Paper Garden - September Stamp Of The Month

Hello and welcome to this month's stamp of the month blog hop! I am super excited to share my project with you this month, and practically all you need to make it is cardstock and ink.

First, a little housekeeping: if you've arrived here from Michelle's Handmade World  blog, or if you're just starting out, you're in the right place. Just keep hopping along until you end up back where you started!  This month's stamp set has 10 floral images, perfect for everything from sympathy to celebrations. You can get yours for only $5 with any $50 purchase this month.

I decided to make a two-page layout for this month's project, and I must say that I am in love with the results:

I used colors perfect for a country Fall, and I'm really looking forward to getting some pictures taken for this layout.  I designed this from scratch, so I thought I'd share my process with you. I started by choosing colors, which can be a challenge when you don't have specific pictures in mind. Since the first thing I thought of with these stamps was a country evening, I decided to use Sapphire for the night sky and Ruby for a red barn. I added Fern for the darkening evening's grass, and Safflower for a harvest moon.

One of my favorite things is a big circle crossing both pages of a layout, and strips across the pages to ground everything. I embossed the Ruby strips with the Woodgrain embossing folder, and I stamped the flower silhouette stamps on the Fern strips.  I added a few well-placed stems on the Sapphire base pages, and I random stamped the Safflower circle with individual images from the set.  I added a Peacock banner strip and a thin banner strip of the lightest Brown & Tan Glitter Paper.

Next I cut out several photo mats, and played around with the arrangement until I found what I liked. I ended up covering more of the circle than I planned, but I liked this layout the best.

I cut several flowers and leaves using the coordinating Artiste Cricut cartridge, and also decided to cut some of the leaves from more of the Glitter Paper.

 I added some natural looking dimension to the flowers and stamped leaves by rolling an embossing stylus around the center, then each petal.

I embossed a couple of the leaves from the back side so they curled the other way. I added some 3-D Foam Tape under those, to keep their shape in the protectors.

For the flower centers, I used Durables Artisan Studs for the large flowers, and the Bling Gems Gold Assortment for the smaller flowers.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to make your own layout now?  If you need to shop, a clickable photo list is below. Links open in a new tab so you can continue the hop from here without getting lost.  When you're done here, let's head over to Jacquelin Green's Paper Goodness blog to check out her project this month. I can't wait to see it!

Products used in this project:

September SOTM

Enchantment CS Combo (or individual colors)

Stamp Pads in coordinating colors

Stamping Blocks

Woodgrain Embossing Folder

Artiste Cricut cartridge

Brown & Tan Glitter Paper

Piercing & Embossing Tool Kit

Bling Gems Gold Assortment

Durables Artisan Studs

3-D Foam Tape

Just Cardstock? You Bet!

Here's one of the first Disney layouts I completed way back when. I thought I would share today how you can make a fun & interesting layout with NO patterned paper. What prompted this was the color scheme I wanted to use for these Daisy Duck pictures. I didn't have any patterned paper in this color combo, but I had plenty of cardstock along with stamps and ink. For most layouts, I probably wouldn't have used all of these techniques together, but for meeting a Disney character it was perfect!


For the striped paper, I just cut strips of my colored cardstock in various widths, ran it through my Xyron, and adhered it to a sheet of white CS. For the circle pattern, I did the same thing with random sized punched circles. For the tone on tone papers, I just chose a fun stamp for each pattern and ink that matched my CS. I cut the "autograph" and title using my Cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge. I added various paper flowers, buttons, brads, and adhesive rhinestone flowers for accents, and I was done.

This layout went together very quickly. It may take you a while the first time you use one of these techniques to make your own patterns, but you will quickly get the hang of it. It's a great way to use the colors you want when they just don't match anything already in your stash. Plus it's a great way to use your scraps. I had this done in WAY less than the time it would have taken to go to the nearest store, and I saved whatever money I would have spent while I was there!