Blissful Blooms – Two Alternates for Tuesday

If there ever was a Paper Pumpkin that needed no alternatives, it’s the August 2018 Blissful Blooms.  The watercolor flower images are a gorgeous riot of color. The sentiments are varied enough to be useful for a variety of occasions.  But, I have promised my subscribers a Christmas card alternate with every box.  And I try to always keep my promises.

Paper Pumpkin August 2018 Blissful Blooms 2Paper Pumpkin August 2018 Blissful Blooms 1If you haven’t seen the two cards that come in the kit, they look like this. I used bows instead of nests of twine under the sentiment because I’m rarely happy with how my nests come out.

Pretty, right?  The vellum leaves add a beautiful touch of texture. The best part is that these cards come together in minutes.  So fast, so lovely.  How was I going to build on that?

 

 

 

Paper Pumpkin Blissful Blooms GatefoldThe first alternative I made was a simple alteration. I used Blackberry Bliss cardstock to make a gatefold card.

This is probably the easiest fancy fold card. Cut a standard piece of cardstock in half on the long side at 5-1/2″.  So you have an 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ piece.  Score the long side of this piece at 2-1/8″ and then do the same thing at the other end.   The two 2-1/8″ panels fold in over the center 4-1/4″ part, like a gate.

Then I cut the back off one of the flower frame cards (above on the right).  I trimmed the white backing to 4″x 5-1/4″ to be the inner panel. Add any sentiment to this.  The flower face I used for the panels. I cut a 2″ strip from each side – so I had two 2″x5-1/2″ pieces of designer paper essentially. I trimmed a bit off the length – 1/8″-1/4″ as you prefer.  Then I adhered each DSP panel to the card base “gates”.

I stamped the banner from the kit and added a bow.  I adhered it to one side of the gate – this is the key.  If you add glue to both sides, the card won’t open.  Not a huge change from the original card, but I like the way the Blackberry Bliss card stock makes the flower pop.

Paper Pumpkin Blissful Blooms Christmas CardNow for the promised Christmas card.  I used Old Olive, Real Red, and Whisper White cardstock to complement a piece of Under the Mistletoe DSP.  I used the flower stamp from the kit and a Stamparatus to make a wreath on a 3-1/4″ square piece of Whisper White.  (I’ll add instructions for creating a wreath with the Stamparatus to the site in the next few days and add a link here.) The leaves were made from the heart stamp in the kit inked with Old Olive. Then I added some touches of Soft Sea Foam with a flower stamen stamp in the kit. That was mounted on a 3-1/2″ square of Real Red.

The sentiment is from Beautiful Baubles, now available in the Holiday catalog.  Gold crystal gems and a bit of twine were the final embellishments. And there you have a Blissful Blooms Christmas card.

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Were you inspired?