Flowers and Flakes

Here are my cards for the last two Viva la Verve August challenges. I got a little behind last week while I was working on Verve’s anniversary challenges . . .

I started with this simple birthday card, inspired by the colors in a bedding set. I flipped the layout on its side to accommodate the Plain Jane image. I stamped it twice so that I could cut out the flower image and attach it to the panel with foam tape for a dimensional look. The flower’s center is decorated with a self-adhesive pearl.

The rest of the card is very simple. I built it around an eggplant base. I added an olive strip, then a strip of paler purple paper with both a subtle pattern and texture. For an elegant touch, I added a piece of green satin ribbon across the card, tied in a pretty bow.

Materials Used:
Birthday Wishes Plain Jane (Verve Stamps); white cardstock (Taylored Expressions); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic);Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Latte matstack (DCWV); celery satin ribbon (Michaels); lemon self-adhesive pearl (KaiserCraft); foam tape

This one is inspired by this quilted bedding set. I was inspired by both the colors and the triangle shapes in the quilt’s pattern. Those triangles led me to a pair of Verve’s wintery sets that feature snowflakes made of triangles.

I stamped the smallest solid image from the Frosty Flakes set on shimmery white cardstock circles, then went back and stamped the matching outline image from the Christmas in the Air set in darker blue ink. A small rhinestone is set at the center of each flake for a little more sparkle. I stamped the “happy holidays” sentiment on the same shimmery white paper in the navy ink and arranged the pieces on a Marina Mist panel.

I used a larger shimmery white panel along the bottom of the card. Originally, the panel was plain—no embossing, no ribbon. Even though I usually go for clean and simple, it felt too plain to me. So, I went back and embossed the panel with a snowflake pattern and added a blue ribbon, too. Much better!

Materials Used:
Frosty Flakes and Christmas in the Air stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Night of Navy and Marina Mist Classic inks, Night of Navy, Marina Mist, and Shimmery White cardstock, Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); 1” circle punch (EK Success); Snowflakes embossing folder (QuicKutz); rhinestones (Offray); foam tape