The Greetery {Capturing Summer} Day 1

Hello and welcome, friends! I'm so excited to be here today sharing a few projects for day 1 of The Greetery Capturing Summer release! There will be two days of full reveals and then the release will be available for purchase on Wednesday, 14! I have fallen head-over-heels in love with the entire release and I know you will, too! Betsy always has a fabulous "Meet and Greet" over on The Greetery Blog where she introduces each new product with all of the details! Also, make sure to leave a comment here, and on each of the designers' blogs, for a chance to win one of two $50 gift certificates to The Greetery's shop!

Up first is the fabulous new "Sitting Pretty" dies! These are all just absolutely squeal worthy, don't you think? I had the best time creating all of these fun details to put together this fun porch scene! My card also includes the new Sunset Skies stamp set so you can create different sky scenes. I chose to use the base image (stamped to look like grass) and then the clouds. I didn't want to create a sunset, but I love that you can still use the images from the Sunset Skies set for multiple uses! I know I will be reaching for these images often to use to add details to my "scene" cards!

The porch portion and the rocking chair are included in the Sitting Pretty die collection and then the rug, flowers, pots, and hanging plant are included in the Sitting Pretty Accessories die set! There's even a sleepy kitten included, but I didn't use it on my card. I'm sure some of the other designers used the cat, in fact, I'm betting Wanda added a cat FOR SURE! ha ha!

To begin my card, I die cut everything out of white cardstock and then used Distress Oxide inks to color all of the pieces. This is my absolute favorite way to add color to dies, especially so I can add different shading to give everything a more realistic look.

I eat my breakfast on my porch every morning, so I understand the necessity of a good porch! ha ha! I added a few trees that are from the Fir and Foliage No. 1 stamp set. They just added a little bit more detail and perspective to make this porch scene come to life!

I hadn't really thought about a sentiment when I first set out to create this scene, but felt confident that I would be able to sneak one in somewhere! I just love the sweet and simple "thinking of you" tucked up in the corner! The sentiment is from the Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You stamp set and is die cut using the Sentiment Suite: Basics Die. Once I had it tucked up there, I thought how cute it would be to adorn the porch with a bunch of these in different colors for either the 4th of July or a birthday card! Can you imagine the pinwheels hanging down, too? Oh, the fun we will have with these dies! I'm sincerely hoping for a few grinning Jack-O-Lanterns and cornstalks for the columns come autumntime!

My second card for today uses the new Jumbo Jar Die, the Fireflies Die, Firefly Nights stamp set, and Shining Light Die! The greenery up in the corner is from a fabulous new die called "Side of Greens" that I know I will be reaching for often! It will be a perfect base to add flowers to, and so much more! 

This card was really fun to plan and execute, but did take some thoughtful consideration as I put each piece in place. To begin, I die cut a large panel from Linen cardstock using the Crimped Slimline Die and then I added the layers of blue Distress Oxide ink to create an evening sky! I knew I wanted the jar to be in the lower right corner on an angle, so I purposely left that area a little lighter so that the rays of light could be stamped in a white area, if that makes sense! Once that was done, I added some white paint splatter to mimic stars or fireflies that are off in the distance! 

Now, in hindsight, I would have stamped the rays at this point, BEFORE I added the foliage and the sentiment, but I think it turned out okay anyway. I got to work on the jar and die cut it twice; once with the center portion cut out and once with the entire solid piece. The bottom portion of the rays were stamped on the solid piece with a touch of ink blending and then I layered the outline portion over the top that had already been blended.

I colored the greenery using Distress Oxide inks and then added it to the upper right corner using liquid glue. The sentiment is stamped directly onto the panel with the exception of the "Light" portion which was die cut and stamped and added using foam squares.

The best part of this card are the CUTE fireflies! I had a ball creating these little cuties using vellum for the wings and oxide inks on the bodies. I dipped the tail of each firefly into the new "Glow Powder" to let them light up in the dark! I kept thinking of Little John in Disney's animated Robin Hood when he says, "Glow little fireflies, glow!" It's the scene where he's pretending to be the fortune teller and needs to crystal ball to light up! ha ha!

I did toy around with the idea of sprinkling the glow powder over the white paint splatters when I was first getting started, but opted not to. I think I may need to revisit that idea! I added fireflies here and there using foam squares; some are still in the jar, while others have flown the coop and escaped from the lid that is slightly ajar! The lid was die cut using silver specialty paper for a realistic look! I couldn't resist adding some glitter here and there for a bit of midsummer magic! Don't forget to head to the other designers' blogs to see how they've used today's products! Thanks for fluttering by!

Laurie Willison

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Angelica Conrad

Norine Borys

Wanda Guess