“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.” – Leonard Nemoy. We enjoy gardening. And we enjoy making cards. Summer may winding down, but the love of both these hobbies continue through the seasons.
It may be the beauty of a new flower, the excitement of emerging fruit, or the taste of freshly picked herbs quickly thrown in an omelette. Spring and summer gardening truly awakens the senses. We dwell on the season’s surprises and yet accept its temporariness. We don’t know what it is about this hobby of gardening. But once the spark of curiosity or awe is created, the burning desire to learn is set in motion and the fear of judgement subsides. Maybe that’s what keeps us present and engaged season after season. It is just us, and the soil and the seed. The rest is left to nature’s systems and cycles (and hope!)
Above are some sights of the season (L to R): cherry tomatoes, chocolate mint, green onion (flowering), a succulent arrangement, a wild flower (name?), and young Genovese basil. Our garden was very green and teeming with life!
This leads us now to today’s garden card. We decided that today’s design will fill the entire cover. We wanted lush green leaves to surround heart-shaped flowers.
We used a gold gel pen to add veins to each leaf. This created a subtle brightness and shimmer to the card.
To first create the leaves, we first used circle punches (1 and 2 inches in diameter) to cut out some circles from green cardstock. Next, we re-punch parts of the circles to carve out leaf shapes.
Once we finished making the leaves, we decided to add different colors of flowers on the card. Using a small heart punch, we cut out orange, magenta, pink, and purple heart confetti. These are colors we spotted in our garden (wild flowers and marigolds) and in walks around the neighborhood.
To make the blossoms, we used five hearts of the same color and arranged them in a circular pattern. Doing so created a pretty flower.
In the final steps, we arranged the leaves and flowers on the card. Once we were satisfied with the layout, we started with one corner of the card and carefully glued each piece. We paused every now and then to review the amount of negative white space between each leaf and petal.
We ended up loving this pattern on its own, without any sentiment or greeting on top. What a great way to honor memories of our garden! We realized that nature always manifests unique patterns of its own, sometimes with its own rules. Feeling stuck creatively? Just look no further than outside to cultivate and stir up some inspiration.
If you make cards, what inspires your style and themes?
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