Using Pre Made Elements to Create a Quick Card by Laura

Hello, and welcome back, crafty friends! It’s Laura with you today and I’m back with my first post since the Easter break. Here in Ireland we had lots of warm, beautiful weather and we enjoyed being outside most of the days. All the sunshine inspired me to use stamp sets from the Catherine Pooler Tropically Yours Collection. I have the entire collection from when it was sold as the limited edition Tropically Yours Stamp of Approval Box last year. If you missed out on buying it last July you can now buy each of the stamps as individual items. Yay!

Background

You know when you first get (or use) a stamp set and you make a few extra stamped and/or coloured images you never use? Well, like most crafters, I’m a hoarder for anything I think I can repurpose so I save most unused background panels and stamped images. (I just store them in the back of my Avery Elle Storage Pocket.) I’ve already made a few cards from this collection and had quite a selection of unused elements. So, for me, this card came together really quickly as most every aspect of the card was already made. All I did was choose my embellishments, create a design and assemble! Let’s get started.

Using Left Over Elements

I had a load of leftover stamped flowers and fauna from the Leave Me In Paradise and Tropically Yours stamp sets. They were all made using mostly Distress Inks – with the exception of the flower which used the gorgeous Coral Cabana (that was released in conjunction with the Tropically Yours SOA box.) I also had a fun flamingo from the Stand Tall Stamp that I’d stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Copic Markers.

As for the background, I even had that already painted, too! To create it, I simply put a few CPD Inks onto my glass mat and added a bit of water (with a Distress Sprayer) to watercolour a simple wash on an A2 piece of watercolour paper. I added a few paint flicks and then ran each of the (four) sides through the colourful waste water to give the panel added interest.

Sentiment

There was no sentiment yet so I heat embossed a greeting in gold that just seemed appropriate for that proud flamingo. This particular phrase came from the Stand Tall stamp set.

I glued the panel to a CPD card base, then i just had to add my elements. I glued some of the leaves down with Tombow and others are partially popped up with 3M foam tape and I also used foam tape behind the entire flamingo for added depth and interest.

And that’s all there is to it! I think it’s a grand card to ease back into things after the holiday, don’t you? Well, I hope i provided a bit of inspiration on how to use elements you’ve already created to make a quick, yet complicated looking card.

Thanks for stopping by…and see Y’all next time! xo