HUGS {We are always stronger together}

Hello friends! Thanks for stopping by today! You might think it's Groundhog Day because of the cards I'm sharing, but rest assured, it is not! LOL! I had so much fun making the JOY card for THIS post, but for today, I decided to try a landscape card using a longer word. I also was in need of a thinking of you/loss card, so I chose to make the YOU card as well.

With the vertical design, you can only create a 3 letter word, but with this landscape layout, you could do four, even five depending on which letters you use.  I chose HUGS for this card with the "We are always stronger together" sentiment. This will be going to a dear friend that I just adore! I hope she knows how much I care about her!

To begin both designs, I heat embossed the Floral Diamond Background stamp image using white embossing powder on a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch panel of white cardstock. Once that was done, I added some Sweet Mustard ink around the edges of the yellow card and some Coral Reef ink around the coral card. Once that was done, I used the Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die collection to die cut both panels. This leaves them about 4 by 5 1/4 inches, which I love so I can layer them onto an A2 card base. After they were trimmed, I added some additional ink around each panel:  Marigold and Passion Fruit for extra dimension.

I die cut the letters using the Adore Alpha die set and then added some light ink blending at the bottom working my way up, but leaving the top white. I also added some ink splatter on each of the letters for contrast. The "we are always stronger together" sentiment is from the Modern Layered Floral stamp set and is heat embossed in gold onto a strip of lightweight vellum.

You can see it a little bit better here with the shine on the letters! I love the look of gold embossing when it hits the light! I think it  probably gives non-stampers a wow factor when they receive a card with any type of embossing. My husband has been amazed as he has watched me when I do it! I die cut the bouquet using the Modern Layered Floral die twice, once for each card, and then used my mini MISTI to do the stamping. I stamped the darker leaves first using Olive ink and then used Fresh Pear ink for the lighter portion of the leaves. For this card the flowers are stamped in Sweet Mustard and Marigold ink. I also added some white dots to the smaller flowers using a white gel pen.

I secured the heat embossed sentiment to the back of the panel using clear tape for security. I adhered it to an A2 card base using additional foam squares for added dimension.

Each card has a few Essentials Jewels placed on the flowers and leaf for some sparkle and shine. I also added some white Nuvo drops around the bouquet to give it some extra detail as well. 

The sentiment for this card is from the incredible Forever in Our Hearts stamp set, which was created for a wonderful cause. If you get a chance, please follow the link to read all about this stamp set. This particular card is going to a friend who just suffered a miscarriage. The sentiments included in this set are just perfect and I'm grateful to have this set in my collection. I stamped one of the longer sentiments on the inside.

This bouquet is stamped in Coral Reef and Passion Fruit inks, which are a little darker than my original card I made a few days ago. I really like the darker ink because it gives a more intense look, but I still love my original design. I added a bow to each of the bouquets. These are created using the Artistic Bows die collection and I added ink blending to both the front and back of the loopy portion so that you could see color on both sides. I used a hot glue gun to put these together for security and added it to the card with the hot glue as well. I forgot to mention that I spritzed all of the elements with Shimmer Spray before assembling the card, EXCEPT for the vellum strip. I had so much fun creating these two designs! Thanks for fluttering by!