A Flower for all Seasons

Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog!

I hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed the amazing fall colors that are showing up as the trees put on their prettiest "clothing."  I drove out to Hillsboro yesterday and even though the day was cloudy, those reds and golds really lit up the landscape!  Our huge red maples haven't dropped yet, but once they do my attitude toward those gorgeous leaves might change a bit as I'll be out there raking daily.  But for now, I'm just enjoying the fall season.

I've been busy designing fall cards and Christmas cards for upcoming workshops, but today's card features a stamp set for all seasons... the wonderful Build a Blossom set (p. 112).  You can vary the look of this set by simply changing the colors of the petals and leaves. Of course the color of the background that you place it on can change the look significantly as well.  Check it out...

A few of you might recognize this card, as it was one we made when this set first came out.  The colors here are Whisper White on the base of the card, which was cut with the Scallop Square die for the Big Shot ( p.223) and embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder (p. 219).  The ink on the petals is Daffodil Delight and the green I used for the center of the flower and the card stock accents is Certainly Celery. The petals were punched out with the Blossom Petals Builder Punch (p. 213). The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set (p. 157) that can always be counted on when you need a small greeting to fit into a circle or oval.  The tiny oval punch shown here is no longer in the catalog, but the Large Oval Punch, (p. 212) layered on top of the Scallop Oval Punch ( p. 210) would work perfectly as well.  So while this card says spring, you could make it more like fall by using More Mustard ink on More Mustard card stock with an Early Espresso center, or even use a darker color like Cajun Craze.  The possibilities are endless with this set!

If you have this set in your collection, you might want to try creating a poinsettia with it.  Use the pointy petals and stamp them in Real Red on Real Red card stock.  Then punch out a bunch and layer them up.  I've seen this done somewhere ( I really should write these things down) and it makes a beautiful poinsettia, although I wouldn't suggest using this idea for your Christmas cards.  You might go crazy with stamping and punching and gluing all those petals.  Perhaps it would be fun for one or two special cards, but I don't want to be responsible for any stamping meltdowns!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Make it a great Monday and I'll see you back here tomorrow for another classic card.