Spellbinders Guest Design Post | Spring Flora by Susan's Garden

Hello, crafty friends!

I am so honoured to be guest designing on the Spellbinders blog and have four card projects to share which I created using the exquisite Spring Flora Collection by Susan Tierney Cockburn. The entire collection is a treat for all flower makers and will help you create realistic and natural spring flowers. 

My first card features the Double & Single Peonies Etched Dies, Kerria Japonica Etched Dies, Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. I love peonies and had to start out by making a card featuring them in their full glory!

To create my flowers, I die cut the Double & Single Peonies Etched Dies out of Susan's Specialty Cardstock using my Spellbinders Platinum Machine. I die cut the medium and large layers twice from Specialty Cardstock, while the smallest layer was die cut thrice. Once all my pieces were die cut, I added some colour to the centres of the flowers using a foam blending tool. Then, I embossed the individual petals using the stylus tips from the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. 

The stamens were die cut out of Lemon Drop Cardstock using the Double & Single Peonies Etched Dies. Once they were die cut, I simply rolled them up using a pair of tweezers and added them to the centre of the peonies using Craft Glue. The filler flowers were die cut out using the Kerria Japonica Etched Dies from Susan's Specialty Cardstock. I added some colour to the centres of the flowers using a foam blending tool and then embossed and shaped the petals using the stylus tips from the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. Then, I added some mirco glitter balls to the flower centres for visual interest. 

The leaves were die cut from Fern Cardstock using the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. I lightly embossed them and added some detail to the die cuts using the various stylus tips (ball stylus tips, loop tools) included in the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. Then, for my card background, I trimmed a piece of Watercolor Cardstock and used some coloured Embossing Paste to create a stenciled pattern on the panel.

Next, I die cut the Candlewick Circle Etched Dies from White Cardstock and Gold Mirror Cardstock and slightly offset the two frames to create an illusion of depth without excessive bulk. I arranged my floral spray over it and adhered it down to my panel using Craft Glue. The sentiment from the Spring Quotes Clear Stamp Set was stamped on a piece of White Cardstock using Black Licorice ink. I added a mat layer of Gold Mirror Cardstock to give it a more finished look and adhered it to my panel using foam squares. 

I matted my panel with Light Blue Cardstock, then Gold Mirror Cardstock, and finally adhered it to a top-folding white card base. 

My next card features the Parrot Tulip Etched Dies, Kerria Japonica Etched Dies, and the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. I truly enjoyed creating these flowers for my card and have kept the background on this card very simple to keep the attention on the blooms. 

I die cut the flowers from the Parrot Tulip Etched Dies out of Susan's Specialty Cardstock. I coloured the sides and the centres of the petals using two different shades of Distress Oxides and then embossed and shaped them using the loop tool stylus tips from the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. I really love how this tool kit includes everything to help you create realistic flowers and leaves, right from the ball stylus tips to the leaf tool tip, to the foam pads, tweezers and more. If you're passionate about flower making, this is one tool kit that you should definitely invest in. It has all the required tools in one place and is great value for money!

The filler flowers were die cut from Susan's Specialty Cardstock. I used Spun Sugar Distress ink to colour each of the petals using using a foam blending tool and then lightly shaped them using the 2mm ball stylus tip. Once they were all coloured and dry, I added micro glitter balls to the centres for visual interest. The leaves were  cut from Fern Cardstock using the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. I lightly embossed them and added some detail to the die cuts using the various stylus tips (leaf veiner, loop tools) included in the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. 

I die cut the square pattern from the Fleur de lis Grandeur Fold Over out of White Cardstock and Gold Mirror Cardstock and slightly offset the two frames to create an illusion of depth. I foam mounted it to my panel and adhered the floral spray on it using Craft Glue. I stamped the sentiment from the Spring Quotes Clear Stamp Set using Black Licorice ink on the negative die cut piece of the Fleur de lis Grandeur Fold Over. I foam mounted it for dimension and then mounted the panel to a piece of Gold Mirror Cardstock. I mat the panel with a layer of Alabaster Cardstock and finally adhered it to a top-folding cream card base. 

My next card features the Hyacinth Etched Dies and the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. This card took me a while to make simply because I had to die cut, colour, and emboss a large number of hyacinths to create my card design, but it was really fun at the same time!

I started by die cutting the Hyacinth Etched Dies out of Susan's Specialty Cardstock. I cut out multiples of them, so that I had extras on hand. This helps save a lot of time and effort when you're working on your projects. I used three different shades of Distress inks to colour each of the hyacinths. This was slightly time consuming, however if you want to do this quickly, you can use coloured cardstock or even paints/sprays to colour your die cuts. Once I finished colouring all the petals, I embossed them using the 2mm embossing stylus tip from Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. I used the foam mat included in the kit while embossing the flowers and it came in very handy. 

Then, I adhered each of the die cut pieces together using Craft Glue to create my hyacinths. The leaves were die cut using the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies out of Fern Cardstock. I used Peeled Paint Distress ink to colour the sides of the leaves using a foam blending tool for some definition and interest. I then lightly embossed them and added some detail to the die cuts using the various stylus tips (leaf veiner, loop tools) included in the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. 

I trimmed a piece of White Cardstock to size and used a Moroccan Lattice stencil to create a soft, stenciled background design using a sponge dauber and Broken China Distress ink. Next, I die cut the large lace frame in the Floral Lace Frame Die Set from White Cardstock and Gold Mirror Cardstock and slightly offset the two frames for interest. 

Then, I die cut several panels of the Shapeabilities Vintage Stitched Squares Etched Dies out of White Cardstock and Gold Mirror Cardstock and adhered them one on top of the other to create the illusion of a frame. The large lace frame was foam mounted on this piece and the hyacinths were attached to the panel using Craft Glue. To finish, I adhered my card panel to a top-folding cream card base. 

My final card for today features the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. This is such a dainty yet elegant die set and I wanted to create a card featuring the flowers and leaves together. It also complements the sentiment quite well. 

To begin, I die cut the flowers out of Susan's Specialty Cardstock. Once I had a sizable number of die cut flowers, I I used Spun Sugar Distress ink to colour each of the petals using using a foam blending tool and then lightly shaped them using the 2mm ball stylus tip. Next, I die cut the stem in the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies from Limeade Splash Cardstock. I lightly embossed it using the 2mm embossing  stylus tip included in the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit.

Then, I adhered each of the petals through the nodes of the stem. The leaves were die cut out of Fern Cardstock using the Lily of the Valley Etched Dies. I lightly embossed the centre of the leaves using the 5mm embossing stylus tip and drew some veins on the die cuts using the leaf veiner tool in the Susan's Garden Ultimate Tool Kit. 

Once my floral spray was complete, I die cut the Elegant Twist Ovals Etched Dies from Gold Mirror Cardstock. The  leftover negative die cut piece was coloured with Broken China Distress ink using a blending brush and I added some black paint splatters for visual interest. I also stamped a sentiment from the Spring Quotes Clear Stamp Set using Black Licorice ink on a small oval frame die cut from the Twist Ovals Etched Dies. Both the die cut pieces were foam mounted to the panel for dimension.  

Next, I took a piece of White Cardstock and trimmed it to size. I used the Snip It Flowers Die Set to emboss the panel using a rubber embossing pad in my die cutting sandwich. Then, I added some black paint splatters to the panel for interest. I matted this to a panel of Gold Mirror Cardstock and then adhered it to a side-folding cream card base. 

Other Supplies: Distress Inks - Broken China, Peeled Paint, Spun Sugar, Distress Oxides- Peeled Paint, Squeezed Lemonade, Tattered Rose; White Fun Foam, Watercolour Paper; Stencils, White Texture Paste; Embellishments: Ribbons, Mirco Glitter Balls, Black Acrylic Paint

I hope you enjoyed looking at my spring floral cards and thanks so much for stopping by today. You can find more inspiration over on my Instagram page @hussena_cal.

Thank you for stopping by!