I went to the Inchies Club meeting earlier this evening. It was fun, I was inspired by so many creative ways to make Inchie Art, and I thoroughly enjoyed Sue White's instruction on making quick and easy booklets.

My outing took more out of me than I expected. My nasty cold is getting the better of me right now, so the photos from tonight's meeting will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry; thanks for understanding. In the meantime, here is what I wanted to share with you earlier today.

Basic Card Sketch from Basic Grey's blog

by Melanie Bauer

"We’ve given you a couple of scrapbook sketches thus far but cardmakers, this week’s sketch is just for you! And not only do we have a card sketch, but we also have a special guest!

by Tami Hartley for Hero Arts

SUPPLIES : [INDIE BLOOM] INB-3418 6×6 Paper Pad, XHA-CL548 Enjoy, XHA-CL549 Butterflies & Wildflowers.

Hero Arts White Adhesive Lace, Ranger Distress Ink – Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen, Shabby Shutters, VersaFine Ink – Vintage Sepia, Colorbox Chalk Ink – Dark Peony, Hero Arts Snow Notecard, White cardstock, Ranger Ink Blending Tool, Ranger Glossy Accents, Twine, Colored pencils, Pop Dots.

Today we welcome Tami Hartley from Hero Arts to the BG blog! Tami created this beautiful card pairing Indie Bloom with two of the Hero Arts/BasicGrey stamp sets from the same collection. She makes it look effortless, doesn’t she?

So effortless in fact, that she’s sharing the step-by-step instructions for you!

Cut a 3.75″ x 3.75″ piece of aqua paper from Indie Bloom 6×6 paper pad. Stamp floral image onto piece using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.
Cut a 3.75″ x 1.25″ piece of patterned paper for the lower portion of the card.
Ink edges of both pieces with Antique Linen Distress Ink and adhere to card as shown.
Cut a strip of striped paper and cut a “v” notch in one end. Adhere to card. Add a very thin strip of green paper below notched piece as shown.
Stamp frame onto white cardstock with VersaFine Vintage Sepia Ink. Use ink blending tool to lightly apply Antique Linen Distress Ink all over piece.
Stamp ornate diamond image onto label with Antique Linen Distress Ink.
Stamp two flowers with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink as shown. Add shading to stems and leaves with colored pencils. Cut out label.
Stamp flowers again onto white cardstock with Dark Peony Chalk Ink. Add color with colored pencils. Cut out flower heads only and adhere over top of previously stamped flowers.
Stamp “thank you” with VersaFine Vintage Sepia Ink onto white cardstock strip. Adhere as shown.
Attach label to card with pop dots.
Add twine bow and white crochet trim as shown.
Add Glossy Accents to flower centers and set aside to dry."

From Millsrepco's blog featuring Memory Box dies and Elizabeth Craft Designs' Shimmer Sheetz . . .

Flower Branch Card

"The decorative border was created using a small scrap of pink iris shimmer sheet (mylar) and applying multiple alcohol ink colors with a felt blending tool. To further blend the colors I added a drop or two of alcohol blending solution which softens the color as if it were watercolored.
The alcohol ink dries immediately and the strip is then placed in an embossing folder and run through the die cutting machine.
Lightly sand the raised image to reveal the original pink shimmer sheet. Layer the embossed piece and adhere to the base card stamped with Vintage Dream (G1838).
Die cut the Grove Branch (98311) and Fancy Blooms (98312). The Fancy Blooms were cut from watercolor paper painted with Twinkling H2O's. Adhere the blooms to the branch, bend the petals forward and add pearl centers.
White seam binding was sprayed liberally with Perfect Pearls Mist (Pearl color) and scrunched into a tight ball to create wrinkles. Dry the ribbon with a hair dryer to stiffen and set wrinkles. Add a pink fancy blossom to the bow and place pearls randomly throughout the blossoms
Any type of sentiment can be added to this card to fit your occasion. I hope you give this one a try.
Thanks to rep Jenny Griffiths for this card."

From Cheery Lynn, another flower tutorial from Debbie Sherman . . .

Peony Tutorial

"Good Morning Cheery Lynn Fans! As promised a tutorial for the Peony Blooms I created from some of my favorite Cheery Lynn Dies, but first I want to share my card with you. Mother's day is right around the corner and I wanted something pretty to give my mother. I created several copies of this card in variations for all of the other Mothers in my family.

ok....lets get started

Supplies

Here is your supply list for the flower only I'll give you the list for the rest of the card at the end.

Cheery Lynn Stacker #5

Cheery Lynn Sweet Williams

Cheery Lynn Sunflower

Cheery Lynn Pair of Ferns die - optional

ink - optional

2-3 sheets double sided patterned paper of choice

wooden skewer

Therm O Web Zots in medium

Cutting The Flowers

Cut 5 flowers from Stacker Flower 5 ( I cut 3 from one side of the patterned paper and 2 from the other side of the paper.)

Cut 3 from the small Sweet Williams die - 2 from one side of patterned paper and 1 from the other side of paper

Cut 2 Sunflowers from paper of your choice.

Cut 1 of each of the 2 Pair of Ferns die

Ink all edges of petals if desired. I inked both sides of each flower.

Rolling The Petals

Start with the base of the flower and roll the bottom petal edges under. This will be the base of your flower.

Roll the remaining Stacker Flower #5 flower petals up. Here is how they should look.

Repeat with all remaining flower cuts. Here is what they will look like when you're done. If you need to ink your flowers again now is the time to do it.

Begin layering your bloom with the first flower you rolled under, alternating the patterns. Adhere them at the center with a Zot. Be sure to offset the petals as you layer them.

Layer all remaining flowers offsetting the petals.

When you are done layering all the flowers, squeeze towards the middle cupping the flower. This will make the petals tighter and give it the appearance of lots of layers.

Ink any edges that you might have missed.

Adhere your bloom to your card and add any embellishments you desire at this time.

Adhere Ferns.

Card

For the base of the card I used the following Cheery Lynn Dies

French Pastry Doily

Daisy Lace Frame

Have fun creating your Peony Blooms!!"

From Graphic 45, tell me what you think of their Halloween paper collection, Happy Haunting, for this fall? Is it really time to think about my favorite celebration of the year, next to Christmas?

"Happy Haunting"