Monthly Archives

February 2021

TGIF – Sunshine & Lemons with Dawn + Save the Date!

by Betsy February 26, 2021

written by Betsy

Happy Friday! This week has been so beautiful and sunshine-y here, it is starting to feel like spring! I hope you’ve seen a bit of sun in your neck of the woods too. In case you haven’t, Dawn is here today with a couple of sunshine-y projects that will definitely brighten your day right up and give you a case of spring fever.

Speaking of which, it’s time to save the date! Our newest collection, Spring Fever, is coming soon! We’ll start sharing some sneak peeks next week.

Now let’s hear from Dawn about this pair of cute cards she has for us today…

After all the frigid temps and snow we’ve had for weeks, it’s finally warming up here and it’s got me itching for Spring! Nothing says Spring like flowers or some cheery yellow, so I paired both elements to create a couple of Spring-y cards to share with you today!

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I’ve been thinking about painting some artwork with lemons on it, but haven’t gotten it done yet. What I HAVE done though, is some stamping with the darling Lemon Blossom stamp set — still a favorite of mine! I loved pairing it with an earlier release stamp set (Autumn Sketches), as well a more recent one (Opposites Attract), to create this combo.

Whether you like a more bright, modern feel or a softer, more vintage feel, these cards have you covered!

And for the brighter version, I grabbed a simple, flat, brown paper bag to create a little surprise pocket on the front of the card. So easy! This gives me a cute spot to tuck an additional portion of the sentiment, making the card a little interactive.

I also love taking a single image from a stamp set, and stamping it in a repeating pattern to create a lovely background. Even better in my book, if the chosen image happens to have a vintage feel, creating the look of vintage wallpaper! Such a simple way to get more mileage out of your stamps!

I stamped a pile of these Autumn Sketches backgrounds ages ago, and I’m still finding uses for them even now! It’s one of my favorite crafting tips….stamp multiples at once and then you have them when you need them and can grab and go! Plus, you never know what new products you’ll be able to pair them with down the road!

Hope these cards give you a bit of Springtime inspiration! Anyone else got Spring fever like me??

February 26, 2021 9 comments

TGIF – Lily Notes with Angelica

by Betsy February 19, 2021

written by Betsy

TGIF – already! Where did the week go? When there’s a Monday holiday it tends to throw my whole week off, but Friday coming sooner is never a bad thing. 😊

Angelica is here with today’s TGIF and if your day needs a little brightening, her projects should do the trick…they have me craving not just spring, but maybe even summer!

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she mentioned how much she loved The Greetery’s BotaniCuts Lily. I realized that I hadn’t used that die set in almost a year! It’s such a pretty set, and now that it was on my mind, I decided to pull it out and start making flowers.

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I die-cut many flowers, using Neenah 110 lb white card stock. I pulled out my finger daubers and Distress Oxide Inks, and started coloring the flowers. I had a podcast playing in the background, and before I knew it, I had 12 flowers done!

To cut some time on the smaller pieces, I pulled out a few Distress Oxide Sprays. The pistils were sprayed with Squeezed Lemonade, and the leaves with Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers. I colored the tops of the pistils with a brown multiliner pen.

To make them into cards, I positioned them around an inked card panel, without attaching them, and then picked sentiments from Opposites Attract stamp set. I stamped the script stamp onto the panel, and stamped the large sentiments onto a separate panel. I used the coordinating dies to die-cut the words. I then attached the flowers, and trimmed the edges. I used the edges that were cut on the second card, which means no pieces went to waste!

Next time you find some quiet time on your hands, do some die-cutting. I promise you, it’s relaxing, and you end up with beautiful new embellishments for your next cards!

February 19, 2021 17 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Fresh & Cottony Thank You

by Betsy February 12, 2021

written by Betsy

TGIF! I hope your week was great! It’s Inspiration Friday time…

I’m back again for this week’s TGIF, sharing a card I made a few weeks back, inspired by a treat I received in the mail from someone special. It was a set of pretty towels that reminded her of some of my designs here at The Greetery. They had images of cotton and mason jars, so I can totally see the connection! It inspired me to pull out my Cotton Comforts set and get to stamping. We released the Cotton Comforts set as part of a fall collection, but it’s equally pretty for something fresh and springy!

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I was inspired by the colors on the towels – the cotton tufts were done in shades of pale blue, mauve-y pink and brown. I mimicked the look by stamping the images from Cotton Comforts in those same shades. I omitted the first step of the cotton bolls (step 4 on the stamping guide) so that they would stay nice and white, and stamped the boll detail (step 5 on the guide) using Speckled Egg, Victorian Velvet, and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide inks. I sponged the ink onto the stamps so that I could get a variety of color and blends into the images.

The stems were stamped with Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Oxide inks. I clustered several of the stamped and diecut cotton stems together into a bouquet of sorts. I also tucked in some leaves which were diecut using the BotaniCuts Rose die. I haven’t pulled that die out for a while and I had forgotten how much I love the leaves in that set! I sponged them with shades of brown ink and tucked them in various spots.

I wanted to create a background for my cotton bouquet that had a little bit of interest, but wouldn’t overpower my cotton, so I pulled out my Macrame Borders and Macrame Openwork Base dies. I thought it was fitting for the cotton theme! I diecut the openwork diamonds from a panel of cardstock and added the zig-zag border from the Macrame Borders & Tassels set. Before attaching my diecut panel to my card base, I sponged some Speckled Egg ink on the left side of the base so it would show through my diecut panel. I finished it off with a thank you sentiment from the Hoop Wreath set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Before I go, just a note in case you missed it – we did a major restock of the items from our January Nature Lover collection. Most items are now in stock!

February 12, 2021 29 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Loads of Love

by Betsy February 5, 2021

written by Betsy

TGIF! I hope you all had a terrific week! I’m taking a turn for this week’s TGIF with a fun Valentine project that I’ve had in mind for awhile. I’ve been wanting to pull out my Top Down Day set and fill that cute car up with love! ❤️

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I’ve also been in the mood to do some watercoloring. I haven’t pulled out my watercolors much lately, so I was itching to get them out and paint up some cute red cars. I started by stamping the outline car image from Top Down Day onto Arches watercolor paper. I painted the car with shades of red and black for the tires and convertible top. I wanted a loose carefree look, so I didn’t get too fussy with the details. Remember that blue or blue/grey (like the Payne’s Grey I used here) is a great “highlight” color when using black. It just adds a little extra interest!

To fill up the car, I pulled out my Signed & Sealed With a Kiss set and added a cluster of stamped and diecut hearts as my cargo. I used a white pen to add some extra highlight details to the hearts.

For the sentiment, I used a combination of a few different things to spell out the Sending Loads of Love sentiment I had in mind. I pulled out my Slim Alphabet die to cut “loads”, the “of” was done with our Sentiment Starters die, and the “love” was cut with the Let’s Have a Word: Love die. For the “sending”, that word makes an appearance in several of our stamp sets, the one in particular I used here is from Bittersweet Bouquet. I love pulling in lots of elements from different sets to create my own custom sentiments.

My scene was assembled over a background of watercolor paper which was painted with a bit of light blue in the sky area and more blue/grey along the bottom to anchor the car.

This was a fun and happy project to put together! I hope it brightened up your Friday. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend!

February 5, 2021 17 comments