Some Additional Ideas for Charmed

Bonus day for me! I got my Charmed stamp set and want to pop in here on Release Day (new products are available tonight at 10 PM EST at www.papertreyink.com) and show you a few different ways to use Charmed.

What you already know is that Charmed is about using birthstones to personalize birthday cards. Betsy is releasing some fantastic gem products that perfectly compliment the theme. (Can you believe we did these two things independently of each other...happen sometimes.) I'm taking the approach today with two cards that adhesive gemstones, studs, jeweled brads, glitter epoxy dots, etc., are staples in the papercrafting world and are the perfect way to embellish Charmed cards. We all have them. TONS of them. So anything you can slap an adhesive gemstone on, can work with Charmed! It's a great way to use everybody's favorite embellishments.

Also, as I'm sure you've seen by now on Nichole's blog, there's more to Charmed than just the birthstone stamps in that vintage font. For each of the 12 birthstones, you have a "for your BIRTHMONTH birthday" stamp to personalize cards for the birthday celebrant.

You also have 12 stamps that each have two qualities that the individual gemstones symbolize. Each birthstone has a meaning. Often multiple meanings. This not being a hard science, nobody really agrees on what each birthstone means. In my research, I really didn't find a lot of consistency. And can I be honest...for this person who was educated in a science field...this drove me complete insane. LOL! I did my best to pick qualities that are ones you'd most likely would want to use on a card and that gave the set overall the most variety.

And lastly, Charmed has two sentiments that you can add to the inside of the card and match up with the quality stamps.

OK. Got that? LOL! Let's get to the projects.

I've used the stamp for Ruby as the jumping off point for this card. I love how all the DT members had a personal reason to pick the birth month that they did. Often, it was to use their own birthstone. I'm no different. July Baby over here.

I wanted to use gemstones to accent flowers. So I broke out Embellished Elegance to do just that. This being July, the flowers are Blueberry Sky with ruby centers. I also put my sentiment on a die cut stamped with Boutique Borders Friends. The entire Boutique Borders collection is the perfect match to Charmed. The style of the frames is nicely suited to the font in Charmed.

On the inside of this card, I placed the qualities that a ruby represents in one of the inside sentiments. This is also stamped on Boutique Borders Friends. I'm actually saving this card for a friend, so it works well! And even if your recipient doesn't realize the symbolism, it's just a really nice thing to say.

For my second card, I jumped from one of the warmest months of the year, to one of the coldest with December. Gemstones accent Fab Flakes in shades of Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, and Tropical Teal to match December's birthstone. On all the birthstone stamps, there are dots before and after the word. You can use these as guides to place gemstones too. I also used my Copics to add a little shading on the word "turquoise".

The Charmed Frame has so many uses. The open silver rectangle? That's just an extra left over from another card. Save those...they are perfect for highlighting areas on your other cards.

And here is the inside of this card with the two qualities a turquoise stone represents with the other inside sentiment in Charmed. I highlighted qualities with Copics in the same manner as I did on the front with the birthstone stamp.

So let's talk about those inside sentiments. I was thinking...you don't have to use them with the birthstones at all! I've compiled a list below that matches basic sentiments on the front of the card with inside sentiments from Charmed. The basic sentiments are ones we all have in our collection. There's a lot of play in this stamp set! Very exciting and a great value.

Additional Occasions for inside sentiments using Charmed:

Front of Card: Happy Birthday
Inside of Card:  Blessings of Good Fortune & Happiness for today and always.
                          Blessing of Balance & Joy the whole year through.

Front of Card: Happy Graduation
Inside of Card: Wishing you Wisdom & Truth for today and always.
                          Blessings of Good Fortune & Happiness for today and always.

Front of Card: Happy New Year's
Inside of Card: Wishing you [ALL OPTIONS WILL WORK] the whole year through.

Front of Card: Feel Better (chronic illness)
Inside of Card: Wishing you Courage & Health for today and always.
                          Blessings of Energy & Hope for today and always.

Front of Card: Good Luck (trying to reach a goal of some sort)
Inside of Card: Wishing you Balance & Endurance for today and always.

Front of Card: I'll Miss You, So Long for Now, Safe Travels
Inside of Card: Blessings of Felicity & Protection for today and always.

Front of Card: Recovery
Inside of Card: Wishing you Vitality & Health for today and always.

Front of Card: Sympathy
Inside of Card: Blessings of Sincerity & Peace for today and always.

Front of Card: Happy Mother's Day
Inside of Card: Wishing you Balance & Joy the whole year through.

Front of Card: Happy Wedding Day
Inside of Card (stamp all of them!): Wishing you Constancy & Loyalty, Love & Commitment, Friendship & Contentment, Balance & Endurance, Good Fortune & Happiness for today and always.

OK. That's a wrap for me. Thanks for joining me this month. I'm back to holiday crafting and sharing of those projects. The race is on. Happy shopping tonight:). Looking forward to seeing your projects with items from this release.

Click back to Nichole's blog for more inspiration from the December Release.

Supplies

July Birthday Card
Stamps: Charmed, Embellished Elegance, Boutique Borders Friends
Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Blueberry Sky, True Black
Die Cuts: Charmed, Boutique Borders Friends

December Birthday Card
Stamps: Charmed, Fab Flakes
Dies: Charmed, Charmed Frame, Fab Flakes
Cardstock: Silver Shimmer, Stamper's Select White
Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal
Copics