Brand Ambassador Inspiration - English Country Garden

Good morning friends, Julie here with a little bit of Uniko summer inspiration.

I needed to make a card for my daughter's birthday, so decided to use the English Country Garden stamps and matching dies to create a floating frame design. I also ended up with an extra card from the left overs, definitely a win win!

So grab yourself a cuppa and settle down to a photo heavy post!

To start I die cut a stack of blanks of both the large and small butterflies before stamping them and colouring with Copics.

I find the best way to batch stamp is to use my MISTI and the waste from the first die cut to create a jig, so that I can place the blanks back in and then stamp away, replacing the blank after each stamping. I saved my jig from a previous project.

Once I had enough butterflies, I arranged them over a panel of copy paper trimmed to 41/2" by 61/2", not worrying if they hung over the edges. 

Using some Press n Seal, I overlaid the butterflies and pressed down especially between gaps. The Press n Seal allows you to lift the project up and then trim away the over hanging elements. 

This is how it looks part way.

This is it fully trimmed.

Without removing the Press n Seal, I cut a rectangle from the center with a die, it will cut through all layers if you take it steady!

Put the center to one side and flip the frame over and carefully remove the white copy paper, adding foam tape to the different elements.

After removing the backing from the tape, place on a 5 x 7 base card and press firmly once in position. Then very carefully remove the Press n Seal. You can stamp a sentiment directly into the center of the card but I chose to add a layered one to add some extra interest and bling. The sentiment is made up of bits from three different sets, You Are, Yes You, Birthday Sentiments and Festive Sentiments and heat embossed with platinum EP. A few holographic gems were added to complete.

Now back to the middle we put to one side. To frame the central panel, I decided to cut a thin frame using a rectangle of matching card and a slightly smaller rectangle die. I found that its easier that way than cutting the center out and trying trim down to size. If you do need to trim then I found replacing the die cut center works well in keeping the frame from distorting too much.

Instead of popping these butterflies up on foam, I simply glued them down flat onto a 5 x 7 card base, adding the frame and a simple sentiment strip from Simply Said. 

Here are the two finished cards together.

I do apologise for the photo heavy post but I hope it has inspired you to have a go yourself, its such an effective technique and you don't need to use butterflies, any die cut images will work.

So that's all from me, keep safe and sane 'til next time.