You make The World a better place

Hello! I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your week! I am simply enjoying Summer and all that is has to offer! Summer has never been my favorite season, but I am really enjoying it more and more the older I get. Perhaps it is because time flies so much quicker these days and I am desperate for it to slow down!
One of the main reasons that I am enjoying Summer so much is the added creative time I am getting! It is sunshine to my soul!
I am so happy to be part of a creative community on a regular basis again. It has been fun to reconnect with old stamping friends and make new ones along the way as well. My time away has been spent with my adorable children and babies and I don't regret that ONE BIT! 

I was so happy to sit down and make a few similar cards using Concord and 9th's Globe Greetings and coordinating dies. I have been itching to use this set with all of its darling floral images. I made a few graduation cards with it when I first got it but then it got set aside and now I am thrilled to revisit it.

I started off by stamping the various floral and leaf images onto a panel of Stamper's Select White Cardstock. I only stamped them on the right hand side since I already knew the layout I wanted to use. I stamped off the larger, bold images once and then came back in with the detail images at full ink strength. The only exception to this is the very light pink flowers. The hue of pink was too light to stamp off once, so I decided to choose a darker shade instead. I really like how these turned out. I actually wasn't planning on making a second card, but I was enjoying the stamping process and the result so much I just couldn't stop!

I die cut the globe circle portion out of white cardstock as well and stamped the images exactly the same as before. The fabulous "you make the world a better place" sentiment is simply stamped in black Palette ink. The "friend" sentiment strip is heat embossed in white onto a black strip of cardstock and adhered to the front using foam squares.

I used the To the Point Edgers dies on the colored cardstock, using different designs for each card. I've only used them once so far on THIS card so I was happy to use them again. I know I will be reaching for them often. I made sure to leave enough of the colored cardstock to have enough room to stamp and emboss the globe stands as well. I embossed the stand on the orchid card using silver embossing powder and I just stamped the image in black on the Hawaiian Shores piece. Once all that was done, it was easy to pull everything together. The finishing touches are a few Black Ebony Nuvo Drops here and there as well as a few Sparkling Clear sequins...surprise, surprise! Ha Ha! 

I didn't have a recipient in mind for these particular cards as I was really just making them to scratch a creative itch, but in the end I realized that this sentiment will work perfectly for the cards my daughter and I are creating for the Hope Squad. I stamped the same sentiment on the inside and added a stamped flower and a few leaves. I just couldn't resist adding a tiny shrinky dink using the coordinating "friend" sentiment from the front. It just pulls everything together and it is just so darn cute! Thanks for fluttering by! P.S. I'll be back on Thursday for this week's challenge for The Challenge