Hello there! Welcome! It's time for another new collection to launch at The Greetery and this one is called New Beginnings! It's full of all sorts of goodies for Spring, new babies and even some Easter! Settle in and I'll tell you about what I've made for today!
First up, there's a new line of stamps and dies called Baby Face, and good grief, they're cute! I couldn't just use one set today, so I've used two -- Baby Face: Orange and Baby Face: Sweet Pea!
PRO TIP: While you're making a card for a baby shower or a new baby's arrival, go ahead and make a coordinating gift tag at the same time! That way, your card and your tag will coordinate, and you can easily create the tag while you've already got all the supplies out to make the card! Then, you could just put your gift in s solid colored gift bag or wrapping paper, or even something with a simple and sweet pattern, like a soft polka dot or plaid. Solid or simple patterned gift bags and wrapping paper are always less expensive than those with big graphics on them, so this will save you some money on wrapping and you're guaranteed to not show up at the shower with the same gift bag as someone else! Haha!
The dies are really simple to use so I just cut everything from white card stock and blended the ink on with blending brushes.
PRO TIP: To give your oranges a bit more shading and dimension, blend the color on a bit heavier at the top near the stem and at the bottom where it would naturally be in shadow. It also gives a sweet little highlight for the face!
I added a few die cut flowers to make the oranges a bit more girly. They're from a new set called Spring Sprays.
PRO TIP: When your focal point is really simple, add a few enamel dots or adhesive gems to fill space and create a little more textural interest.
For the background, I used a new background stamp you'll hear a bit more about tomorrow.
The sentiments are from the new Baby Face Sentiments set, which is full of sentiments to go with all of the new Baby Face die sets!
PRO TIP: Rather than have the oranges floating in space on the card front, I used a strip of card stock to ground the oranges. It sort of anchors them visually, and it also served as the perfect spot to add part of my sentiment!
You can see that I did a lot of the same things on this gift tag, that I did on the card front. (No need to reinvent the wheel PLUS, this makes it look SUPER coordinated with your card!) I also used the new Tear Strip Tags: Baby stamp set, to add a sentiment banner/tag behind the larger tag. I love stacking tags like this! It just makes gift tags so much more interesting when there are two or three hanging off the gift!!
PRO TIP: Here's a bonus card idea for you! You could create this whole circle tag, and then pop it on the front of a card, as your focal point! You could even put it on some solid colored card stock, and then use that same background stamp, with versamark ink on your background, to tie it all together and jazz up the background a tad, without distracting too much from the focal point!
PRO TIP: When blending on inks, darken your color up at the top, where the pod comes out of the stem. It would naturally be a bit darker there, and this just gives the pea pod more depth. I also used a darker green ink on the back layer of the pod, as well. It amps up the 3-D effect by pushing that back layer back visually, and pulling the front layer forward.
PRO TIP: If you're going to stamp a sentiment on top of a stamped image or background, like I did here, be sure to keep the sentiment color dark and bold, and the background color soft and light. This will allow the sentiment to be easily read and not lost in the busyness of the background!
{Baby Face Card & Tag Set supplies -- click on thumbnails}
Next up is a new die set called Bunny Kisses, which I used to cut out the bunny, all the tulips and the Easter eggs.
As you can see on the background, I used the same background stamp as on the previous card, but with versamark ink on solid card stock! The result is nice and subtle, but adds some interest rather than leaving it totally plain.
For the sentiment, I used the new Tear Strip Tags: Spring stamp set, with the previously released Tear Strip Tags dies. I love being able to quickly create four different tags at once!
Lastly, I used the new Ribbon Maker: Daisy Chain die with the new Robin's Egg Paper Ribbon Roll, to create the daisy border.
{Happy Spring Card supplies}
One more for today, and this one might be my favorite! The flowers were created with the new Spring Sprays stencils and dies. I added two of the sprays to the card, overlapping them a bit and curving them around the sentiment.
PRO TIP: When using multiples of the same die cut like I've done here, to create one large spray, be sure to overlap the sprays a bit so it's not so obvious that you've used two of the same exact die cut. See how you can only see one cluster of little yellow flowers? That's because the others are tucked under the orange flowers from the top spray. This way, it looks like it's all one great big spray, rather than two that are just positioned end to end!
And speaking of the sprays, I wanted to add a bit more detail to them, so I used colored pencils to add shading at the base of the tulips, veins on the stems and leaves and around the flower centers!
The sentiment was die cut with the new Rejoice die and the companion sentiment was added with the Rejoice stamp set.
I stacked up three Rejoice die cuts, to get it to stand up from the rest of the die cuts a bit.
Lastly, I added some platters with white acrylic gouache paint. You have to let go of some control with the splatters! LOL! They're gonna go where they want to go!
PRO TIP: Practice your splatter technique on scrap paper first, so you know how heavy-handed or not, you'll need to be, to get the look you're going for! The last thing you want to do, is create a beautiful card and then accidentally plop dime-sized splatters on the front! Hahaha!!!
{Rejoice Card supplies}
That's it for now, but I'll be back with more to share tomorrow! Can't wait! Until then, head to The Greetery Blog and then be sure to hop around and check out the rest of the team's posts!
1. Angelica
2. Laurie
3. Dana
4. Wanda
5. Melissa
6. Dawn
7. Kelly
I appreciate you being here today, friends!
Thanks so much for spending some time with me today! Be sure to leave a comment before you go, to be entered to win one of the two $50 gift cards being given away today from The Greetery!
See you tomorrow!
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