Gran's Garden

The card I created today is for The Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  I wanted to play with a new stamp set from Papertrey Ink so I chose the bottom row. When I looked at the other rows, it so happens that I have everything on the middle as well including a sprinkle of Sparkling Clear Sequins.

Gran's Garden is a set designed by Dawn McVey for Papertrey Ink.  It has a coordinating set of dies available as well. Nichole and Dawn (actually all of the Design Team) had fantastic examples using this set udring the most recent release. One of the things Nichole did was to die cut colored card stock for her leaves, buds and blooms and stamp with one shade darker ink.  I actually wanted to try that today but I forgot all about it until I started writing this post. Guess I'll have to save that for another day.

For my flowers I used Hibiscus Burst with Raspberry Fizz and Bright Buttercup for the centers with New Leaf for the leaves on Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  It seems like it always takes me stamping with a new set a few times before I have the hang of getting it lined up really well, but I don't really want to toss my first few in the trash since it's my good paper. Plus, there's that new stamp thing too where they stamp better once they have been seasoned a bit. I don't have a preferred method for this so far.  Most of the time I end up using my hand to "condition" my stamps.  They stamp a whole lot better if you muck them up a bit the first time or two with something.  You can use a plastic eraser or your hand, but since my hand is attached to my arm, it's always handy and easy to find. Ha Ha! You can also stamp into Versamark first and then into your ink color which also helps to provide a better surface for your ink to stick to with new stamps.  

This set has the long stem of leaves and a shorter one so it's easy to put together a bouquet with the three different blooms and the buds. I put a bouquet together on top of the card and then picked it up with Press N Seal and that allowed me to put things on in the order I wanted.  I use one piece of Press N Seal over and over until it isn't sticky anymore so I think I might be on my 4th or 5th different piece of it now.  It's a handy item to keep in the craft room when working with any floral sets that have a variety of different pieces.  I used foam tape on the sentiment banner only.  I could have used it with the flowers as well, but I try to keep my cards pretty flat for mailing since most of them do get mailed.  

That's it for this quick post today. I'm still having some computer issues so I'm not linking the products but Gran's Garden is a new release in the Papertrey Ink store.  There's a link in the right hand side bar.   I have a really busy week but I have a few posts planned.  You know, it takes so much more time to write the post than it does to make the cards, but that's one of the things I do to keep my mind active. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today and I hope you'll come back soon.