I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving! I sure did. I spent some time visiting friends, and enjoyed having my sweetie home from work for a few days. I didn’t have time to do much scrapbooking or art or crafty stuff, but I did get one little greeting card made last night.
Supplies used:
- Retro Shapes Stamp Set by Inque Boutique
- The background paper is Marigold (Oh Baby) by Basic Grey.
- The other 2 patterned papers are Catalina and Sorrento by 7Gypsies. (I got them together in the 6 x 6 Capri Journey Variety Pack, but the papers are also available as 12 x 12 single sheets.)
- The orange ribbon is by American Crafts
- Mini Flower Punch
- Yellow Cardstock
- Blue Ink
- Orange Ink
- Decorating Chalks. The ones I used are by Craft-T products, but you could probably use anybody’s chalks with good results.
- Adhesive
This card started out as an experiment. My scrapbooking stash has been getting out of control, and I wanted to see if I could find a way to use up some of the things that I have been accumulating. I love the 7 Gypsies papers, but they’ve been in my stash for quite awhile now. I’ve used them in lots of other projects, but since I only use small amounts of them at a time, I still have quite a few of the papers hanging around. I’ve had the orange ribbon for months and have barely used any of it. BUT, the yellow cardstock is really the kicker. I’ve had that stuff for a long time and hadn’t found any use for it until now. The cardstock I used was a shade of yellow that doesn’t look good with much of anything. It wasn’t something that I intentionally purchased in the first place; it was in with my package when I purchased a big lot of scrapbooking supplies on Ebay.
All things considered, this card came out looking much better than I expected! I think it was the stamps that really made the difference in this project. The papers are cute too, but the stamps create the focal point and pull the whole thing together.
How I Made the Thank You Card:
First I stamped one of the square stamps from the Retro Shapes stamp set 3 times onto yellow cardstock. Then I chalked overtop of it using the decorating chalks, and cut the shapes out. Stamping plus chalking is actually a fantastic way to use up an ugly or boring paper that you can’t really think of any other good use for. The chalks softened the yellow up, and make it look warm and lovely. It made a big difference!
Then I punched 3 little flowers out of yellow cardstock, and I inked them with blue ink. After that I glued them onto the stamped pieces.
Next I cut and folded the card, and collaged the 2 pieces of patterned paper with the ribbon. I then added the cut out retro shapes on top. I stamped the “Thanks!” in blue ink as a finishing touch.
I highly recommend this “Retro Shapes” stamp set by Inque Boutique. I think it is an amazingly versatile set, and in my opinion it is a good value for the money you spend. The set comes with a tag, a “To: From:” stamp, and a variety of different shapes. So far I’ve made more than half a dozen projects with this set, and each time I use it I keep thinking of new things to do with it. I’ll be posting more of them soon!