This weekend I took my own advice and once I made one card that I liked, I made several of the same design and even branched out using the same Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper on several others. This is a good way to make easy all-occasion cards. I didn’t even add greetings yet because I thought I might wait until I HAVE an occasion, whether “thank you” or “birthday” or “thinking of you” to add a greeting.  Or I might even just leave it plain and write a note inside! Remember, like in the olden days when people wrote letters and real notes inside cards and mailed them?!!!

I found that I loved this Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper and want to order more! These cards were very easy to make, especially with the new Daisy Punch and Daisy Delight Stamp Set. Sadly, the Daisy Punch is backordered and unavailable to order right now until probably near the end of June. The good news is, that tells you it was extremely popular with Demonstrators during our preorder period so it must be good! But in the meantime, the Delightful Daisy Paper is so pretty, I’m sure you can make pretty cards without the punch. Also, the Daffodil Delight 1/4″ Double-Stitched Ribbon is just the right color to go with the Daisy paper so you can embellish with that on some cards.  I also did a  little “watermark” stamping on the cardstock with the same color ink just to add a little interest.

Sometimes just easy, basic cards are all we need to make and other times we can make the fancy cards for special occasions or special people.  Of course, anybody who gets one of our handmade cards IS special!  Make some easy all-occasion cards just to have on hand to pull out when you need them and add the greeting at that time.

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The other day one of my very nice customers, Phyllis, sent me the card with the yellow embroidered flowers that she made with a note and the other two papers with the pink and blue embroidered flowers. She said she’d like to see what I would do to them! My first thought was I would frame them, they were all so beautiful! Since we are into cards, though, I thought I would just make these extra embroidered flower cards into greeting cards.

The paper with the blue embroidered flowers just seemed to have an empty space where I could put a greeting so I concentrated on that.  I thought the new Stitched Shapes Framelits would go well with the actual stitching. I love the stitched look those dies give (without having to do any stitching or piercing!). First I played around with cardstock colors to see what would match and finally decided on Wisteria Wonder and Soft Sky. Her floss seems to be varigated colors so that’s why I chose two different colors.

I chose a greeting from the Floral Phrases Stamp Set which I think is a nice greeting, plus it would fit into a nice oval shape. I die cut the greeting with the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies. The greeting is layered on a piece of Wisteria Wonder cardstock die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies and then layered on a piece of Soft Sky cardstock die cut with the scalloped oval in the same Layering Ovals Framelits Dies pack. The card is made by layering the embroidered piece on top of Wisteria Wonder and Soft Sky for the card base. I think you could also add a small pearl or rhinestone in the center of each flower and maybe some sequins adhered randomly to take up a little of the open space, but I wouldn’t want to distract from the pretty embroidery. Sometimes less is more!

For the pink embroidered flowers I went through the same process of choosing cardstock colors. As it turned out, I thought Rose Red and Pirouette Pink worked best with the thread. Then I even wondered if a pop of Basic Black would work. I think maybe it does, but I like the Rose Red and Pink the best.

Since I had first thought of framing these pretty embroidered flowers, I happened to remember a card I made way back in the beginning of my stamping with an oval as a frame. I used the largest oval in the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies to cut out a frame to place over her embroidered piece. I think maybe you could also emboss the oval frame if the design didn’t take away from the embroidery.

It’s nice to see someone doing something different with her cards and yet you can still use Stampin’ Up! cardstock, and accessories to enhance the design.  A greeting could also be added to these cards, something smaller and simple since the pink embroidery takes up more space. But just a plain card without a greeting is always good to have on hand for those personal notes you want to write.

Stampin’ Up! actually has a Christmas kit of cards on which to do some stitching on the Clearance Rack, the Stitched with Cheer Project Kit. If you would like to incorporate some stitching on your cards and get some early Christmas cards made, check out this kit! It’s quite the deal, on sale for 60% off the original price!  Watch the video below to see it!

I hope you will be inspired by Phyllis’s idea to make cards with beautiful embroidery. She says this is her “go to and easy” card to make. Although I have done all kinds of needlework in years past, needles and thread are not my thing any more so for me stamping is much easier! It’s great we can see all kinds of styles of cardmaking and crafting and creativity! Leave a comment below if you have any other ideas for Phyllis’s cards or tell us about any different kinds of cards you make.

Last weekend for Stampin’ Up! Retirement Shopping!

Don’t Delay!

Sometimes new stampers have a difficult time knowing exactly how to design a card they want to make, so here is an easy card design for a beginning stamper. It is just a simple card with layered paper, a piece of ribbon for an embellishment and a stamped greeting layered on another color. Since this cardstock is a dark color, you probably will want to layer a piece of Whisper White cardstock on the inside and maybe a strip of matching designer paper on the Whisper White or a small stamped image. This card design may be simple but any recipient of this card will think it is beautiful and that you are so creative!

To make this card, I wanted to use the new Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper (144137). If you look on the back of the package, every package of designer paper, as well as the catalog, lists the coordinating colors for the paper. One was Tranquil Tide Cardstock (144246) so I chose that to go with this patterned paper. It’s not necessary, but just to help the designer paper stand out a bit from the cardstock, I layered it on a piece of Whisper White. An easy way to embellish a card is just to place a strip of ribbon, in this case, the Tranquil Tide 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbon (144136) and then tie just a knot around the ribbon.  Just use a separate piece of ribbon rather than try to tie a knot in the ribbon on the card.

To see another card using this same simple card design, click HERE to view an easy masculine card I made with a layer of designer paper on a card base and a different kind of ribbon embellishment, the Kraft Rope Trim, plus a greeting.

The greeting is stamped on a piece of Whisper White from the Colorful Seasons Stamp Set (143726) with Tranquil Tide Ink, then punched with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch. I also punched another circle of Tranquil Tide Cardstock with the 2″ Circle Punch. The Big Shot and all our dies are terrific but basic punches are the easiest and quickest!

A more experienced stamper and one with lots of supplies could even embellish this card a little more, but for a beginner a simple layered card with a bit of ribbon and a greeting is just fine! This card is an easy design for a beginning stamper or anyone and certainly a quick design, so try it out and let me know in the comments if it worked for you! Just click on “Leave a Reply” at the top of this blog post.

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