Guest Designer

One of my very favorite things to do each month is to sit with my computer and a glass of wine and look at all of the wonderful inspiration that can be found on the MFT blog, so it was a huge treat to be invited to be a guest designer...oh so exciting!! For my post today, I have three cards to share with you.  I hope you like them and that maybe they inspire you to do some stamping!

My first card is a Flying Easel card.  This fun fold works well with symmetrical images so when I saw the Playful Peacock stamp set, and the front facing peacock I knew I had to use it  to make a Flying Easel card!  I started by scoring the front of the card in the middle and then cutting a hole using the Stitched Tag-Corner Rectangle STAX.  Next I cut two frames using the Single Stitch Line Tag-Corner Rectangle Frames.  Cutting 2 frames makes the flying part of the card sturdier and allows you to glue the string between the two pieces. Next I stamped, colored and cut out 4 peacocks. I scored and folded them and glued them together with a string in the center between them.  Once this was dry, I glued the string between the 2 frames so the peacock would hang and spin in the center of the frame opening.  I then attached the frame to the card gluing only the part of the frame below the score line.

Because the inside of the card shows through the opening, I made a garden inside the card using the Love Buds stamps and dies, the Mini Cloud Edges stencil and the Grassy Edges stencil. The flowers inside are popped with foam tape so they can hold the easel in place when the card is open.  The sentiment is stamped and embossed onto a Tropical Teal strip cut with the Stitched Sentiment Strip Die-namics.  The peacock looks so pretty twisting and twirling in a breeze!!

For my second card I used the adorable Saddle Up and Celebrate stamp set.  The little cactus is darling and I thought it would make a great wreath so I combined it with some leaves and stems from the Playful Peacock set and a flower from the Love Buds set and did just that!!  To get the wreath shape I cut a wonky circle into the front panel of the card and then attached the panel and the circle to the front to the card with foam tape.  This gave me the perfect shape and size to build on.

I laid out the pieces adding layers until I had a nice full wreath.

Once I was happy with the layout, I took a photo so I could get everything back in place and started gluing.  I attached the tiny cacti with foam tape so they would pop!  I finished the card off with a sentiment from the Saddle up and Celebrate set and some borders cut from a coordinating paper (Dots & Stripes Bright Paper Pack) using the Stitched Scallop Edges Die-namics.  Here is the finished card...

The inspiration for my third card was the tiny bird in the Safari Friends stamp set.  He is so tiny and cute I thought it would be funny to have him nose to nose with one of the beautiful side-facing peacocks from the Playful Peacocks set!  The front panel of the card is a piece of patterned paper from the Dots & Stripes Bright Paper Pack.  I used the Stitched Domes STAX, Stitched Dome Frames and Grassy Fields Die-namics to make the setting for their meeting and attached it to the front panel with foam tape. The little bird needed something to stand on and this sweet little flower from the Love Buds set was perfect! The sentiment strip was cut using the Stitched Sentiment Strips Die-namics.

Here is a close up...

Thanks so much for visiting and thanks to MFT for inviting me to be a guest designer.  It was a lot of fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Make time to stamp as often as you can...it's good for you!!

Janet