Bella Rose Friendship Card & some Secret Comment Patrol winners!

Before I tell you about this card, I just want to answer a couple of questions I got about my Cheep Talk Card set.  The first question had to do with envelopes – do I provide envelopes for 4″ x 4″ cards – the answer to that is YES, I make my own envelopes using Stampin’ Up!’s medium Whisper White envelopes (I’ll show you how to do that in an upcoming video).  The second question was what would I charge if I were selling this as a completed gift set – I’d probably charge about $25 – although the cards aren’t too complicated they’re still time consuming with all the cutting out. 

Today’s card DID start out as a simple card, but somehow it just didn’t look right so I kept adding elements to it until I finally liked it.  The picture above is the end result.  I guess you could say it was creation by evolution *lol*.  Rather than use the “A Rose is a Rose” stamp set which is the one that coordinates with the Bella Rose designer paper (DP), I decided to use the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral as it is a more modern looking and more to my tastes.  The picture below gives you a close-up of the embellishments:

One of the things you may be wondering is why I added the vellum – that was just to soften the look of the DP.  I wanted to keep the rose as the focal point of my card, and without the vellum the DP was too overwhelming and it was the DP that became the focal point.

This is how I made the card:

1. Take a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Riding Hood Red CS and fold it in half using a bone folder, to create your card base.
2. Center and stick your 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Bella Rose DP to your 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ piece of Pink Piroutte CS using Snail adhesive.
3. Place some adhesive directly onto your DP (position it where the 1 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ strip of DP will cover), and then stick your 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of vellum paper to the adhesive.
4. Apply Snail adhesive to the back of the 1 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ strip of green Bella Rose DP and stick it to the middle of the vellum paper.
5. Attach the right end of your 8″ Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon to the back of the Pink Pirouette CS (on the right), then create a faux ruffle with your ribbon.  To create my faux ruffle, I simple gathered the ribbon over itself and secured each “ruffle” using a mini glue dot. Create three “ruffles” and then secure the end of the ribbon to the back of the CS (on the left side). Set aside for the moment.
6. Take your greeting from the “Oval All” stamp set and ink up just the sentiment with a Basic Black Stampin’ Write marker. Stamp it onto a scrap of Whisper White CS.
7. Punch out the greeting using the small oval punch and stick it to the inside of your raised dots designer oval holder with mini glue dots.  Position the designer oval holder on the bottom left corner of your matted CS and using the paper peircing tool and foam mat punch two holes were your brads will be. Insert the silver brads. 
8. Mat your Pink Pirouette CS to your Riding Hood Red card base.
9. Stamp three image of your “rose” on a scrap piece of Whisper White CS using Jet Black StazOn ink.
10. Using a blender pen color your three images in with Pink Pirouette Classic ink. To add shading use a Ruby Red Watercolor Wonder Crayon (WCC) to the edges of some of the petals and the middle of the “rose”. Blend your WWC with your blender pen to soften. To add more dimension use Riding Hood Red Classic ink just in the middle of the “rose” with your blender pen. You can now cut the images out using paper snips, making sure you have one image as a whole then begin to cut the other images a bit smaller to layer the “rose” (this creates the look of dimension). Apply Stampin’ Dimensionals to the back of the layers to “pop up” the petals. Mat the “rose” to the card just over the ribbon on the right side, using Stampin’ Dimensionals.
11. Using your Big Shot and the Stampin’ Up! Little Leaves Sizzlit, die cut three leaf branches from a scrap piece of Kiwi Kiss CS. Apply a small amount of Snail adhesive to the back of the leaf branches and slide under the rose and secure to the card.
12. Cut thin pieces of CS to match the three buttons from Button Bouquet. Run the CS pieces through the button holes (to create the look of faux thread) and secure the buttons to the card with mini glue dots. You’re done!

Okay and now some winners.  At the beginning of April I started something I called the “Secret Comment Patrol” – it was an initiative to encourage you to not only visit my blog, but take a minute to leave a comment.  After all, half the fun of blogging is the opportunity to interact with my readers, and the only way I know if there ARE any readers is when you leave a comment.  I promise you I do read each and every comment that you leave and I thoroughly enjoy them.  As a special thank you to those of you that leave a comment, I do random draws throughout the month.  I pick posts, look at the comments and randomly select winners – which of course means that the more often you comment the greater your chance of winning.  This week’s winners are listed below. Each winner gets to choose a free class – whether it be a Stamp Class by Email (www.sunnystampinstore.com) or a class, workshop, scrapbook planner from www.demotodemo.com.  Please email me at andrea@demotodemo.com – put Secret Comment Patrol Winner in the subject line and then which class you want in the body of the email. 

1. ALTA R.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:24 am 
I have to admit, I can live with or without die cuts but when you do something like this I like it. Good job. But I really do think its all in the person who is doing the creating.

2. Desirée
May 20th, 2009 at 9:43 pm 
Oooh…I seriously want to go to Disney World now!

3. Heather W.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Those bears are adorable. How much cuter can you get?
Another great idea provided by such a talented artist.
Thank you !!!

4. Brenda B
May 24th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Andrea I love this set, it is so fun, bright,and cheery. It would make a great gift-I can just see the smile on the face of the individual who receives it. The set just makes me seem happy. Thanks for all the wonderful ideas. Brenda

5. 2stampis2b
May 25th, 2009 at 5:34 pm 

Great card and I love hearing about your vacation!
That’s all for now, see you tomorrow!

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Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral (113734), Oval All(113790)
Ink: Jet Black StazOn ink (101406), Pink Pirouette Classic ink(111838), Riding Hood Red Classic ink(111836), Ruby Red Watercolor Wonder Crayon (106696)
Paper: Bella Rose DP (112041), Riding Hood Red CS (111348), Pink Pirouette CS ( 111351), Whisper White CS (100703), Kiwi Kiss CS (111353), Vellum paper (101839)
Accessories:  Button Bouquet (112092), Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware (111325), Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (111365), blender pen (102845), Mini Glue dots (103683), Stampin” Dimensionals (104430), Snail adhesive (104332), Small oval punch (107304) , Paper Peircer (104310) or use a large needle, Foam mat (105826), Big Shot (113439), Stampin” Up! Little Leaves Sizzlit (114511), paper snips (103579)