Hi there
I’m back with another project from my CASE the Catalogue series! This time I’ve taken inspiration from the beautiful Fern & Flora card on page 51 of the May–August Catalogue (see below). I really enjoy CASEing the catalogue because it gives me a starting point for a card design, while still leaving plenty of room to make it my own. And, as usual, I’ve made a few changes to the original.
The catalogue sample uses Designer Series Paper from the Moonlit Flora Designer Series Paper pack as the background. For my version, I decided to use the Paper Medley pack instead. I love the soft, pretty pattern of this particular sheet and thought it worked really well with the botanical elements from the Fern & Flora Bundle. I used Basic Beige cardstock for the card base, which keeps the overall colour palette soft and neutral.
For the flowers, rather than colouring them with Stampin’ Blends as shown in the catalogue sample, I used Watercolour Pencils. If you don’t have a large collection of Stampin’ Blends, Watercolour Pencils are a great alternative for adding colour to your stamped images.
There are two assortment packs of Watercolour Pencils, giving you 23 different colour options between them. That’s a great range of colours and, in my opinion, really good value for money. I used the pencils to add colour to the floral image, keeping the colouring fairly simple so that the line-art of the stamped image remains the star of the show.
The Fern & Flora Bundle does a lot of the work for you here. The combination of stamped and die-cut foliage creates plenty of dimension without needing lots of different elements. I finished the card with a few Sunset Sparkle Sequins for a little extra sparkle.
By simply changing the colours of the flowers and the sentiment, you can create cards for completely different occasions while keeping the same basic design. I also used the layout for Notecards. I think this is a great example of how a card layout doesn’t have to be limited to one particular size or style of card. Sometimes you find a design that just works.
That’s one of the things I love about CASEing the catalogue — you don’t have to copy the project exactly. Take the elements you like, change the colours, swap the Designer Series Paper, try a different colouring technique and make the design your own.
You can see more of my CASE the Catalogue projects here on my blog, and over on my YouTube channel, where I share projects and demonstrate many of the cards I make.
Until next time …
