Hi guys! 

It's Erica back on the Pinkfresh Studio blog today, with some cards using the Garden Roses set from the newest release. Have you seen it yet? Oh, my gosh, so many gorgeous florals. I haven't even used all of the new layering stencils yet, I got kind of wrapped up with the Lush Peonies, as seen below. 

One thing that I find really great about these florals is that they cover an A2 card, so you can keep them the focal point and just add your own spin to backgrounds and other details. Oh, and changing up the colour scheme of course. Below, is a card using the Blooming Branch sets.

So far, I've clocked up 12 cards so it was time to use the Garden Roses set. For these cards I have gone quite natural with pinks and reds. No crazy combos, just yet, but I totally haven't ruled it out yet! That's the fun thing about crafting, you don't have to make it realistic, go nuts with colours that make your creativity go 'oh yes, let's do that!' 

My first card is done by ink blending pinks, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss, for the roses and Grassy Knoll for the leaves. I used the same green on both layers, but on the first one I used what was left on my Grassy Knoll blender brush. I've recently gone a bit extra and bought enough blender brushes so I could have one for each one of my Pinkfresh inks... it's a bit nuts, but what can I say? I got a great deal on them, and was in the 'organising zone'. Stay away from that zone if you don't want to get swept up in organising purchases that might be hard to explain. Just FYI. 

With the coordinating diecut I cut the floral image out, and I also cut out another two pieces out of white card stock. These I layered up with liquid adhesive, and then I set that aside while I worked on the background. 

This is done by stamping the Garden Floral image twice, directly onto a card base, and then heat embossing that in white. It gives a little bit of interest and texture to the background without taking away any of the attention of the star of the show: The ink blended Garden Roses image. 

On a slim banner I stamped up 'It's been too long' in Black ink and after adhering the floral image to the card base, I adhered that too. I nearly stopped here but could my bling-loving heart agree with me? Nope. So I got a few... a good sprinkling... ok, ok, a GENEROUS sprinkling of Ballet Slipper jewels out and dotted them around the image and then I could finally stop. 

I do like how it turned out though, but I understand that not everyone loves bling to the level I do. 

The next Garden Floral image was also ink blended but this time with Coral Reef,  Passion Fruit and Berrylicious for the flowers, and Key Lime and Olive for the leaves. I used the coordinating diecut on this image as well, and then loaded it up with foam squares on the back to create height and dimension. 

The background for this card is done with matte gold foil and the Diagonal Hot Foil plate. Oh, gold and white is such a classic combo, isn't it?? I trimmed this panel down a little and adhered that to a card base. The floral image was adhered to this and only then did I start thinking of sentiments.. oy! Sometimes you get a bit carried away and have to work around what you have already committed to ie glued down! 

I grabbed a 'friend' diecut that I already had cut out, and stamped up 'you are amazing' in Black Ink on another slim banner. This is from the Lush Peonies stamp set. These were then layered up on top of the roses and a Stargazer jewel was used as the dot over the 'I' as I had lost that. 

The final card was done by heat embossing the outline stamp from the Garden Floral set on heavy weight vellum. Then I flipped this over and grabbed the stencils too. These I turned over, and used the 'wrong' way to add colour to the back of the vellum for a super soft look. 

The white heat embossing stayed crisp and bright white this way, and I loved how it turned out. This was adhered to a piece of white card stock to make sure the colours were forced to shine through. I did trim this down a bit too much, which I covered up by adding a strip of black foiled background, with the Diagonal Hot Foil plate, before adding this whole thing to a card base. 

Keeping the sentiment simple again, to let the roses take centre stage, I used the 'You' word die that I had made with black and white card stock.

The sentiment is finished off with 'are the best' on another slim banner, this is from the Blooming Branch set, so the full sentiment says 'you are the best'.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and these cards. Which one is your favourite? I'd love to hear what else has grabbed you from this release. 

Don't forget to check out the new release blog hop, and the Instagram hop, for a ton of inspiration and chances to win $25 gift vouchers as well as the entire release!! 

Happy crafting from Erica