How Do You Like Them Apples?

I was super excited to see the new stamps and dies released by The Stamps of Life this month for their August club set.  Apples! Apples can be perfect for pretty much any season and the ideas of what to create with them are endless!  The first card that I would like to share with you is a box of red apples. For the apples, I used the apple2stamp stamp set and dies and colored them with copic markers.  For the box, I used my Box Card Die Set sold exclusively by The Stamps of Life.  I added some rounded stitched white rectangles using white cardstock and Stitched Rounded Rectangle Dies by My Favorite Things. On top of that, I added some blue gingham patterned paper.  I wanted to add a little bit of contrast to everything, so I used my branch die by Memory Box and added some small white flowers using my mini flower dies by The Stamps of Life.  The most tedious part about making this card was coloring the apples.  Of course, I enjoyed that part, but some people do not like to color and if you wanted to create something similar, you could just use the solid apple stamp with ink or just die cut solid colored card stock.  

Products Used:

• Apple2stamp Stamp Set - The Stamps of Life
• Apple Dies - The Stamps of Life 
• Exclusive Box Card Die Set - The Stamps of Life
• MFT Die-Namics Stitched Rounded Rectangles 
• Memory Box Woodland Branch Craft Die
• Mini Flower Dies - The Stamps of Life 

My next card is a surprise slider card.  Ever since I saw last month's card kit video by My Favorite Things, I have been obsessed with surprise slider cards!  Initially, I had wanted to have a worm pop out of an apple on this card, but I didn't have any worm stamps and honestly did not feel like drawing my own.  As I thought of what other insect etc you might find on an apple, I was reminded of when I was a little girl growing up in Pennsylvania.  We had a bunch of crab apple trees in our back yard and one of our weekend chores during summer break was to go out and pick up a bucket or two of those pesky apples off of the ground and put them in our compost pile.  I remember wearing these huge, thick gardener gloves because if you weren't careful, you would get stung by a bee that might be hanging out inside one of the apples.  My siblings and I absolutely hated that chore but as for a card, a bee on an apple would be cute!  So, I went with bees.  You simply have to pull the little white tab on the lower right-hand side of the card to see the "surprise". 

And once you do, out "fly" two bees with a "Happy Birthday Banner"!  So much fun! And honestly, these surprise slider cards are not too difficult to make!  I will post a link of the video below by My Favorite Things that will give you a better idea of how to create one.  Once again, I used my apple stamps and dies.  The bees are from the bee4me stamp set and dies.  Now, for the part that you can't see, I used my smaller penny slider die (with some extra cutting with an X-Acto knife) by The Stamps of Life.  Many companies have come out with slider dies and almost any one would work or if you don't own one, you could just simply fussy cut it by hand with a craft/X-Acto knife.  For the banner, I used the smaller of the two banner dies that come in the Sizzix Alphabet Stamps & Banners Dies Set.

Products Used:

• Apple2stamp Stamp Set - The Stamps of Life
• Apple Dies - The Stamps of Life 
• Bee4me Stamp Set - The Stamps of Life
• Bee Die Set - The Stamps of Life
• Penny Slider Dies - The Stamps of Life 
• Sizzix Alphabet Stamps & Banners Dies  
• Surprise Slider Card - Twice The Wishes Video - My Favorite Things 

Lastly, I'd like to share one more card using the same set of apple stamps as above.  However, for this card, there was no die-cutting.  Just simple stamping, masking and coloring.  Masking means that you are going to "mask" or cover a stamped image so that when you stamp on top of it, it looks like the image that you just stamped is behind or next the one that was already there without overlapping it.  For instance, in my card here, I stamped most of the leaves before I stamped the apple.  I then stamped some leaves on masking paper (or you could use Post-it Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes) and cut them out by hand as close to the outline as possible.  I then placed them exactly on top of the leaf (or leaves) that I wanted to protect to either stamp a leaf "behind" another or to stamp the apple behind the leaves.  Once you remove the sticky paper, you only see what was stamped on your actual paper!   

Products Used:

• Apple2stamp Stamp Set - The Stamps of Life
• Stamping Masking Paper 

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my projects today!  I love to hear from you!  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions!