"Sunflower Songs" Sneak Peeks

Ready for a supercute stamp set that is beyond versatile? Then, you're going to want "Sunflower Songs" by Clear Dollar Stamps, to be released on April 1st. I love sunflowers, as they always sport a happy and sunny flavor to anything. Another single stamp by Clear Dollar Stamps, "Happy Mother's Day", is also featured on this card. I wanted to create a happy, hopeful flavor on this card using one of my favorite colors, yellow, and blue, lime green and white as a neutral. The "Sunflower Songs" stamp set has several different sunflower stamps; solid as well as outline ones that you can colorize, leaves, stems and sentiments that go along with the sunflower theme. I think that this stamp set will be one of my favorites to ink up, and you will, too! For ordering information and more details on this stamp set, click here. And, don't miss seeing my fellow team designer's work on "Sunflower Songs" -- Candy Fosta, Monique Hawrelluk, Katie Renz, Kim Teasdale & Laurie Wilson. For samples of "Happy Mother's Day", see Candy Fosta, Monique Hawrelluk, Katie Renz and Laurie Wilson's work.

All CDStamps LLC Stamp Sets Used: "Sunflower Songs" & "Happy Mother's Day"
Cardstock & Papers: Cloud 9 Design "Sunrise Smoothies" Designer Paper, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Inkpads: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue & Baja Breeze Inks, Adirondack Caramel Ink
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers: YG03 Yellow Green, YG67 Moss, Y21 Buttercup Yellow, Y26 Mustard, YR01 Peach Puff, R16, Apricot, YR24 Pale Sepia, E25 Caribe Cocoa, #29 Burnt Umber, Sakura Micron .01 Black Felt Marker, Zig Milinnium Black Felt Marker, Marvy Blue Grey Brush Marker, Bic Mark-It Key Lime Marker, Signo White Gel Pen
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug "Floral Screen" Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Regular & Scalloped Square Dies, Marvy Mega Round Punch, Marvy Giga Scalloped Round Punch, Karen Foster Click-It Hole Punch Kit, Sewing Machine, Thread, Cloud Template, Tsukineko Sponge Daubers, Stampin' Up! Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Adhesives, Scotch Pop-Up Foam Squares, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Clear Dollar Stamps 1' Lime Green Satin Ribbon, Making Memories "Button" Brads
Coloring Medium: Copic Coloring and Blending
Special Techniques: Basic Stamping, Sponging, Dry Embossing, Machine Stitching, Paper Piercing

INSTRUCTIONS:
A 5"x 10" card base was cut from Paper Trey White Cardstock and set aside. Two square mats were cut to size: Yellow 4.5" and the Blue Dotted to 4.25" Both of these square mats were glued to a 5" x 5" piece of Paper Trey White Cardstock and then using my Janome Hello Kitty Sewing Machine, I stitched around the 4 sides of the Blue Dotted mat with a straight stitch using white thread, and then around the 4 sides of the Yellow mat using a Zig-Zag stitch with blue thread.

The main stamped image was created in the following manner: The 3 sunflowers were stamped onto Paper Trey White Cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, and then colored and blended using Copic Sketch Markers. Using a homemade cloud template, and Tsukineko Sponge Daubers, I sponged the "clouds in the background" of the sunflower scene. I cut out the sunflower scene using the Nestabilities Regular Square Die and then sponged heavily around the 4 sides using Adirondack Caramel Ink. I cut a coordinating Yellow Square Mat using a Nestabilities Regular Square Die and then using the Nestabilities Scalloped Square Die, I cut a mat out of Paper Trey White Cardstock. I dot-doodled on each scallop point of the white mat using a Marvy Brush Marker, and machine stitched around the 4 sides of the sunflower scene. Using a Paper Piercing Tool and the Stampin' Up! Mat Pack, I paper pierced around the yellow square mat. The sunflower scene was then glued to the yellow paper pierced mat. Using Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, I popped up the matted sunflower scene square on top of the white scalloped square mat.

The sentiment was stamped onto Paper Trey White Cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. I cut out the sentiment using a Marvy Mega Circle Punch and then sponged lightly first with Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue Ink and then more heavily using Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze ink along the circle. I punched another circle out of coordinating yellow designer paper using a Marvy Giga Scalloped Circle Punch and glued that to the sentiment punched circle. Using a Signo White Gel Pen, I dot-doodled on each scallop point of the yellow sentiment mat. I machine stitched around the sentiment inner circle and then glued the two sentiment circles together. I cut the matted sentiment circle in half to create a semi-circle.

Using tape runner, I adhered a strip of the pretty Clear Dollar Stamps Lime Green 1" Satin Ribbon across the upper third of the card front, securing to the back of the card. Then I popped up the stamped, matted sunflower scene using Stampin' Up! Dimensionals over top the ribbon strip. Using Scotch Pop-Up Foam Square, I popped up the matted sentiment semi-circle on the lower right bottom of the card front, overlapping the sunflower scene. I added a matching bow knot to the ribbon strip, and embelllished the card front with two Making Memories Yellow "Button" Brads to the upper right corner. To finish, the card front was glued to the 5" x 10" white cardstock base.