Garden Shed Bloom and Grow Card #GDP207

Hi Craftin' Friends.

Today I made an extra special card. It's not a fancy fold. It wasn't expensive to create. It's extra special because of the sentiment, and because it includes fall and growing themes, which I love. In my former life as a teacher, fall meant new beginnings, full of challenges, promises, and hope.

Are you familiar with a growth mindset? As an elementary school teacher, I tried to model a growth mindset and support my students to develop this kind of thinking. It's pretty simple really. When life seems determined to defeat us, we often think, "I can't." A growth mindset says, "I can't, yet." This small change in thinking encourages us, small or tall, young or old, to keep trying, to persevere, to believe in ourselves, in our capacity to learn and grow!

So today, I decided to participate in the Global Design Project's challenge theme, Bloom and Grow. To me, it's about more than just flowers. It's about that growth mindset. About dreaming, getting rid of negative thoughts, and living a more and better life.  For the challenge I chose to use the Garden Shed Stamp Set from the Annual Catalog. I chose this set because I absolutely love the sentiments and they fit so well with the theme of this challenge #GDP207. Check out the challenge here and play along before September 23rd.

The image on the front of the card was stamped with Memento ink on Shimmery White Cardstock. I gave the background a wash using an aqua painter filled with Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol and dipped into a pool of ink. You can create a pool of ink by squeezing the ink pad (the ink pools on the lid) or tapping an acrylic block into the ink. If you choose the first method, be sure to wipe the lid before closing the ink pad so the alcohol doesn't contaminate the ink pad. The upper background was painted with Pool Party ink, and the lower background was done in Crumb Cake ink. Friends, I am not an artist. (If you are, you can probably tell! LOL!) In general, I just tried to have the color more intense near the ground level and fade out as I moved away from there.

After allowing the background to dry, I painted the rest of the image using the same aqua painter. For the flowers, I just dabbed the brush into Daffodil Delight ink, then dabbed it in the vicinity of the flower. I repeated this, if needed, for a darker yellow. The flowers on the right I just did the centers. For the leaves, I repeated the process with Old Olive ink.

To paint the flower pots and watering can, I decided where I wanted the most intense color and moved out from there. The clay pots were painted with Cajun Craze and the watering can with a very diluted Basic Gray.

Because I wanted my card to be appropriate for autumn, I chose Cajun Craze for my card base, cut portrait style (4 1/4" by 11" scored at 5 1/2"). I wrapped some linen thread around the top of the card front and tied a knot. Then I tied a triple bow and attached it with a glue dot.

To further add to the fall flavor, I added some leaves from the Colorful Seasons Stamp Set and Seasonal Layers Thinlets Dies. I stamped the large veined leaf in Early Espresso and the small un-lined leaf in Daffodil Delight on Vellum. These were die cut out. I also die cut the detailed larger leaf in Early Espresso. For the larger stamped leaf, I colored the back with my Daffodil Delight Dark Stampin' Blend.

To stamp the sentiment on this card, I used my Stamparatus and Memento ink. This allowed me to stamp four times on the same spot to make the sentiment stand out on the Cajun Craze paper. I also used the Stamparatus to stamp the shed image with Memento ink on Very Vanilla cardstock cut to 4" by 5 1/4". This was glued inside the card.

The colored image for the card front was matted with Early Espresso cardstock 2 3/4" square, then matted a second time with Crumb Cake cardstock 3" square. I tucked the Stampin' Blend colored leaf in the upper right corner between the two mats. I tucked the smaller stamped leaf in the lower left corner between the two mats, and tucked the Early Espresso die cut leaf under the Crumb Cake mat, ensuring it didn't hang over the edge of the card. Finally I used Stampin' dimensionals to pop up the matted image.

You may notice that I went outside to the garden to photograph this card. I stamp in the basement and the light is just not good for photos. My furry friend, Ziva, had to join me since I was heading to the backyard, so I had to include her picture as well! She's a)good and faithful companion, and often lies on the large table when I'm stamping (don't judge!).

In case you didn't see my Facebook post yesterday, I wanted to let you know that the Clearance Rack has been refreshed, and there are lots of great bargains to be had. Please use host code TJVQS67G if you're ordering online. Of course, the materials to make the card shown today are also available in my web store on my new updated web page. Why not check it out!

Thursday's Facebook Live will feature one design, three cards, using the Brightly Gleaming DSP and bundle. You won't want to miss it!

As always, happy crafting my friends,

Craftin' Granny