CottageCutz: Plant A Garden

Hello Scrapping Cottage friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us today. It's Mary Marsh here bringing you the Saturday edition of the Blog.

We have a brand new release of dies in the online store. This one is garden themed and has 19 new designs. These new dies are perfect for Father's Day, birthdays, thank you, or even a thinking of you card for the person who loves to garden.

For my card today, I am featuring the new Gardening Cat die and created a thinking of you card for a friend who loves to garden. I am trying to send cards that have a message of hope with all that's going on in our world. So let's get started with some details on how I created my card.

Design Steps:

I started this card with my sketch. I had one saved on my computer that I thought would work well with this die image. It's an older one from Splitcoaststampers #696. I used this sketch a couple of years ago and created this card. I linked it just to give you an idea of how you can get a different look from a sketch just by changing up the images.

Before I chose the card colors, I cut the images from various colors of cardstock. The cat is cut from smoky slate cardstock and I used the same color ink to sponge around for depth. I lightly sponged pink on her ears and cheeks. I also used the garden plot from the Gardening Mouse die.

Next, I looked through my designer papers and found this floral one. It caught my eye almost immediately. I liked the flowers and soft pink background.

Sweet Sugarplum card base: 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Olive layer 2 + White layer 3 of sketch: used largest Pierced Rectangle die (4 1/4 x 3 1/4")

For the background layer instead of stenciling clouds, I decided to use a sun rays stencil and sponge the corner with wild honey distress ink. It helped to fill in the white space on the card.

The sentiment was the next to be completed. I recently bought some garden sentiment stamps and thought this one would work well with the Gardening Cat image. I didn't intend to stamp who the quote was from, but I forgot to tape it off when I inked the stamp. Audrey Hepburn was an actress in the 50's & 60's. It's stamped in chocolate chip ink.

Now that all the elements of the sketch are cut, stamped and sponged, I am ready for card assembly.

I attached the images to the white panel with double sided tape.

I did take some liberties with the sketch. I moved element 4 of the sketch to the bottom of the image panel. My garden plot is covering that part of the sketch.

I finished off my card by attaching the remaining panels to the designer paper and then the card base. Added a couple of heart enamel dots and my card is finished.