Soft Suede

 Soft Suede was a recent 'In Color' that carried over into the Neutrals Collection during the Color Renovation - yay!

 The "Dynamic Duo" colors are Soft Suede and Early Espresso - gorgeous!! For this card I used the Hostess stamp set Love & Care from the new Summer Mini Catalog. I wanted a subtle texture on the background, so I used one of the Texturz Plates from Backgrounds 1 (114512 $11.95 set of 3 in 6 designs). The sentiment is stamped in Soft Suede ink onto Very Vanilla card stock. After snipping a 'V' into the end, I distressed the edges with my Craft & Rubber Scissors, sponged the edges in Soft Suede ink, and spritzed on some color with the Color Spritzer Tool and Soft Suede marker.

 

I used Early Espresso 5/8" Satin Ribbon (119753 $8.95) to make the ribbon flower. Want to make one yourself? You will need Sticky Pages (114300 $6.95) to make the 'base' of the flower. Die cut a piece of a Sticky Page (the 2nd to smallest circle) on the Circles #2 Originals Die with your Big Shot. Cut a length of Satin Ribbon to about 14". At 1" intervals, snip into the ribbon almost to the opposite edge. Peel the red backing from your sticky circle. Starting at the outside edge of the circle, attach your ribbon in a spiral motion. As you move along the sticky circle, you will need to pleat and gather the ribbon. When you get to the center, you might need to add a Mini Glue Dot to tack down the end. The next step is to 'melt' the edges with your Heat Tool. Now, keep in mind, you are about to use something with a lot of heat on something that is flammable... just pointing this out so you have time to think it through. The work area gets very hot for this project. To create a safe work area for 'melting' the ribbon, I use a foil cake pan which sits on a cork trivet. After pre-heating my Heat Tool, I hold down one edge of the flower with long tweezers and start heating up the opposite edge. I alternate holding the Heat Tool straight down and then at an angle to 'flutter' the ribbon petals. It does take a while to 'melt' and my kitchen smells like... well, burnt ribbon. But, it's really cute!☺ After the flower cools, peel off the paper backing from the sticky circle and cover it with a circle of card stock die-cut the same size. If you use the same color card stock and ribbon, it will hide any gaps in the curled ribbon flower petals.

 

The "Creative Combination" colors are Soft Suede, So Saffron, and Regal Rose. I really like the Love & Care Hostess stamp set, so I used it again for this card. The Soft Suede layer is die cut on my Big Shot with the Top Note Bigz die. I used that die again to cut a smaller layer from Regal Rose DSP (Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack: Brights). I chose a different pattern of Regal Rose DSP, and punched out three Scallop Circles. I crumpled and distressed each one, then layered them together with Dimensionals.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!! I made this card for my oldest son's teacher using the colors in the "Sweet Set": Soft Suede, Baja Breeze, and Cherry Cobbler. The adorable image is from Greeting Card Kids, and the sentiment is from Thank You Kindly. I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a Blender Pen to color the image. The layer of Cherry Cobbler card stock is dry embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder on the Big Shot, and the raised images are lightly sponged with Soft Suede ink.