Cards in a Snap and Masking

Here's two simple cards that I promised you. The first was inspired by a gift certificate from a gardening center. I was asked to decorate an envelope to go with it and loved the quick results on the vanilla envelope so I reproduced it on a simple card. I don't think I would have thought of this color combo. Later I added vanilla taffeta ribbon and that added just the right extra without too much extra time. I used the two hole punch and punched to the left of the sentiment and then tied my ribbon in a small bow.

The base is SU Elegant Eggplant, which is hard to see in this photo. Then the flowers from SU Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set were stamped on Very Vanilla. The large flower was stamped first with Elegant Eggplant, then I masked it and stamped the smaller flower with Cameo Coral around it. The sentiment from Heartfelt Thanks (retiring this month) was stamped last with Elegant Eggplant. If your worried about stamping the sentiment straight use a stamp-a-ma-jig.

The longest part of this process is creating a mask. I use printer paper scraps to create my masks. Just stamp your image on your paper and cut it out. Then I use a very small amount of SNAIL adhesive to adhere it over my stamped image. There's a great tutorial on masking at splitcoaststampers.com. They use a post it note that already has adhesive on it. After you create your mask, put it in the stamp set box and reuse it over and over again. Now this card really is VERY quick and easy.

This second card was a quick thank you we created for Stephanie to send out after her baby shower. It's on SU Regal Rose and Whisper White cardstock. I used flowers from Doodle This (retiring at the end of the month) stamped randomly around the edges in Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose and Pink Pirouette ink. The sentiment is from Cheery Chat (previously retired) in Regal Rose.

There you have it. These cards took just a few minutes to create - cards in a snap. Stamping and creating doesn't have to take hours!

Enjoy!

Julie