Hey, Friends! Welcome back for another day of fun with The Greetery! Y'all, I made so many things with the new products we're introducing today, that I had a tough time deciding what to show you first! This was all product that I worked with while I was at the Craft House with my friends, and once I started, I just couldn't stop! I have a HUGE post for you today, so I suggest you get comfy before you dig in! Oh, and pay attention to which is your favorite color grouping with these goodies....I'm gonna ask you at the end!! :)
Ok, so literally the first thing I did when I sat down to create with this month's new releases, was create this stack of envelopes. This leads me to my first PRO TIP of the day for you....
PRO TIP: When you want to get your creative juices flowing, start with something easy. Start with something that let's you just play with color, and play with your supplies, without any real pressure. You'll be amazed at how good this can be, for kick-starting your creativity and getting your wheels turning! By starting with these envelopes, I knew it was gonna let me experiment with color and just have some relaxing fun, but it also gave me a jumping off point for my cards. I was then able to use each of these envelopes, as the inspiration for a card or set of cards to coordinate with them!
So, first things first....The Greetery is going to start carrying white and cream colored envelopes, because they're releasing a new envelope stencil set, called Flappable Stencils! How cute is that?! You can use them on the flaps of your envelopes, just like you see here, but notice on the floral envelope......I also used that same stencil to add a floral strip at the bottom of the envelope. You can also do this same little strip on the front side of your envelope, to add some quick and easy color that dresses up the front to coordinate with the back!
Also, let me just say that blending the ink on with my blender brushes from Taylored Expressions, allowed me to add the color in literally just a few minutes! This is a REALLY fast project, that will make you feel like a rock star, because of how much you're able to get done quickly! This would also be a really fun project for kiddos, to feel like they're a part of your Christmas card making process this year!
OH, and don't forget to think outside the box with these! You could also use these stencils to add details to your gift tags or even your cards, as you'll see a bit later in my post today. AND, you can layer on the blended color, like I did on the floral envelope, by adding some darker color to the flower centers. And because you're ink blending, you can not only layer different colors, but you can also use different pressure with the same color, to create an ombre effect, like I did on the green striped envelopes! And as if that isn't enough different ways to use them, look at that plaid one! That was created with the striped stencil! (Thanks to Betsy for this brilliant idea!) After I stenciled on the pink, I turned the stencil over, so that the stripes were now running in the opposite direction (essentially backwards), and then stenciled on the red!! GAH!
There are so many possibilities with these!!!
{Flappable Envelopes supplies -- click on thumbnails}
Ok, so I think I'm gonna have to call this my favorite set for today, not because it uses my favorite colors (I'm sure you'll all spot those a mile away!), but because it features a color combo I rarely use, but really should more often! Goodness!
Ok, so for these, I chose four inks from Altenew, that are all meant to layer well together, and boy, do they! I used those four inks for every bit of the stamping here, using the darkest ones for the leaves and the lighter/brighter ones for the flowers. Seriously, what a fun -- and FREEING -- way to approach a set of layering florals!!
PRO TIP: By all means, do yourself a favor and choose four colors meant to layer well together, and create a monochromatic set like this for yourself!! Any combo would be lovely here, but can you imagine this same set in reds? Bright reds or deep reds? Greens? Bright Christmas-y greens or even deeper olive-y greens? Even cream/tan/brown with maybe some gold glitter thrown in for an accent?? Gosh, the sky's the limit and not only that, but you can make these as a lovely gift set for Christmas! Or if you're super slick, you'll knock them out early and give them around Thanksgiving to your loved ones, so they can turn around and mail them out for their Christmas cards!!
PRO TIP: One more tip regarding this set, is to just change out the sentiment and turn these into your thank you notes for after Christmas! But do yourself a favor and make them BEFORE Christmas, while you're still in the Christmas spirit! Don't wait till after Christmas, when you're packing your decorations away, to try and motivate yourself to make a big pile of Christmas themed cards! Haha!
So, here's the deal with how to make these cards! This is the With Love At Christmas stamp set, and included in the set of dies that coordinates with these stamps, are two "edge" dies, that only cut out ONE SIDE of this gorgeous bouquet! SO, I used one of those dies, to cut the corner off of four pieces of white card stock, and then I stamped the bouquets on each.
When all the bouquet stamping was done, I added the sentiment to each one, ROTATING the card stock for each sentiment. That way, when I mounted them to the card bases, each bouquet was oriented in a different spot on the card front!
(This should also give you a good idea of how these half-border dies can be used even when you're not making a whole set of cards. You can position that bouquet on any corner of your card!)
If you look closely at the shape of the bouquet, you can see that one side is more pointed -- that's the side I have tucked into the corner, and one side is a bit more straight across. The straight across portion, also has an edge die, in case you'd rather cut that half. And of course, there's a die to cut the whole thing, just like with all die sets. Lots of options!
I took a lot of pictures, because good grief, they're just so pretty all laid out like that! Haha!
Notice the envelopes? I used the floral Flappable stencil, and inked up four coordinating envelopes, with those same four inks I used to stamp everything in! And just because I know some of you will be wondering, I used the same blending brush for all of them. You can see it there in the pics. I rubbed it onto a piece of scratch paper to make sure it was clean. It LOOKS inky, but really, it wipes clean on scratch paper easily. So then, I started with the lightest ink, and blended the envelopes up, again in a matter of just a minute or so for each envelope, working my way to the darkest ink. SO dang easy!
Golly, I really should do more sets like this!!! (Inks are linked below, for those of you who might want to make the same sets for yourself!)
{Sending Love at Christmas Set supplies}
Ok, so you know I love these colors! GAH! I made two cards to match, and then turned the third focal element into a jumbo gift tag! Had you ever thought about using the Crimped Frame Dies to make gift tags? :) This gift tag would really make a plain old gift bag POP, thanks to it's size and all that gorgeous color! Plus, thanks to it's larger size, there's lots of room to write the to's and from's on the back!
I started out by stamping the big luscious bouquets. Well, let me back up.....after I stamped that pile of envelopes at the top of this post, my next step was to stamp a PILE of die cuts using With Love at Christmas! I stamped lots of the big bouquet, as well as lots of the smaller accent pieces from the set.
THEN, I die cut the additional layers I used on my cards here. The kraft layers were die cut with the middle sized Crimped Frame die, and on that, I stamped a green border from With Love at Christmas. That border, incidentally, fits on the white die cut layer you see here.....except that I turned the little white die cut vertically and layered it on top of the kraft layer.
That white die cut was made with the new Addressed Die, which works perfectly as an address label! I just flipped it vertically, to use it as another layer of interest on my card front, because I love it's dotted and scalloped detail! I stamped a "Merry Christmas" from the new Sentiment Suite: Christmas stamp set and stacked everything up on the kraft layer.
Before popping the kraft layer on the card front, I used a couple of the small accent stamps from With Love at Christmas, to add a bit of monochromatic detail on the card base.
All I had to do to turn that same stack of beauties into a tag, was to punch a small hole in the top. Since I was sitting next to my dear friend, Heather, when I was stamping, she whipped out her eyelets for me to use, and I added one here. I haven't used my eyelets in AGES! Must use them more often! I'd forgotten how fun and easy they are, and what a polished finishing touch they provide!
Heather also had this great red and white striped yarn from Hobby Lobby. (that I intend to go buy some of, because I used it a ton -- it's perfect for gift tags....trust me on this. You'll see soon!) ;) I used it here and fell in love with it, and before we left at the end of the weekend, it seemed like half the gals there, had used some of it, too! Haha! It's the I Love This Cotton brand, and I think the color is called Monkey Red (you know, like sock monkeys), and I looked it up and they also have Monkey Brown, too! I see some of that in my future as well! ;)
Of course, those plaid envies just finish the whole grouping off, don't they??
{Merry Christmas cards & tag set supplies}
Ok, so here's a fun little set.....remember those green ombre envelopes I showed you at the top of the post? I did the same thing on the front of a white card!!! Seriously, this is a ridiculously easy way to add a big punch of interest and detail to your cards, and all with a simple bit of ink blending and these new Flappable stencils!
To create the ombre look, just add more ink on one side and blend with a much lighter hand on the other side! Easy peasy!
I topped it with one of my many stamped die cut bouquets! I always say it, but if you stamp a pile of these up right at the start, you'll have so much fun putting cards together with them! AND, it'll feel so easy, because you can stamp the accent elements and sentiments in colors that coordinate with your stamped die cut!
I stamped that border I showed you earlier, from With Love at Christmas....it's the one that fits the Addressed die, should you want to use it with the die. But it also works great, just as a decorative element on your cards!
Lastly, I stamped the sentiment, also from Sentiment Suite: Christmas!
{Wishing You Joy & Peace supplies}
Ok, so remember how I told you there are two half border dies included in the With Love at Christmas die set? I used each of them here. You can see the corner one on the left.....I used it here, similarly to how I used it on the blue set. But see how the card on the right has a straighter die cut edge? That's because its the other of the two half border dies. I die cut the piece of card stock and just snipped off a tiny bit on either side, to completely cut off the bottom chunk of white, leaving the red card base exposed. I stamped a "merry christmas" from Sentiment Suite: Christmas there. The "sending Love' is from With Love at Christmas.
I have a couple extra die cuts that would make quick and easy tags!
Here's the whole set, with it's coordinating pile of envelopes. LOVE! Pink and red at Christmas is a favorite of mine. And since we buy both bright pink and red varieties of poinsettias for Christmas each year, this was especially fun to stamp up!!
{Sending Love red & pink set supplies}
OK, if you're still with me, then you deserve a medal!! But I wanted to show you a more FALL-ish option with this same stamp set......how fun is it, when stamped in purple and brown???? OH MY WORD!!!
I shared a purple and brown coffee card on instagram the other day, that many of you seemed to love. I'd had purple and brown rolling around in my brain for awhile, so I whipped up both of them back to back at the Craft House -- one to share the other day, and this one for today.
You could 100% send this for Fall, which tells me that you could of course, stamp this bouquet in other Fall colors, too, and it would likely be beautiful!
The sentiment is from the Cotton Comforts stamp set, but of course, you could use any Fall-themed sentiment or even turn this into a really lovely birthday card.
I accented the centers of the flowers with some gold glitter (linked below).
In the interest of full disclosure, let me just say that I stamped this bouquet three times, to get these colors JUST RIGHT. But I'm gonna share what I did here, to save you a bit of time and trouble, in case you want to stamp this same thing for yourself!
For the large poinsettia and the berries (that's all one stamp in the big bouquet), I stamped lavender fields, topped with midnight violet. (All the colors are linked below.) For the smaller, more fluffy flower, I stamped it with Plum Punch from TE. But here's the key! I stamp plum punch OFF first on scratch paper, and then stamp it on the die cut. Then, I DID THAT AGAIN, to deepen the color, but not make it tooooo dark. There's a reason for this! I then used the same color -- stamped at full strength -- for the detail layer on top! See how it looks like the same basic color, but with the detail in a shade darker? That's because it IS all the same color.
If you only stamp off and then stamp the base layer once, you'll get a lighter flower. That's totally fine, but then your top layer will be WAY darker than your base layer.
For the leaves, if you look closely, you'll see that they're stamped in brown, but in order to get the vein image that goes on top, to really show up without being too in your face, I stamped the veins in a dark gray! That way, I could keep everything looking really brown and purple overall, while still having that detail on the leaves show up.
PRO TIP: When layering colors, it's all about balance. I played with these quite a bit to get a combo that felt juuuust right. You want the individual layers to blend well, but also, to each stand out and have some definition. Don't be afraid to stamp them a few times, until you get a combo you're happy with. This may mean you chuck a few of them in the trash can. No biggie though! It's just paper and ink! Repeat after me.....it's just paaaaaper and iiiiiiink! ;) If I'd gone with the first group (or two!) of colors I'd tried, I would have had an ok card to share, but it's way more fun to have a card to share that I really love! That feeling when you hit on a color combo that just sings is so worth working for!!
{Sending a Warm Hello supplies}
All right, as usual, there's way more inspiration for you today, at the Greetery Blog! And my friends below, are all sharing projects today, as well!
>>Dawn McVey (that's me!)
Thanks for being here, friends! I'll be back tomorrow for one more day of Greetery goodness!
Soooooo, which color combo was your favorite from today????
See you tomorrow!
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