A Rainbow Bouquet for Blessing My Life!

Hi Stampers! 

Another weekend is almost over and back to work tomorrow:-))  I so enjoy my free time on the weekends and yesterday had the privilege of spending time with my new recruit, Susan (yea!) and her two oldest daughters.  We had a great day learning new techniques and some of the "tricks of the trade" - I am looking forward to spending time with these lovely ladies again real soon :-))

This evening, I wanted to create one more card and thought the cheerful HSSTC109 Rainbow Theme at Hand Stamped Sentiments was the perfect way to end the weekend!If you have not had the time to visit their site yet, check out all of the great samples of the rainbow colors- such creativity!  

The most time consuming part of this card was creating the rolled flowers.  Many of you have inquired on how they were created and they are quite simple.  Below is a brief tutorial and there is a wonderful tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers describing a similar method.  

This is how I create the Rolled Flowers:

Using a circle punch, punch out the number of circles needed for your card (one per flower).  FYI- For this card I used the 1 3/8” Circle Punch but you can use any size circle punch- the larger the circle the larger the flower.

Using the Crimper Tool, crimp the cardstock circles (I run the circles thru the Crimper twice, angling the circle for the second pass). 

Starting on the outside of the circle, use scissors to cut a wavy line following the outline of the circle (creating a spiral until you reach the middle and leave a piece of cardstock available as a little base).  Place a small amount of liquid glue (I used Tombow Multi Adhesive) and press the cardstock flower edges into the glue holding until gently set.

Manipulate the petals and using the tip of your scissors, press the very beginning of the rolled flower edge into the center (to create a flat spot for the pearl- this is the very middle of the flower and were the spiral started).  Add the pearl and adhere the flower to your card using Mini Glue Dots.

I hope this brief written tutorial helps you- the flowers are easy to make but do take a bit of patience and time- have fun giving it a try!


As mentioned above, this card incorporates the rolled flowers along with embossed panels, satin ribbon and of course, pearls:-) .  Once the flowers were made,  the card was quick and easy to assemble. 

Stamp Sets: Blessings from Heaven

Ink: Concord Crush

Paper: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Concord Crush, Marina Mist, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron

 Accessories:  Big Shot™,  Herringbone and Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folders, Punches- 1 3/8” Circle, XL Oval , Pearls, 5/8” White Satin Ribbon

Thanks again for stopping by and blessing my life with you!  I hope all of you have a wonderful week stamping and creating- God Bless! 

Tutorial- Bow Tying

Hi Stampers!  

I love using bows on my cards and have a hard time making a project without a bow!  Recently, many of you have inquired how I make my bows so I thought I would try to write a tutorial of the different ways to create a bow.

Believe it or not, inexpensive tools that you have on hand can be used to create bows!

For single bows-

I either tie directly right off the roll or use a water bottle.  Tying off the roll- take the ribbon and loop over your left hand finger- tighten to a loop- and hold with your right hand.  With your left hand, bring the tail up from behind and  from the left and over the top of the loop in your right hand and push the tail behind the pinched loop and thru opening to create the bow (just like tying your shoelaces).

If you want to tie a single bow that can attach across the card, a water bottle can come in handy.  I used to waitress (ages ago :-) and had to tie my apron in a French Knot and found that the technique of how I used to tie my apron came in handy for tying bows. 

Take an ordinary water bottle and place the bottle in front of you (I use my lap or the table and have the bottle in front of me with the bow tying area in the front- as if to tie your apron).   Wrap the ribbon around the bottle, take the two ends and start to tie the bow.  Left over right, tighten the knot on the bottle and hold with your finger to hold it tight.  Loop the right end , hold the loop with your right hand finger (holding it tight against the bottle) pull the left end back in front of the right loop and over to behind to complete the bow.  Again, just like tying your shoe!  

Snip the ribbon in the back of the bottle (being careful not to cut your bottle, especially if you still have water in it:-)).  I generally try to cut the ribbon in the back keeping in mind, where I want the bow placement on my card.  If you want the bow to be in the center, then cut the ribbon in the center (so that you have equal amount of ribbon on both sides of the bow).  If you would prefer to have the bow be on one side or the other of the card front, then determine which side you should cut the ribbon in the back to allow enough ribbon to cover the card front.

Fork Method:  You can use a large serving fork (I have a turkey lifter) and use the tongs as a “jig” and this works well for single, double or triple bows!  So search your kitchen to see what you can use:-)

Double or Triple Bows:

Fork Method- As mentioned above, you can use a large serving fork (I have a turkey lifter) and use the tongs as a “jig” and this works especially well for double bows.  

Use the tongs to hold the ribbon as you wrap around and tie in the center.  You Tube has a few videos that you can search for other fork tying methods.

"Fork Tied" Bows 

Homemade Bow Jig- Scrap 2x4 & Nails 

Other jigs- I have a bow maker from years ago that can be used for larger bow making and recently had my husband take a scrap piece of 2 x 4 and nail several 8# finishing nails into the wood.  I wrapped the nails with masking tape and tie the ribbon around the posts (pinching them slightly to release the bow). 

There are other jigs on the internet – my upline recently purchased a few and I acquired one from her that I believe she may have bought from Lee Conrey.  It is a wooden dowel system and works extremely well.    

Now you know all of my secrets for bow making :-) !!  If you have another way to create the perfect bow, let us know...

I hope this has been helpful and have fun experimenting with different ways to create bows!  There is no real right or wrong way, but practice does make perfect!  

Tutorial- Sponged Background

Hi Stampers! 

Thank you so much for all of your comments regarding my recent posts-  we all love receiving feedback and it is so encouraging to me! 

I have had a few requests to explain how I created the sponged background for this card, so I thought it may be easier to try to type a step by step tutorial (to the right is a close-up view of the actual stamped background).

Since this card utilizes a Masking Technique, you will need to create the masks (do not throw them away when you are finished- they can be used several times).  To create the sky mask, I first punched a 1 ¾” circle from a repositionable note (3x3).  Using the portion that had the “punched out” opening, I determined where I wished for my moon/sun to be located and allowed the sticky part of the note to hold the mask in position on the Whisper White cardstock.  I covered up part of this area at the bottom to allow the moon/sun to be in a rising position.  I then used a Sponge Dauber inked with Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink to color in the sun image (using stroking and circular motions).

I created another mask with scrap Whisper White cardstock, tearing along the edge to create a jagged area for the "grass/hills".  Using the "grass" mask, I placed this at the bottom of my sponged moon cardstock and held it with my left hand as I sponged the Wild Wasabi Classic Ink (again with a Sponge Dauber) over the bottom portion of the cardstock.  At this angle, I was protecting the sky area and previously inked sun/moon area from the green ink. 

I applied a bit of repositionable adhesive to the back of the individual circle cut out and placed this over the Pumpkin Pie moon.  I reversed the mask from the bottom (I had to juggle this a bit to have it work but don’t worry- the tree line will cover most of this area) and covered the recently sponged Wild Wasabi grass area (now to protect the grass).  I sponged the Tempting Turquoise ink over the sky area using straight “swooping” motions.  When inking close to the moon/sun image, I held the circle mask down tightly along the edges to get a clean, crisp edge.

After removing the masks, I sponged the Pumpkin Pie around the outer edge of the moon/sun and finished off any white areas with the Wild Wasabi around the grass area as well.    

Using Elegant Eggplant, I stamped the small background stamp from the new set in  French Foliage (Holiday Mini) over the moon/sun.  I also inked up the Lovely As A Tree images with Elegant Eggplant and stamped the line of trees twice over the Wild Wasabi area and using the larger pine type tree, stamped it over the line of trees.  Using a sponge dauber with Elegant Eggplant, I sponged the edges all around the image. 

Using the Big Shot and the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder (EF), I embossed a piece of Wild Wasabi and sponged Elegant Eggplant over the Wild Wasabi (to show the raised detail of the EF).  I attached the Pumpkin Pie layer over Elegant Eggplant, adhered the embossed Wild Wasabi piece over the Pumpkin Pie and mounted the focal image. 

Using the Color Spritzer Tool with the Elegant Eggplant marker, I “spritzed” the entire card.  Stamped the sentiment below the picture with “Best Wishes” from the Short & Sweet set.

I took a small piece of Pumpkin Pie 5/8” Satin Ribbon and folded in half, lined it up with the corner, punched through with the 1/16” hand held punch and inserted an Antique Brad.  I have posted the finished card again to the left for reference. 

This masking technique works great for scenes of all colors- give it a try yourself and have some fun! 

Thanks again for visiting and blessing my life!

How to "Color" the Medallion

Hi Stampers! 

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments and for those of you who have chosen to follow my blog- I truly feel so honored.

Generally I will ink the entire stamp in the lightest ink first (in this example Crumb Cake), then using a sponge dauber apply the next darkest ink directly to the stamp (Always Artichoke) around the leaves in the middle area of the medallion.  The next step would be to use another sponge dauber and apply the darkest ink around the outside edge and sporadically over the other colors (Early Espresso).   

After applying the ink onto the stamp with the sponge daubers, I will "huff" on the stamp to re-moisten the ink and stamp directly onto Whisper White.  After stamping, I cut out the medallion around the edges and then using the sponge dauber again with Crumb Cake, lightly "daub" (is this a word?)  over some of the white areas to tone down the white.  After "antiquing" to my satisfaction, I daubed Early Espresso on the edges to give it more contrast and to cover some of the white from the cut-out process. 

On this particular example, I finished it off by spraying with the Frost White Shimmer Paint Mist (Shimmer Paint mixed with 70% alcohol to create the spray), then adhered it to another piece of Whisper White, cut out around edges and then adhered it to Early Espresso to create the layers.  I just had to add the pearl (I love our new pearls) and mounted to the card with dimensionals :-) 

Thanks again for your thoughtfulness to leave comments- you have truly made me feel very honored and blessed! 

Even though we may not ever have a chance to meet in person, I consider all of you my new "stamping" friends!  Have a great weekend and God Bless!