Happy Sunday my friends. It’s a sunny day in Reno and spring is doing its annual dance with the last remnants of winter.  Spring is leading but the wind is starting to bring in a small storm.  Maybe snow, maybe rain tomorrow or something in between.  Goodbye Winter. Sent with love, Spring.

While planning paper projects I realized the “Sent With Love” promotion is coming to a close at the end of April, 2013.  I love the colors and the theme but, as I said in a previous post, have struggled to use it.  Time for a challenge to get out of the old comfort zone.

The challenge? Create two cards using this colorful Designer Series Paper, one romantically feminine and one manly and masculine.  Since ladies come first, we’ll start there.

When looking at the paper, nostalgia and romance don’t immediately come to mind.  However, movement and travel do. So, how do we transform the paper’s theme into a romantic card that Mom might love?  Lace and flowers come to mind at first.

#129399 Lace Paper Doilies

#126869 5/8″ Flower Trim

The polka dot pattern from the Designer Series Paper reminds me of an old fabric called “Dotted Swiss”.  Perfect for this project.  Next, the flower.  I had created flowers made from the Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit for a previous project post, and set them aside for a future project.  Hello project! I chose one with a rosette from the 5/8″ Flower Trim already set in the center.

Click the image for the previous article.

More and more, I’m finding ways to decorate the back of cards.  In this case, simply wrapping the scallop and doily around to the back as well as following through with paper-piercing ties everything together.

The large amount of “white space” keeps the romance alive.  However, there seemed to be something missing.  Time for the Bitty Butterfly Punch to do it’s magic.  And, guess what?  The butterflies have now helped to add movement and travel.

Finally, the inside.  I needed to find a way to decorate the inside while taking advantage of the “Reverse Paper-Piercing” on the inside. The scallop is actually the “negative” piece left over from cutting the front scallop. What do you think?  There’s still room on the right to write a note but rotating it would give you space at the bottom.  Either way, you can make it yours.  The only thing I would do differently is plan the spacing ahead of time so the center sentiment didn’t fall on the fold.

Mission accomplished!  Your turn!  Click on “Nuts & Bolts” below for a downloadble PDF to print for reference.

Nuts and Bolts of the project.

Stamps: En Francais (#109521); Ink & Coloring: Classic Ink (Pool Party #126982); Paper: Card stock (Whisper White #100730); Designer Series Paper (Sent With Love #132182); Embellishments: 5/8″ Flower Trim (#126869), Pearls Basic Jewels (#119247), Pop-up Posies Designer Kit (#131395), White Tea Lace Paper Doilies (#129399); Tools:  Big Shot Machine (#113439), Bigz Scallop Circle (#113468); Paper Snips (#103579), Stampin’ Trimmer (#126889), Piercing Packs (Essentials #126187), Paper-Piercing Tool (#126189), Punches (Bitty Butterfly #129406, 1-3/4″ Circle #119850, Corner #119871), Stampin’ Pierce Mat (#126199); Adhesives: Glue Dots® (#103683), Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue (#110755), SNAIL Adhesive® Tape Runner (#104332).

Thank you for stopping by for

Sent with Love Challenge

Part I

Stop back tomorrow for

Sent With Love Challenge

Part 2-Masculine

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