Bloomin Heart and Bloomin Love

Love is in the air and it’s never too early to think about Valentine’s Day, now less than a month away…eek.

With this is mind I thought I would try the Bloomin Heart Die from the new Occasions catalogue and I have to say I love, love, love it. This die is absolutely gorgeous, so delicate and detailed but having watched a few YouTube videos and read some blogs I knew it could be tricky to get a good cut.

 

With this in mind I had a couple of trial runs using different cardstock and BigShot sandwiches.

For the first run I used the BigShot sandwich as recommended by Stampin Up! – the multipurpose Platform (no tabs) + Precision Plate, cardstock, die and finally an acrylic plate. I found I needed to run the die through the BigShot 5 or 6 times to get a good cut.

For comparison I also tried the Magnetic Platform + the Precision Plate, card, die and acrylic plate and needed to run this sandwich through the BigShot a couple of times to get a good cut if I was using Foiled cardstock or Glimmer cardstock. This was the option I then used to make my cards but as every machine is calibrated slightly differently I suggest you have a play with your own BigShot to determine what works with your machine.

For the first card I die cut the intricate heart from Red Foil cardstock, so shiny and decadent looking. I then die cut the heart from a panel of Whisper White cardstock, popped out all the pieces to create a frame and backed the hole with a piece of Window Sheet. I slotted the Red Foil die cut into the frame and adhered it to the Window Sheet with tiny dots of Tombow adhesive.

I decided to keep the card fairly simple and added a strip of Real Red satin ribbon below the die cut heart. The sentiment is from the co-ordinating Bloomin Love stamp set and is stamped with Real Red ink and framed by the banner stamped in Basic Black Archival ink. The banner was then die cut using the co-ordinating die from the Large Numbers Framelit dies. I think this is such a classy looking card.

The second card I made has a softer look. I started with a card base in Pool Party cardstock and die cut the heart from Whisper White cardstock adding the smaller die cut flowers stamped in either Pool Party or Real Red. At this point I decided to turn the card on its side to make a landscape card.

I adhered the die cut heart to the right side of the card adding a piece of Blushing Bride cardstock with a flagged end cut using the Banner Triple Punch. Using the smaller flower stamps from the Bloomin Love stamp set, I created a background piece by stamping the flowers in Pool Party, Blushing Bride and Real Red and punching a banner end. I loved the look of this piece; it really tied all the colours together. I added a piece of the lovely, sparkly Pool Party Glitter Ribbon and some Basic Rhinestones to finish the card off.

I am really loving this set and hope you do too.

Mo x