Berry Blessings Birthday Card

Hello, Crafters.

The launch of the new catalogue yesterday was a huge success! I’m loving the stamp sets that are available in the Sale-a-bration (SAB) brochure. My card yesterday was made using A Touch of Ink Stamp Set from the brochure. It’s a two-step stamp set but I decided to paint the images instead. Today’s card has also been made with a two-step SAB stamp set – Berry Blessings – but this time I did the two-step method.

Also on today’s card I used some of the Berry Delightful Designer Series Paper (DSP). This stamp set and the DSP is available as a level two gift i.e. with €120/£90 qualifying order. Both these products also co-ordinate with the Sweet Strawberry Bundle in the new Spring/Summer Mini Catalogue.

I started today’s card in the same way I started yesterday’s card, i.e. with a top layer of Whisper White Cardstock (CS). This is what I do when I don’t know what direction my card is going! For the first time in a long time I didn’t use my Stamparatus! I wanted to stamp the berry leaves close to each other but one facing slightly towards the left and the other one slightly towards the right. I stamped two images on some scraps of Whisper White CS because I wanted to fussy cut the leaves and pop them up on Dimensionals. I coloured all the leaves using the two-step infill stamps with Granny Apple Green Ink.

Next I stamped two stems coming down from the leaves – the left-hand side was positioned beautifully but the stem fell short of the leaves on the right-hand side! I could have told myself it was like that because it was falling off the plant but I wouldn’t have believed it so I didn’t! LOL! Instead I decided to use just one set of fussy cut leaves and put across the centre of the first two.

I stamped the berries in position and then stamped two more on scraps of Whisper White CS and fussy cut them. As before, I coloured all four berries using the two-step infill stamps with Rich Razzleberry Ink stamped off once. A bonus of stamping off was it was much easier to see through the stamp for lining up the infill stamp with the stamped image. On one of the berries there was gap which showed more Whisper White than I was happy with so I coloured it in using my Stampin’ Write Marker Pen in Rich Razzleberry. It worked a treat! Next I decided to emboss the top layer using the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder. I had hoped that the fussy cut images on top would be more prominent because they hadn’t been embossed. Disappointingly, there wasn’t any real difference so I decided to cut the top layer down to a 2 3/4″ x 2 7/8″ square which I adhered to a Rich Razzleberry layer that measured 3″ x 3 1/8″.

Initially, I thought I’d use one of the two Granny Apple Green/Garden Green designs in the DSP for my top layer but I didn’t like the look. Instead I chose the patterned paper you see on the card. I’m surprised it worked so well but I think it’s because there’s quite a lot of white around the image and I’d allowed a quarter-inch border around the Rich Razzleberry CS layer for the image. I used the same HAPPY BIRTHDAY stamp from Itty Bitty Birthdays Stamp Set as I have done a lot recently!

I put my card together starting with the top layer of DSP, then a middle layer of Rich Razzleberry CS and then onto a Whisper White CS card base. Inside my card I added a top layer of Whisper White CS layer onto a middle layer of Rich Razzleberry CS. To decorate the inside I cut a piece of DSP that was one inch wide and layered it onto a strip of Rich Razzleberry CS which was  the same width as the middle layer.

To finish my card off I used my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen to paint the leaves and berries of my stamped image. I added two Pastel Pearls to the fruit but as I’m sitting here writing, I keep looking at my card thinking maybe I should have added one pearl randomly on each of the three sets of leaves so it looks like new fruit coming through! What do you think?

Here in the UK we’re under complete lockdown again. Yesterday we had the highest number of new cases of Covid recorded for a single day since the pandemic started! This is because the new variant virus has a transmission rate 70% higher than the first virus! Scary times! Thankfully we have two vaccines being rolled out as fast as possible! My arm is ready and waiting. Please everybody, take great care and stay safe. Happy crafting.

JanB. xx