Stampin’ Up! Colorful Seasons

Welcome and a Tremendous Thursday to you all. I am not from the south so I can’t say y’all. Maybe I should just say ‘to you’ and leave it there? 🙂

Today I am using the Colorful Seasons stamp set, and thinking, “I could make dozens of cards with just this one stamp set. There are wonderful elements in it, including leaves, flowers, snowflakes, branches, sentiments and a comfy chair.

Then there are the lovely flowers, and that delicate branch from the Seasonal Layers thinlits. And, my favorite, the marvelous Adirondack chair, of which I actually have 2 real ones, where I love to sit outside with my coffee in the mornings and watch the birds.

If you don’t have this bundle it is one you will want on your wish list. If you purchase the bundle you will save 10% of the cost of buying them individually. But, I digress! Happens a lot with me. On with the card.

Today I have chosen to use this bundle just because I love it and for no other reason. This is the third iteration of this card as I couldn’t seem to get what I wanted in the beginning.

The card base is crumb cake, with a skewed mat of Early Espresso. These are not the colors with which I began the project, but I do like these with the Powder Pink. After cutting the base and the mat I decided that a color wash on watercolor paper would make a nice background for my chair and the branches filled with blossoms.

Using Powder Pink Stampin’ pad and a Stampin’ Sponge (cut into 4ths) I began the wash on a piece of WET watercolor paper. The first one looked too dark, so I started over and like this much better. A light touch is a good thing…you can always add more ink if it is too light, but you can’t take it away easily if it is too dark.

I let this dry while I proceeded with the other elements. I now have a whole lawn full of Adirondack chairs, as I experimented with different colors of card stock and ink. Finally settling on Whisper White cardstock and Sahara Sand ink to make the wood grain, I used the background stamp, Hardwood, to make the wood for the chair. Just FYI, I have a Powder Pink chair, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake, all with the wood grain, as well as a couple cut from the Wood Textures DSP. I have saved all of these for future projects.

By now, the watercolor paper is DRY!, so, on with the card front. Place the chair where it leaves room for the flower branches and adhere with liquid glue. Using the smallest branch in the Colorful Seasons set, stamp 2 branches in Early Espresso. The stamp that is a grouping of flowers and petals was used with Powder Pink ink for the flowers, carefully lining up the flowers with the branch.

Next I used the large branch die from Seasonal Layers, cutting three of them from Early Espresso. This is such a delicate branch that I really didn’t want to cut teeny tiny pieces of dimensionals to give it some lift. The best option seemed to be to cut 3 and glue them one on top of the other to achieve dimension. Before adhering this to the watercolor piece, I decided it was a good time to attach the watercolor to the card front.

My reasoning was that I wanted the large branch to hang over the whole front and it was easier for everything to be attached to help with placement. Once the branch is on, it is time for more texture, so I added die cut flowers, stamped in Powder Pink on Whisper White cardstock.

Placing them in my hand, I used the blunt end of a stylus tool to smoosh (is that a word?) them a bit to look more like flowers might actually look. These were attached to the branch with Glue Dots.

The sentiment is also from the Colorful Seasons set and is stamped in Early Espresso. Something seemed to be lacking, so I thought perhaps a bird, a bee or a butterfly would be the finishing touch. I found this small bird as part of an old stamp and stamped it in Marina Mist. Using a blender pen and ink in the stamp lid, I filled in the bird outline. He is carrying a pink flower in his yellow bill, both filled in with Stampin’ Write markers in Powder Pink and Daffodil Yellow.

The card front is done.

Hold Everything! After I was finished and photos were done as well, I decided to add a small Pearl Basic Jewels to the center of each of the 3 larger flowers, giving the card just a bit of bling. Use your imagination here as I did not re-take the photos.

The inside sentiment, in Early Espresso,is from the Oh So Eclectic set and stamped on the Powder Pink sheet, along with the branches. Using the same flower stamp as on the front, I stamped a few flowers in full strength Powder Pink, adding a few at the bottom.

This was glued onto an Early Espresso mat and into the card base.

The envelope received the stamping treatment as well, both on the front, And on the flap.I hope you like this Colorful Seasons set and its matching dies as much as I do. Thank you for stopping by. Please join me again tomorrow for another Stampin’ Up! card.

If you need supplies and do not have a demonstrator, please click on the ‘shop’ button at right.

Card Cuts

Sahara Sand: 4-1/4″ x 11″ scored at 5-1/2″;  Early Espresso: front 3-3/4″ x 5″; inside 4″ x 5-1/4″; Large Branch-scraps; Powder Pink: inside 3-3/4″ x 5″; Watercolor paper: 3-1/2″ x 4-3/4″

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