Flowers of Friendship wreath for a special thank you

I love wreaths.  And anyone looking in my garage would see my stash of seasonal wreaths!  In fact, I used to make them for craft fairs – because I made them for myself, and I would get a bit obsessive.  (What does every good crafter do when they get stuck on a particular creative medium?  Make them like crazy and sell them at craft fairs!)

So, I find that I make lots of cards that feature wreaths…though I haven’t published many.  But that is about to change!

I was thinking about Valentine’s cards, as it is the season.  But I hadn’t prepared well for them.  However, flowers are always a good design – and red flowers say love and Happy Valentine’s Day! 

The paper cutting for this card is very standard:

This is another card that uses only one bundle:  Stampin’ Up! Flowers of Friendship.  This unique bundle comes with a stamp set and a punch.  I love punches!!  They are so quick to use. 

But as always with speed, the faster you go, the more danger there is.  It’s the same with paper punches.

So, think about how you will stamp the images and how they will appear in the punch.  The punch will create all 4 images at once.  Because of that, I decided to create a template for my stamping.  I had also decided in advance that I would be making a LOT of these cards because they are so cute. 

With that in mind, I cut up some Basic White Cardstock into 5-1/2” x 5-1/2” squares. 

I punched a template and placed it on my Stamparatus.  Then I set the stamps into place and closed the cover.  Once the stamps were in place, I was able to stamp a LOT of images to color.  The template makes sure that the finished images punch out perfectly!

This is obsessive – do you need to do it this way?  Of course NOT.  If you are only creating one card, you will need 8 of each image and that’s that.  Stamp, color, and punch.  Then, voila, you are ready to go!

I did two cards for the purpose of this post – but there are endless color combinations that might be more tempting to you.  But here are the Stampin’ Blends combinations that I used for these two cards:

Once the flowers and leaves are stamped, colored, and punched, they are assembled with a dot of glue in the middle of each large flower with the smaller flower layered on top. 

I used the Stampin’ Up! Painted Texture 3D embossing folder to emboss the Basic White panel to add some interest behind the wreath.  Then I drew a light 2-1/2” circle on the embossed panel to guide my arrangement and then I adhered the flowers – some with glue and others with Stampin’ Up Dimensionals.  The sentiment is from the Flowers of Friendship stamp set and it makes a great banner.  On one card, I placed the sentiment under the wreath, but I attached it directly to the wreath in the other card.

The inside sentiment and decoration were quick and easy, using this great set!

With my favorite Stampin’ Up! Polished Dots adorning the centers of each of the flowers and on the banner, I decided that these 2 cards were complete.  But I have a stack of stamped flowers and leaves to color for a lot more of these cuties to add to my card collection.

Thanks so much for stopping to see my post today.  I hope that this great stamp set might inspire you to create.

If you have any questions, please contact me as I am always happy to help!  And if you are in need of a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, it would be my pleasure to do that as well!