Stampin' Friends Life's Special Occasions

We're celebrating all of life's special occasions on the Stampin' Friends blog hop this month.  Many couples get engaged over the holidays (including myself, a long time ago!), so I decided to go with a card celebrating love.  This would be a great way to celebrate an engagement or a wedding this year!

As always, I've bolded the names of the Stampin' Up! products I used to make my projects.  If you are interested in purchasing anything you see and don't already have a demonstrator I would be grateful for your business. :)  

I tried a new-to-me technique for this card, and I can't believe how much I love it!!  I have had Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Pencils in my stash for a long time but have always preferred to use my ink pads and watercolour paper instead.  When I saw the theme for this month I had this vision of what I wanted to do, and since it required a Grey Granite base I knew I would need to try a need colouring method to get the effect I wanted.  Using watercolour pencils and my Aquapainter I was able to get this gorgeous, soft effect that I am in love with!

But let me start back at the beginning first!  I began with a Grey Granite card base, cut to fit the new Stampin' Up! Slimline Envelopes at 7.0" x 8.5", scored at 3.5".  I also cut a Grey Granite panel slightly smaller, at 3.25" x 8.25".  On the panel, I stamped several of the largest images from the Blessings Of Home Stamp Set in Versamark Ink, and then heat embossed the images with White Embossing Powder.  

It's hard to believe that you can get such soft, pretty colours starting with the vibrant colours included in the set, but I laid down very light colouring on the images, and when I added the water with my Aquapainter it really toned down the colour.  Here is a picture where you can see the Calypso Coral pencil before I added the water.

Tip:  I found it worked best to work from image to image, painting the same colour on each image, and then going back and using the next colour (ie. I coloured all of the Old Olive leaves on each of my images first, then coloured the Pacific Point flowers on each, etc.).  This gives each colour a chance to dry before you paint a different colour beside it, which can sometimes cause your colours to mix together.

I didn't want to cover up all of that pretty background so I kept my sentiment very simple.  I used a die from the Tailor Made Tags set to cut out a piece of Grey Granite cardstock that I had stamped with a sentiment from the Blessings of Home stamp set in Memento Black ink.

I have been practicing a new style of bow and thought it really worked well for this uber-feminine style card.  I used some Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon and tied it with some Grey Granite twine from the Baker's Twine Essentials Pack.

For a final touch I added three Polished Dots on the card front.  These new embellishments have a matte look to them, and I thought they added the perfect bit of texture.

The inside of my card is kept simple, but with imagery this gorgeous you don't need a lot!  I stamped the same large image from the Blessings of Home stamp set in Black Memento Ink.

For my 3D project this month I made a matching gift card box.  

I used the new Sweet Little Boxes, which are the perfect size to hold a gift card.  I started by running my unassembled box through my Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine with the new Hive 3D Embossing Folder (it isn't long enough to emboss the entire box at once, so run it through twice, lining up the edge of the pattern with one of the score lines on the box).  

After I assembled the box, I wrapped a Grey Granite belly band around it, along with some of the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon.  I stamped and coloured another one of the large images from the Blessings of Home set in White Embossing Powder, and die cut it with the coordinating Flowers of Home die.

The sentiment, from the Happy & Heartfelt stamp set was stamped in Black Memento Ink, and then die cut with the smallest die from the Tailor Made Tags set.  I added a bow from the same Crinkled Ribbon and then popped the entire tag up on dimensionals, before adhering it to my coloured die cut.  A few more of the Polished Dots and my project was complete!

I am so grateful that you stopped by today.  If you like my projects please leave a comment below, it would make my day!  And please keep hopping along and see everyone's projects by clicking on their names--and leave them comments if you can!