May 2023

We hope you’re having a fabulous week! Kelly is here with a project to inspire you to find some creative time this week and pull out some of those new goodies!

Hello and welcome! It’s Kelly here today for this week’s TGIF! I was inspired by Betsy’s lovely “MOM”
card that she shared during the Hip Hip Hooray release AND inspiration from Bath and Body Works!
Have you seen the new collection in the “Gingham” series? My card was inspired by the new “Gingham
Fresh” packaging…absolutely delightful! I’m always a sucker for pretty packaging and pretty bottles, etc.,
BUT it’s always fun to find fresh inspiration that gets your creative juices flowing! In fact, my juices are
flowing so freely that I don’t want to go back to regular life! Has that ever happened to you? LOL!

I started my card by creating the most important part: the GINGHAM, of course! I used the Square
Dance stencil using two shades of ink to achieve the look on the lotion and soap bottles that I
bought and was using as reference. The bottles show a loose, uneven gingham, so I didn’t stress too
much about getting things perfectly lined up! Yay for imperfection, right? Once the panel was stenciled,
I trimmed it down to 4 by 5 ¼ inches and set it aside.

The next step was to create the lovely floral strip; this was achieved by stenciling two of the cake
portions from the Takes the Cake stamp + stencil set. I used Laurie’s INGENIUS way of using the MISTI for the
stenciling! I watched her do that on the Instagram LIVE for the Hip Hip Hooray release and wondered
what rock I had been living under! Ha ha! Absolutely genius!!! I chose shades of yellow and green and
absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I think I’m going to make another card using it as it was intended for
a beautiful cake! Once all of the stenciling was complete, I die cut it using the Takes the Cake Floral Details die
collection.

I also die cut two of the Ribbon Maker: Petite Scallops out of white cardstock. I cut a panel of white
cardstock just wide enough for the floral pieces and then adhered the scallops on the backside using
ScorTape. The floral pieces are added to the panel using foam squares for dimension. Once that was
done, I added it to the gingham layer using additional foam squares. It’s no secret that I LOVE
dimension, but I have felt that I can’t mail bulky cards because they will get caught in the sorting
machine even if I use the non-machinable stamp. I asked a friend at the post office what I could do to
avoid having that happen. She told me to simply write “Please hand cancel” at the bottom of the
envelope under the address and that would help. I was visiting a widow that I had mailed a VERY heavy
and bulky card, and there it was, sitting completely unscathed on her side table! Whew! Now I don’t
worry so much about mailing bulky cards!

I die cut enough pieces to create the cupcake using the Hey Cupcake dies and inked them up using the same ink as the floral portion for continuity. I glued it all together and added some glitter. I also layered it onto one of the crimped circles using light gray cardstock for contrast. I think they look like little plates or chargers anyway, so it just added to the look, I think! I stamped the sentiment using the Tear Strip Tags: Birthday stamp set and then die cut it using the new Tear Strip Banner dies. I love having this additional option for these fabulous sentiments! I might have had TOO much fun making this because I didn’t want to stop! Ha ha! I can’t wait to give this along with the lotion and soap that was the inspiration for a coordinating look….that’s my favorite! Thanks for joining me today!