7 Swans a Swimming Card Tutorial

Release of Romantique Garden from Heartfelt Creations

Hello, Friends!  Happy Black Friday!  I hope all my US readers enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.  Did you gobble til you wobbled?  Today is the release day for the beautiful new Romantique Garden collection from Heartfelt Creations.   I’ve used it in a surprising way to make a whimsical Christmas card.  Here are the official release notes from Heartfelt Creations:

Love is in full bloom with the Romantique Garden collection from Heartfelt Creations. A romantic symphony composed in subtle shades of pink, fuchsia, green, cream and charcoal harmonizes beautifully with picturesque images of dainty hummingbirds, devoted love birds, graceful swans and delicate bleeding heart bushes. Ornate ironwork backgrounds are in perfect harmony with layered elements of vintage sheet music, lace, flowing handwriting, scrollwork, florals, stripes and flourishes. Six hand drawn stamp sets capture the idyllic beauty of a peaceful garden where swans glide across the surface of a glassy lake, nesting lovebirds are wreathed in flowers, and hummingbirds sip nectar from blossom laden branches of exquisite beauty. The coordinating die cuts feature elegant swirled stems, a graduated set of bleeding heart blossoms and a majestic pair of swimming swans. Dreamy and idyllic, uplifting and inspiring, romantic and moving as a masterfully scored concerto, this enchanting collection is a celebration of love and life amidst the extraordinary beauty of nature.

7 Swans a Swimming Card

If  you’ve followed my blog for a while, then you know that my brain often looks at something and sees a way to use it that is, shall we say, a little out of the box.  That’s what happened when I saw the beautiful Romantique Garden dies in this collection.  My mind went to Christmas, and came up with this whimsical 7 Swans a Swimming Card.

Aren’t those swans beautiful?  You get 2 swan die cuts in the collection so die cutting these beauties was quick and easy. The stamp is from the Holly Berry Cling Stamp Set, and is one of my all time favorite Christmas sentiments.

I wanted to do a close up so you can see the embossed Christmas wreath on the gold metallic paper and also the detail on these beautiful swans.  I used my Zutter Bow-it-All Tool to tie all the little 1/2″ bows and my beautiful Plaid Christmas Ribbon.  Because there is so much color and shine in this card, I kept the design very simple, so that the elements didn’t get lost in the crowd.

Here you can see the glimmer of the red foil cardstock that I used to mat the card.

I just love the vintage shine of the gold paper!  I rubbed it with Black Soot Distress Ink to age it.

The inside of the card has been stamped with the Poinsettia Border stamp from the Festive Candleight PreCut Set and the beautiful sentiment is from that same set.  You’ll find a complete supply list and detailed directions for creating this card below the signature area of this post.

I know you have shopping to do…but be sure to check out the designs from the rest of the team and the Black Friday special bundle at Heartfelt Creations blog before the day is over!  You won’t want to miss it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

TUTORIAL

7 Swans a Swimming Card Tutorial

Heartfelt Creations Products and Products Carried by HC:
HCPC 3638 Romantique Swans
HCPC 3623 Festive Candlelight PreCut Set
HCPC 3551 Holly Berry PreCut Set
HCDP1 249 Garden Romantique Paper Collection
HCD 755 Garden Romantique Die
452255 Grand Calibur
Zip Dry Glue

Other Product: Spellbinders Rustic Wreath 3-D M-Bossabilities; PAPER: Gold Metallic Paper, Red Metallic Cardstock (DCWV), Black Pearlized Cardstock, White Pearlized Cardstock (Core’dinations); INKS: Ranger Jet Black and Vermillion Archival Ink, Black Soot Distress Ink, Coloring Medium: Spectrum Noir Pens (G14), Other: Clear Embossing Powder, Christmas Plaid Ribbon, Gold, Red and Green Thread, Foam Dots

Directions:
Create a 5 1/4″ x 7 1/4″ card base from black pearlized cardstock. Open the Rustic Wreath M-Bossabilities folder and apply Black Soot Distress Ink directly to the flat side of the folder. Spritz a 5″ x 7″ piece of gold paper lightly with water, center on the embossing folder and then run through the Grand Calibur. Mat with a slightly larger piece of red metallic cardstock. Adhere to card base.
Stamp 9 swans onto white Pearlized paper, 5 facing to the left and 4 facing to the right. Heat Emboss with clear embossing powder. Shade with Spectrum Noir pen. Use foam dots to adhere 7 swans around the wreath as shown. Use a double foam adhesive on the swan in the center. Use the thread to tie 3 red 1/2″ bows, 3 green 1/2″ bows and 1 bow made from gold, red and green thread. Adhere to swans’ necks with Zip Dry Glue.
Cut the blank journaling tag from the paper collection. Stamp the “Believe” sentiment on it using Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink. Heat emboss with clear embossing powder. Mat with gold paper, red metallic paper and black paper.
Cut two 3″ lengths of Plaid Christmas ribbon and fold in half to form a “v” shape. Tape on either side of the sentiment panel and secure to the card base with foam adhesives.
Tie a triple loop bow with Plaid Christmas Ribbon and attach in the top left hand corner of the card.
For the interior: Cut a 4″ x 5 3/4″ panel of green flourish paper from the paper collection. Stamp the poinsettia border along the top and bottom of the panel using Vermillion ink. Stamp the sentiment with Jet Black Ink. Place a pair of swans on either side of the large poinsettia in the center of the border, as shown.