Delicate Dahlias’ One Sheet Wonder – colorway #1

Stampin’ Up! is currently running its Sale-a-bration Event.  Our Sale-a-bration Catalog which runs from August 3 – September 30 features products that are available for FREE with each incremental purchase of $50 or $100 (for the larger offers). 

Among these amazing items is the Stampin’ Up! Delicate Dahlias stamp set.  This beautiful set of floral images features DistINKtive images.  These are photopolymer stamps that have a photographic quality to them.  A single press results in a beautifully shaded image. 

This is not just another floral…this set is beautiful.  It will be one that I will be using for a long time to come!

I want to feature a few different designs with this set in the upcoming week, as September 30^th will be here before we know – and the set will no longer be available.  If this looks interesting to you, I urge you to order sometime before the 30^th to take advantage of this offer – whether you order from me or from another demonstrator.  You will NOT be disappointed with this addition to your collection!  I think that it’s a keeper for a long, long time!

Please forgive the sales pitch, as that isn’t my usual style.  It’s just important that you know its limited availability.

And on to the samples with the directions.  It may be a longish post!

I think that this Shabby Chic look is just beautiful.  I have CASEd this from my colleague, Susan Levasseur of WowNOLAcreations.com.  Her original creation uses the floral images from Stampin’ Up Artistically Inked Stamp Set, which is another gorgeous set.  But as I did my first one-sheet-wonder following her exact instructions, I was thinking about other florals that would create a different look – and that’s when Delicate Dahlias came into my mind.

While the stamping looks very complex, it isn’t.  And it is a very relaxing exercise, as you will probably be able to tell by my different versions.  I’ll publish the second version tomorrow.  But let’s start on this one.

Using an 8-1/2” x 11” piece of Basic White cardstock, I stamped some faint images from Stampin’ Up! Very Versailles stamp set to provide a base textural look using Crumb Cake ink.  I experimented with different impressions on this.  But I agree with Susan Levasseur’s suggestions that you use the second imprint on your piece rather than the first.  It is very light but still clearly there.  (Remember – this is ultimately a Shabby Chic design!)

Next, I used the large Delicate Dahlia image to stamp 5 images in Stampin’ Up! Poppy Parade ink that is the start of this wreath design.  After that came the smaller dahlia images stamped around the red flowers in Stampin’ Up! Pumpkin Pie ink.

Notice that the small clusters of oranges flowers are snuggled in between the large flowers and almost always in groups of 3.  Don’t try to cover every part of the cardstock yet – there are plenty of layered images to come.

With the small orange flowers in, I used the tiny flower images from Stampin’ Up! Artistically Inked stamp set and Highland Heather ink to stamp small flower clusters through the wreath to start to fill it out.  But the purple ink provides a great highlight in this busy design.

This next part is genius!  While Susan used the Stampin’ Up! gilded leafing, I decided to use the SU gold embossing powder and heat set it.  But here’s the trick:  using a sponge dauber, I inked the cardstock using the Stampin’ Up Plenty of Patterns Decorative Mask.  These are essentially stencils and the set offers a lot of images.  I think that the gold highlights are a wonderful part of this design!

Once the gold powder was heat set, I used the leaves image from the Delicate Dahlia stamps and stamped Soft Seafoam leaves around the wreath.  I then highlighted the larger, softer leaves with one of the smaller leafed branch images from Stampin’ Up! Forever Fern stamp set.  Be careful with this stamp, though, as it has a branch that extends beyond the leaves.  I tried to avoid inking that part of the stamp with Pear Pizzazz ink so that only the leaves were highlighted.

The final touch for this Shabby Chic wreath was the stamping of various dots, an image from Artistically Inked, using Stampin’ Up! Crumb Cake ink and then a second set of dots using Highland Heather.  You can see them in the completed wreath:

Once the wreath is complete, it’s time to cut it up.  OMG – cut it up?

Take heart and just try it:  Cut the full sheet into 4 equal pieces by cutting at 5-1/2” on the 11” edge and then 4-1/4” on the 8-1/2” edge.  You will love it, I promise!

I now had designs for 4 cards!  This is the point where I needed to cut each piece down to 3-3/4” x 5”.  In each case, I chose to cut the piece down to 5” by cutting into the designed edge.  (That scared me a bit, but the result was beautiful!) 

The plainer side of the panel will offer a place for a stamped sentiment.  And the bonus is that the ½”-strips will be used to decorate the inside mat so that it coordinates with the front of the card.  This is pure genius – as there is almost no scrap from this design!

Here is a picture of the images and the leftovers once I was ready to assemble the cards:

I mounted the 4 images on Stampin’ Up! Poppy Parade cardstock that I had cut into pieces measuring 4” x 5-1/4”.  I then used my Stamparatus to stamp the sentiments on the face of each panel.  (If you stamp well and tend to get a good image on the first try, you don’t need the Stamparatus!  However, I don’t trust myself to get it right on the first press, so the Stamparatus allows me a do-over.)

I decided to use Crumb Cake cardstock for the card base – but here is the trick for cutting these. Take a look at the images to decide how you want to lay them out.  I found that 2 of each set had a good place for the sentiment on the lower right portion of the panel in a landscape layout.  The other 2 panels looked better in a portrait layout with the sentiment also on the lower right side.  This means that you will want to cut the cardstock bases like this:

• The first sheet of Crumb Cake 8-1/2”x 11” sheet cut at 5-1/2” on the long edge and then scored at 4-1/4”.
• The second sheet of Crumb Cake 8-1/2”x 11” sheet cut at 4-1/4” on the shorter edge and then scored at 5-1/2”.

The inside message panels measure 4” x 5-1/4” for the white cardstock.  I used a long strip of the scrap cut from the wreath panel to line the lower edge of each message panel.  Use Stampin Seal to adhere to the inside of each card and you are done!

Where did this color scheme come from, you query?  Although I could tell you that I came up with it myself, I truly did not.

I was inspired by the Color Throwdown Challenge #659.  These colors were just perfect, as far as I’m concerned.  Hopefully you agree!

These challenges are a wonderful burst of creativity for me, especially in regard to color schemes.  I generally use a color wheel to come up with ideas.  But the amazing artists who design these challenges have a wonderful eye – and I am so appreciative of their input!

Thanks again for looking at my blog today!  And stay tuned – I will have this same design in a different colorway tomorrow.  I really find my Zen with creating these wreaths!

Because this design is truly freeform and will be different every time you try it, please use stamps and inks that you may already have in your stash of crafting treasures.  If you like this version – or if you think that the Stampin’ Up! Delicate Dahlia set is 2Die4, please don’t miss it in the Sale-a-bration’s catalog.  Or you can push the tab below.

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