The Greetery {Happy Mail}

 

Hello and welcome, friends! I'm over on The Greetery Blog today (and here, of course) sharing some tropical inspiration; having said good-bye to June, things are heating up and tropical cards are always fun to make this time of year! I had so much fun cutting and coloring the hibiscus flowers, I decided to make two cards to share with you today! Let’s get started with the flowers.

To begin, I die cut all of the pieces for the flowers and foliage using the BotaniCuts Hibiscus Die from white cardstock and then used dye inks and blender brushes to color all of the pieces. I added a spritz or two of shimmer spray to all of the pieces and set them aside to dry. For the postal-themed card, I used the Airmail Border Stencil on an A2 sized panel of white cardstock. I chose the same pink and yellow inks that I used on the flowers for cohesiveness.

 I added some of the orange ink around the edges to give it a worn look. Once that was done, I used the Postcard Details Pierce Plate over the top. I have used this particular die positioned both vertically and horizontally and I just love the different look you can achieve just by changing it up! For today’s card I chose the horizontal placement since I knew the floral arrangement would take up quite a bit of space.

Before I attached the flowers and leaves, I added all of the extra postal stamping and die cuts; these were all created using the Postal Modern Stamp Set and coordinating Postal Modern Die. Once all of those details were in place, I attached the flowers and leaves using foam squares for dimension. Once I had finished the second card, I decided this card needed some gold accents, so I used the Deco Notecard Die to create the cute corners in the bottom left and upper right corners. Once that was done, I attached the entire panel to an A2 card base using liquid glue.

For the second card, I used the Herringbone Parquet Die on an A2 panel of pale pink cardstock. I added just hint of kitsch flamingo distress oxide ink using a blender brush for a bit of dimension. Next, I cut the Antique Gold cardstock using the Deco Frames Die. I also used the A2 Arches Die in the middle of the gold piece to cut the opening. I attached it to the pink background and then arranged the hibiscus flowers until I was satisfied with the arrangement.

The sentiment, which is from the Scripted Sentiments Stamp Set, was cut using the Scripted Sentiments Die and then stamped in black ink. I added it using foam squares near the bottom of the floral cluster. The panel is attached to a top-folding A2 card base using liquid glue. I love the tropical warmth these cards exude and I’m really happy with how they turned out!

You may have noticed that neither of these cards are “occasion” specific, which was intentional on my part; sometimes you just need a generic card and these two will suit just fine! How about you? What are you working on this week? I need to get started on a “golden birthday” card for my darling daughter and a few “welcome to the neighborhood” cards.

I mentioned this last month, but I finally took some time to sort out my card stash and organize it. Oftentimes I’m in such a rush, I just place them in the organizational bins I use and they are not sorted correctly. Once I had everything organized, I could really see the places where I was lacking and of course, the places that are OVERFLOWING! Ha ha! I hope you get some creative time this week to work on the projects you’ve been hoping to make! Thanks for fluttering by!