Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve resurrected another retired Stampin’ Up! set today, this time the ‘Flourishing Phrases’. I’ve also tried to move away from the blue colour schemes I’ve used so much lately! The card design is inspired by two of this week’s blog challenges, with the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and elements lifted from the TicTacToe challenge (I used the diagonal line down from top right – white, square, sentiment).

I started by stamping the large flower from the ‘Flourishing Phrases’ set in Distress Oxide ‘wilted violet’ onto the opposite corners of a square of white card. I then cut a mask for the flower from a sticky note and stamped the leaves around each image in ‘Iced Spruce’.

Once stamped, I die cut a small square from the centre of the card, cutting across the flowers. I then trimmed another piece of what card to be just slightly larger (I went for 0.5cm) and brushed the ‘wilted violet’ around the sides. This is a handy technique that my good friend Jean reminded me of, as it means the mat is exactly the same shade as the flowers.

I mounted the small square of card onto the mat, and then stamped ‘thinking of you’ into the centre using the ‘iced spruce’. The sentiment is from another retired SU set, ‘sweet essentials’. I attached the large square frame onto a 6×6 card blank, and then glued the topper into place – I used glue rather than tape, as it gave me a bit of ‘wiggle’ room to make sure it was on completely straight.

I was really pleased with how this turned out. I can’t believe it’s the weekend again, but hope you’ll all be able to have a good one.