As if it’s not bad enough that Stem Silhouettes is being retired, I also found out that French Flair is also going. Nooooooo!

Here’s quick card I whipped up this morning, it’s too bad you can’t see the glitter on the stems as it really is pretty with the glitter. Oh and the card really isn’t crooked like that… I just need some photography lessons .

Okay, so to make this card I simply stamped the stems from Stem Silhouettes twice using Sage Shadow ink onto Whisper White cardstock and then traced them with a glue pen and poured on the glitter. The excess glitter was poured back into the container and I dusted the card with a soft blush brush to tidy it up. I tore the side of the stamped card to give it some texture then mounted it onto some Sage Shadow cardstock. To make the base of the card I stamped the French Flair background using Brocade Blue ink onto a piece of A5 Brocade Blue cardstock which was folded in half. The stems were adhered to the base card and then I stamped ‘Bonjour’ (from Carte Postale) in Sage Shadow on some scrap white cardstock, punched it out using the small oval punch, adhered it to the back of a small Pewter oval bookplate (same size as the oval punch!) with some Crystal Effects and then attached it to the card with some matching brads.

To cover the backs of the brads from the inside of the card I made a card insert. I know not everyone makes card inserts but I think they finish off a card nicely. I do this very simply by cutting a piece of A4 photocopy paper in half then I trim it down so that it’s about 2mm shorter on the top, bottom and right hand side of the card then I adhere it to the inside of my card. In this case I also stamped the stem stamp inside the card insert with some Sage Shadow ink so that it matched the outside of the card. I’d love to know, do you do card inserts? Do you make them plain or stamp them to match the outside of the card? I must say that lots of times I don’t stamp them but when I’m not feeling lazy I like to add something simple on the inside, I think it gives the card a lovely finish.

Card design by Angela Sargeant.  All images copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008
Here’s a list of the products I used: (all products available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)
French Flair background stamp (retiring 31st March 2008)
Stem Silhouettes stamp set (retiring 31st March 2008)
Carte Postale stamp set (the ‘Bonjour’ stamp)
Brocade Blue inkpad
Brocade Blue cardstock
Sage Shadow inkpad
Sage Shadow cardstock
2-way glue pen
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Pewter Hodgepodge (oval bookplate and brads)
Crystal Effects