In case you can not tell, I love wreaths.  I love real wreaths.  I have one for every season on my front door in Nashville and I have one on the door of my cottage.  I love wreath stamps and dies too.  I don’t think there is one set of wreaths that Stampin’ Up!® has offered that I do not own.  How can you not love them?  They are good for every season and every occasion.  Plus they are just darn pretty!

I decided to use the Cottage Wreath bundle on a slimline card.  Part of the reason is I love slimline cards but also because a regular A2 card (4.25″ x 5.5″) could only fit two of the wreaths on it and I wanted to make a card using wreaths for all seasons. My slimline card is 3.5″ x 8.5″.  Of course, I wanted to use four wreaths (one for each season) but it would have made a ridiculously long card so I settled on three.

The Cottage Wreath stamp set is a DisINKtive stamp set.  This means that each stamp creates different opacities in a single stamp which brings depth to the image.  You can see this if you look at the acorns.  The top of the acorn is darker than the bottom but the acorn is only one stamp.  Pretty cool, huh?  This stamp set has coordinating dies called Country Wreaths and if you purchase them in a bundle you can save 10%.

To make the Spring/Summer wreath, I stamped it in Granny Apple Green ink.  Then I stamped the flowers from the Cup Of Tea Bundle (which includes the Teacup Dies) in Daffodil Delight Ink and cut them out.  Unfortunately, the Cottage Wreath stamp set does not have flowers (which is ok because Stampin’ Up!® has a lot of flowers to choose from),  I layered the flowers on the wreath using Mini Dimensionals.

Next, I made the Autumn Wreath.  I did this by using my Stamparatus and Stampin’ Write Markers (Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry).  I randomly colored the wreath with these colors.  The Stamparatus worked great because I could re-color the areas that I missed the first, second and maybe the third time I inked the stamp because the paper and stamp stay in the same place.  Then, I stamped the acorns in Soft Suede and cut them out using the coordinating die.  I also adhered them to the wreath using the Mini Dimensionals.

The winter wreath was next.  I stamped that in Evening Evergreen ink.  I stamped the berries in Cherry Cobbler ink, cut them out using the coordinating die and adhered them using the Mini Dimensionals too.  I decided against a sentiment on this card because I could not decide what to use.  When I send the card to someone, I will add the sentiment.

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