a bit from each end because I didn’t want to hid too much of that gorgeous background!

Well, that’s it from me for this month. I hope I have inspired you to look at stamp sets in a different way.

Here are the links to the rest of the blogs… hop along little rabbit!

Stamper’s Dozen April 2020 Blog Hop

1. Patty Chenail – Stamp-Patty’s – Stamping in My Flops
2. Judy Garza – Creativity Released
3. Sharon Hashimoto Burkert – As the Ink Dries
4. Carol Payne – Carol Payne Stamps
5. Joanne Cantrell – Keep It Simple, Stampers
6. Rachel Yurkanin – Stamping with Rachel
7. Debbie Naylor – Unfrogettable Stamping
8. Bonnie O’Neill – Bonnie Stamped
9. Laura Milligan – I’d Rather BEE Stampin’
10. BJ Peters – StampinBJ

Until next time… keep it simple, Stampers!

🙂 Joanne