Ding Dong! or is that Dingbat?

 This is the culmination of a card idea I have had in my head for literally years.  It all goes back to when I was in the school play "The Wizard of Oz" in 5th grade, and then years later saw a doormat at a Warner Bros store with the legs sticking out and "Ding Dong" on the mat.  I kicked myself later for not buying that doormat.  So this is my way of making sense of it all and creating a card to celebrate such a great movie/play.

I stamped the legs and shaded them with copics and colored in the ruby red slippers with my sakura glitter gel pen.  I cut them out to place on the background which is a brick pattern stamped on yellow cardstock  The wording I cut using my cricut, design studio and  Plantin SchoolBook font.

Recipe -

Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections, The Paper Source

Stamps - Viva Lasvegastamps, Cornish Heritage Farms (I think they closed earlier this year and haven't heard if anyone is offering their designs elsewhere).

Color- Sakura, Copic

Cricut Expression - Plantin SchoolBook

Txt me L8r - HB2U

 Another Stampendous set that I used for my youngest's birthday card.  I think what really made the card was the glossy accents over the phone after I colored it with copics.  The "holey" border I made whilst playing with a Martha Steward punch.  Another "look" I won't be replicating as it took forever to line up the holes for each edge, but I like the effect.  The background I took inspiration from some fabric I saw at Hancock's Fabrics.  I still might buy some to make a pelmet for his room!

Recipe
Card size - 5.5 x 8.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections, The Paper Source
Stamps - Stampendous
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Accessories - Martha Stewart punch

Well, we are always telling him he is from Zog...

I used this Stampendous stamp set for my youngest's birthday card this year.  We are always telling him he is some sort of alien that landed here and we actually celebrate his landing date LOL!  I think everything on the card is pretty straightforward and this is a good card for a teen with the grungy look.  Good thing was that I got to use my Cuttlebug numbers folder and distressed stripes which I picked up to use someday and had never used!  YIKES!

Recipe
Card size - 5.5 x 8.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections, The Paper Source
Stamps - Stampendous
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folders, google eyes.

End of the Road for this Birthday Caper!

Admit it, you expected a Christmas theme.  I just couldn't take it that far!

Inside -

When all is said and done the Usual Suspects

sing like a canary to wish you a happy birthday!

Hope you liked the travel through the ups and downs of my penance for not making my dear husband number one on my card making schedule!

Recipe -

Card size - 5.5 x 4.25 in

Cardstock - DCWV, Neenah, The Paper Source

Ink - Memento

Stamps - Inkadinkado

Color - Copics

How many leaves does it take?

This card looks simple right?  Well I nearly lost it all over this card.  I knew how I wanted it to look and it took me forever (repeat forever) to get the coloring on the leaf right.  I like how it turned out in the end but a lot of leaves were raked directly into the trash in the making of this card!

Recipe
Card size 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah, DCWV
Ink - Memento
Stamps - Inkadinkado

Bewitching Birthday card!

 Yeah, if I had done this right this would have appeared at least a couple of weeks ago and been timely with the holiday, but I'm ok with that and I'm ok with using a witch stamp for a card that isn't a Halloween card too!

This was the tenth card in the set and I hope rather obviously represents October greetings.

On the inside I printed this greeting  -

A happy birthday witch for you!

I think it works, do you?

Recipe

Card size - 5.5 x 4.25 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections, The Paper Source

Ink - Memento

Stamp - Studio G

Color - Copics

Accessories - Cuttlebug Swiss dots (or multi-wart in this case!), Spellbinders circle Nestabilities

A bookish greeting

I always associated Books with the beginning of the school year and August/September depending on where we lived.  So although this was the 9th card in the series for my dear husband it is also a good all around design for a thank you for anyone that loves books or teaches.

Recipe
Card size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - DCWV, Neenah, The Paper Source
Stamps - Stampendous
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics

Hap BEE birthday! Bet you won't BEE-lieve this card!

 This is the 8th card in my dear husband's birthday series AND the "big card" as his birthday is August.  Don't they look so Hap-BEE to bee there?

AND to top off everything this is a set I picked up for half price!  Un-BEE-lievable I know!  I just thought they were a cheerful bunch.  I went monochromatic with the rest of the card to keep the cartoon feel and give the color just that extra zing! (I've read on Splitcoast that "pop" is overused LOL)  BTW I refrained from stickling the wings because I wanted to keep it manly and I ran out of time.

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source

Stamps - Stampendous

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Cuttlebug swiss dots folder

A Star Spangled Birthday!

There is a pretty funny 4th of July story involving my dear BRITISH husband, well actually there are several so I knew it was ok to poke at little fun at his fun with the holiday.

As with the previous cards in this set I kept it all one set of stamps - this time Stampendous.  I think the rest is rather self explanatory so I won't re-invent the wheel.

Recipe
Size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source
Ink - Memento
Stamps - Stampendous
Color - Copics, Sakura

King for a Day? or just King me?

Another missed holiday- My dear husband really is the king of my heart and yet suffered through a Father's Day cardless.  I hope this went some way for making up for such things.

I have this set from Technique Tuesday that I bought specifically for him because he loves chess and most of the other games represented on the set.  I cut out the squares and created a border similar to a chess board for the background even drawing in a little gold border on the edge.

Recipe
Size 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - The Paper Source, Neenah
Stamps - Technique Tuesday
Ink - Memento
Color- Copics, Sakura

Anniversary or Birthday?

So you remember what I said about being forgetful and unorganized.  Yup! I didn't make him an anniversary card this year either.  SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!  Hopefully I made up for it with this little gem.

Inside I printed "Getting older with you is the best thing “I do”

And BTW don't replicate the punching effect it really took too much time for that little bit of cardstock.  Yeah, I like the way it turned out but it about drove me crazy to do it.  So if you do decide to go for it remember I warned you! LOL!

Recipe
Size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Wassau, The Paper Source
Ink - Memento, Brilliance
Stamp - See Dee's
Color - Copics, Stickles
Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder

“Welly” hope your birthday “rains” supreme!

 And so of course we are with our wet wishes for April.  Or just the general weather forecast for my friends in Britain.  I have to admit because the rain normally came with winds I never really bothered with an umbrella.  Add to that not being able to hold one whilst pushing a stroller/pushchair and although I love some of the beautiful brollies I have seen I have invested in a very long time.

I wanted to use a rainbow of colors to remind him that after rain there can be a rainbow.

Here's the card in full with a bit better lighting.  Love the little wellies from this set even if they are a bit girly.  I have a Welly stamp from Clear Dollar Stamp but I will readily admit to being lazy and not searching it out to use it.  Still I think this turned out kinda unisex and the sender is a girl I'm reliably told!

Recipe

Size - 5.5 x 4.25 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Wassau, The Paper Source

Stamps - Stampendous

Ink - Memento

Color- Copics

Accessories - Spellbinder's Nestabilities, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Irish you a happy birthday!

OK the pun is awful but you have to admit it is a clever use of a theme stamp as a birthday stamp!

Recipe
Size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source, Recollection
Ink - Memento
Stamp - High Hopes
Color - Copics
Accessories - corner rounder.

I think this is my best CIC entry, do you?

This is my last entry for Clearly Inspired Challenge #18 - I think I finally made something within the rules and that I really like!

I stamped the Tree from the Tree-mendous Wishes set.  I stamped the tree with Versamark and then used detail black embossing powder.

The Owl is from the What a Pane set.  I stamped it, colored it with copics and clear embossed it with versamark and clear fine embossing powder.

I used a mask I made with Nestability circles do mask the moon and create the background first with a brayer and Brilliance Black and purple stamp pads.  Then I reverse masked and pounced in the orange full moon.

After all that was done I deckle cut the edges to give it an spookier feel.

Black, Orange and Purple!  Finally I think I got it!
Recipe -
Card size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink - Versamark, Brilliance
Accessories - Brayer, Black and Clear Embossing powders, Deckle edged cutter.

Challenge try number 2

So I told you the story about my failed challenge attempt - I mean green is neutral right?  So I tried again.

This time I used my "Boo to you" stamp set and the colors of Black, Orange and Purple

I know I got it right this time and I like the card I produced with the set and colors, but that's it I just like it.  Hmmm... I think I will have to have another try.  No one warned me that challenges were addictive!

Recipe
Card size - 4.25 x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink - Memento

Challenge - Clearly iStamp Clearly Inspired Challenge #18

Sometimes its so simple to say I love you...

Yeah I admit it there is no stamping on this one but when you are on a task to complete 12 cards for your dearly beloved sometimes less is more!  I promise however there is stamping on the next one!

Yup.  That's it Spellbinders Hearts and Scalloped hearts using my Archivers linen open stock red cardstock.  I thought about stamping and adding more and I just thought in this instance less is more.

Recipe
size - 5.5 x 4.25 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Archiver's open stock
Accessories - Spellbinder's Nestabilities

Time to come clean! or Time to celebrate?

This is one of 12 cards I made for my husband for his birthday this year.  Yeah that's right I made him twelve cards.

Now, I'm betting you are wondering why and the reason is that I owe him.  I'm really bad at taking it for granted that he will understand that I didn't get time to make his card.  Everyone else is normally ok its just normally his card so this year I made him 12 to remind him that though I sometimes don't get the card made that he deserves that I do remember that I didn't do it and I do care.

I thought my penance *ahem* theme would be year around.  It just somehow seemed appropriate.  On the inside it reads "Its time to celebrate!"

So I began with time (geddit January? time?) ok I know! You're a tough crowd!  Anyway my DH loves clocks so there is a secondary theme with it.  I've had these Heidi Grace clock face stamps that I picked up on sale ages ago that I have never used (a good run on sentence and rationale to use them!) that I decided to use.  I also broke out my non-sale, new to me, I knew I would need it sometime, number collage embossing folder. *wink wink*

Yeah, its clean and simple, or at least about the only version of CAS I can achieve.

I numbered his envelopes so this was the first card he opened... he knew, that I knew, that he likes clocks so I don't think he cottoned on to the overall theme at that point! 

Alas, time to go.  *GROAN!*

Recipe

size - 5.5in x 4.25in

cardstock - DCWV, Bazzill, Neenah

ink - Memento
color - copics
stamps - Heidi Grace
accessories - cuttlebug embossing folder

I really should have read the rules better!

I rarely if ever decide to do blog challenges but I read one and thought - I think I can do this and use it.  If you have read my ramblings for a while you know I need a muse (and as the band are only available occasionally in my area) and that is the people I create for.  I have to feel it to make a card I just can't follow a sketch and feel happy.  So that said I knew I had a card to make for my mother's birthday and I had a fun color challenge at Clearly I Stamp to play with.

This is what I came up with -

The problem?  There is nothing about green in the challenge - purple, black and if you must orange.  I guess my brain just thought traditional Halloween colors.  I did do another two but I haven't gotten them photographed as yet!  Do you think I should enter it and pray?  Maybe I should just read the rules and see if its one entry per person! LOL

Recipe

Size - 5.5 x 8.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source, Archiver's open stock

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps 

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Ribbon, Brads, Spellbinders dies

BTW here's the challenge - CIC18 as you can see nowhere does it mention green! LOL!

I have decided to take a hit to the ego! LOL!

I'm just readjusting my blog to make it more friendly and I noticed a counter other than feedjit - thing is it counts views at 512 (and we all know that 510 of those are mine!) whereas my feedjit is around 14,000... so I guess I will humble myself to something more user friendly and although I haven't gotten near 14,000 comments please don't think because you aren't a number to me that you don't count anymore. 

Onwards and upwords at least in the counting department.

I still have oodles of birthday cards to photograph and upload (they are here as they were for my DH) and of course everything I have been working on in between painting bedrooms - 2 down and now we are on the front living room - ceiling done, walls and trim to go!  Take care and enjoy your crafting!

What do Wednesday, Rochdale & Macclesfield have in common?

They are all represented on this card.

So my husband asks me to make a football (soccer to the Americans) card for one of his best friends and this is what I came up with.  I really debated how to do this and thought I really wanted to use my GinaK sets.  The problem was the stripes - Yikes! how was I going to make the stripes?  In the end I went with stamping everything on white and free hand coloring of the shirts.  Luckily (after some investigation) I found out that all the clubs are relatively the same color blue.

Then just when I thought I was done, he asks "can you put our names on them"?  What? what do you mean? OMG? I would have done it different?  Oh I don't want to waste what I have already done!  Don't you know I'm on a time limit here?  So I think for a moment and grab my Just Rite circle stamper and go through my alphabets for the one that is nearest.  Thankfully on a whim I had some white embossing powder.  Versamark and white embossing powder and using my letters half off the block and pressing each down with my fingers achieved the names - so nothing remotely awkward there! *snorts* OH NO!  The white doesn't work with the stripes.  Now what... I think they probably number the striped kits in black so I stamp up and color another striped shirt and try it versamark and black fine embossing powder.  IT WORKED!  HUZZAH!  Then to find the right numbers... where I should have some - too big, too small ooooo these GinaK ones are just right!!! I'm now officially in love with Gina, but don't tell my "I can pull random requests out of the air and my wife will make it" husband.  I outlined the number and letters of the main shirt in gold for that extra punch.  All the shirts stamped and embossed I needed to decide how they were going to be on the "field".  Quickly I grabbed my nestabilities and die cut a double circle out of the middle of a green sheet of 8.5in x 5.5 in cardstock and then cut that in half and spread them out to make the lines.  My husband chose the placement of the shirts (I think he did a pretty good job) and I cut up some chipboard to lift the shirts off the field.  I looked at the card and decided it really did need the football (soccer ball) so quickly stamped on out one and adhered it.

Recipe
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source
Stamps - GinaK (Little Tees, Just So Sporty, Sporty Accessories), Justrite
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Color - Copics
Accessories - white embossing powder, black ultrafine embossing powder, gold pen, chipboard

What the Canadian is this about, eh?

Honestly, for whom do you think this card was created?

I could understand if you immediately said my great friend that moved to Canada last year.

I could understand if you said well someone of Canadian descent.

Or even if you said  - oh you created that for Canadian Thanksgiving.  All quite logical presumptions.  Now the answer is none of the above.  This card was created for my eldest to give to his friend because they have some sort of Canadian joke going.  I didn't actually get an answer as to what the joke or conversation was.  I presume it was one of those you had to be there things eh?

IRL - that ink matched pretty close to the red cardstock.  Honestly - given that I had less than an hour's notice of needing this card and then the ensuing "that's not the Canadian flag discussion" I really think it turned out well.

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Archiver's open stock

Ink - Memento Lady Bug

Stamps - Inkadinkado

Cricut floral bouquet

Boy did I have fun with my cricut making this!  I decided I wanted to make a flower pocket card that was shown on Splitcoaststampers but of course I had to add a twist and make it LARGE because this was for my husband's auntie who turned; oh wait should I say? After all she is a woman, but you know when I get to the grand ol age of 70 I would be proud of the fact.  Oh wait! That said I knew she was celebrating a very special day but I didn't think we had to advertise it any more than being more elaborate for her extra special day.  Now Auntie Jen loves her garden so I already knew I was on a winner with anything floral, but truthfully I wanted it a bit more "special" than a flowerpot.  So I was browsing my Cricut cartridge for flowers and saw the triple vase and thought - oh I can just fold that to make a the bottom and cut another to be the front AND be able to fold the one on the very back to make a stand so the card will stand up on the side with her others and only as a nice vase of flowers should do.  (How's that for a run on sentence?).  Now you know in general I make my cards and especially special occasion cards BIG no petit 4.25 in x 5.5 in card for this project.  No way would that do.  So I played with layouts on design studio and made this baby stand 8.5in high and 5.5 in wide.  What do you think? Too Much? 

Of course in the end I was in a hurry to photograph and mail this overseas so I didn't get a picture of the inside, the side view (of the stand) or the extra embellishments on the back to attempt to make this extra special.  D'oh!

I did however manage to capture the bling of the glitter glue and rhinestones! Hooray!  That bottom pink flower and some leaves as well as the butterfly are actually adhered to the vase portion of the card and the rest at part of the pull.

Now for the second part of this story.  My darling husband travelled t'over pond to visit his family and of course his aunt and just happened to be there when the party was on.  His mother was quite concerned that he didn't have a card on him to give his aunt and he kept assuring her he was certain that we had sent a card and not to worry but of course she did.  They walk into the party and looks across the room and says "There it is mum - the one with the butterfly"... now I don't know if I would have described the card as the one with the butterfly but it did make me laugh that he could identify it by one element.  Men!

Recipe
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Recollections, DCWV, Neenah
Ink (not seen) Memento
Stamps (again not seen - YIKES) - Kitchen Sink Stamps
Accessories - Cricut Walk in my Garden, glitter glue, chipboard coasters for dimensionals, rhinestones.

"Two little ducks" "Quack! Quack!"

This is what I sent our nephew.  At larger family gatherings over the holidays our uncle used to play lots of games and one of them was a home bingo set and we would play and laugh loudly.  I don't know how much my nephew remembers about these gatherings because the larger family gatherings in the winter stopped some time ago because of space constraints.  But when this birthday came up I thought I might just remind him of how he used to be a champion at home bingo when he was only a single digit.

I'm now wondering how many people will get the reference and know how old our nephew is?  Should I just tell you or let you guess?  This is a card based on British Bingo calling.  "David's Den, number 10" a reference to the Prime Minister at Downing Street.  "Legs! *catcall* eleven!"  "Two fat ladies.  88".  So given the background do you know how old the recipient of this card is?

Recipe
Card size - 8.5in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections
Stamps - Stampendous
Ink - Memento
Color - permanent markers, American craft white pen
Accessories - duck punch, nestabilities.

Flower wishes and lost pictures

I made this card for my husband's auntie.  She has only been a part of our lives for the last few years because of her husband having been adopted after birth.  Such a joy to make connections with relatives we never knew we had for so long.

I like the simplicity of the image but wonder if it needed more.  What do you think?

Recipe
Card Size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink - Memento black tuxedo
Color - Copics
Accessories - Glossy Accents

Now for the lost pictures - I seem to have lost the pictures of the Anniversary card I made for my BIL and SIL this year and also the pictures from the card I sent my Neice.  What is really bad is I can't even remember what I stamped! as we have moved my craft area from area of the house to another and done some decoration since then.  Oh well, I hoped they liked and more importantly I hope that it comes back to me what I did when I'm least expecting it!

Pink first communion card

I guess the title speaks for itself.  This is a card I made for my cousin's first communion.  She is a very girlie girl so I went all out.  The cross really sparkles with the embossing powder.

Recipe
Card size - 8.5in x 5.5in
Cardstock - Neenah, DCWV
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Versacolor
Accessories - iridescent embossing powder, nestabilities, prima flower, brad, grosgrain ribbon

Totally Tiger

I made this card for a tiger lover.  I bet you never would have guessed!  I attempted to use flocking on the background... I know its kinda faded but I like it.  I think it looks more realistic that way.

Recipe
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source, Bazzill
Stamps - High Hopes, Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Color - Copic, American Craft
Accessories - Nestabilities,  Fun Flock

Mr & Mrs W

This card was for a couple who were getting married later in life so I wanted to keep it celebratory and light.  What better way than a personalized champagne toast (I used a small W to personalize the bottle).

Recipe
Card size - 8.5in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, Wassau (I think - a pearlized pack), The Paper Source
Stamps - See D's, Kitchen Sink Stamps, Just Rite Stamp
Ink - Memento - tuxedo black
Color - Copics
Accessories - Nestabilities, Scor-Pal, Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder, lavender and white sheer ribbon, prima flowers, clear rhinestone brads.

Flying by to say thank you

This is a pretty quick and straight forward card I put together for some thank yous that we needed to send out.  The last time I used this butterfly I made it in blue so I wanted to up the color a bit.  I picked a copic color that matched the stamping ink and colored the ribbon to match.  If you haven't ever tried it is a great way to match colors and it stiffens the ribbon to make it easier to work with and I find the ribbon doesn't fray.

This one is pretty much the same as above except with the Prima and brads instead of the ribbon.

Hmmm I think these might actually qualify as CAS...

Recipe
Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics
Accessories - white grosgrain ribbon, prima flowers, brads

All aboard!

We have an uncle who is a train fanatic there really is no other way to describe him and this is what I came up with for his birthday in April. 

I decided to keep it masculine with the colors even though its a spring birthday day.  I'm pretty certain I used a Kaleidoscope autumnal (don't ask me the name right now) ink pad that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby some time ago.  Of course yet again I colored the main train with my Copics.

Recipe
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento, Kaleidoscope, Distress
Color - Copics
Accessories - Nestabilities, straight edge

Time flies... well at least when I forget to blog it seems to!

OK you are going to have to bear with me as it has been a few months since I created these. I will tell you from the start I don't have the copic colors I used for these next few posts. Also they are all going to be pretty short, sweet and to the point.

This card is for my Sensei's wife's birthday. My Sensei is pretty highly trained in Okinawan Karate so I thought she was appreciate the thought. She did. She gushed that she loved the colors and they are exactly what she wanted to redecorate one of her rooms in! I love it when things go so right.

Recipe -
Card size - 5.5 in x 8 in
Cardstock - Neenah, DCWV
Ink - Memento
Stamps - Hero Arts, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Color - Copics
Accessories - Nestabilities, Martha Stewart punch, Prima flowers, brads, ribbon

A boy and his catapult/slingshot - for UK Mothering Sunday

Yes, there is definitely a story behind this card. Firstly, this card is for my MIL for Mothering Sunday, March 14th. She is the mother of boys and my husband is her youngest so by the time he came along they had already done it with the eldest. He still has ongoing stories about not having pets, toys, etc because his brother had them. One such item he never had was a catapult until his older brother became an apprentice welder and made him one. The catapult was then worked on by both them and they found a bit of tubing and proper density elastic to make it work. Of course, no self respecting boy would leave his catapult lying around without ensuring it could work. There in lies the story of my husband deciding the best thing to aim at was the neighbour's telly aerial. He had had a few goes and missed, that was until his father came out to see what he was up to. He told his father right away he was aiming at the neighbour's aerial and took another shot. Well as luck would have it he hit and in the same breath his father confiscated his catapult never to be seen again until they were clearing out the garage a couple of years later.

I saw these easel cards on SCS - I didn't really read the directions - I just had a go at my craft table. I like the way it turned out. Again this is another card that I'm trying to use up some of my paper stash - this is from a Basic Grey pad.

Ingredients -

Card Size - 8.5in x 5.5in

Stamps - High Hopes, Kitchen Sink Stamps

Cardstock - Neenah, Bazzill

Ink - Memento - Rhubarb, Tuxedo, Rich Cocoa; Ranger - Distress Inks

Paper - Basic Grey Archive

Color - Copics - B000, B93, B95, B97, G21, G28, E02, E04, E08, E31, E33, E35, R35, R37, R46, R59

Accessories - Prima flowers, Making Memories Brads, dimensional tape

Purple Pansy Petal Power!

I love this card - it turned out so much better than my brain imagined it - I just went with the creative flow and it all worked out this time!

I bought this Clear Dollar Stamp sets specifically to use for my MIL's birthday. She is a gardener at heart. She actually worked with disabled gardeners until her retirement and then continued to run a monthly club for them to attend.

If you haven't seen these flower of the month and flower sets at Clear Dollar Stamps then check them out - they have so much punch and variety within them.

I started this card out by using my Pansy set and coloring it with my copics - well actually that's not quite what happened. I started out this card with the intent on using my twinkling H2O's to create a luminous card that I knew my MIL would love. I painstakingly colored my main image and all the while not truly liking how it was turning out... Yikes! This really wasn't speaking to me. So knowing I was up against it and really needed to get this done I changed course and went back to my trusted copics and stamped and colored again - oh, yes! that really is much better. So the flower was colored and a nice sky halo of blue added to help it "pop".

Oh dear, now what. I looked at my Flower of the month set... I want to use the script... hmmm do I mask the image and use it? That doesn't seem quite right for what I am wanting. So I decided to create a background with the set using the script. On thinking it out I thought the script alone would be "too" masculine so I added the flowers, playing about with the placement using the stamps and the projected image in my head (no image available - just clutter in there!) and decided to stamp the image in a row of three and working out that if I turned the stamp 180 that it would fit together in the middle of the page rather nicely. Then I added another row of script stamping. I used the London Fog grey because I just wanted a softened reference to the original image. I colored in the pansies on my background just using the lightest of the colors I had used with my original image. I looked at my background and thought it needed something. There is just something about "script" that always screams antique to me - so I dug out my Distressed Ink inkpads and found Faded Linen and a sponge and just sponged over the entire background.

Afterwards I was playing with a layout idea and thought I would need a sentiment - I decided to use Brilliance Victorian purple and clear embossing on my sentiment to match the mounts of the image and the card. I wanted it to have a different sheen to it to stand out slightly from the background itself. Then I used the Swiss dots embossing folder for the entire background - that took three passes - I was thinking about using another folder but I wasn't certain I could get the pattern to match. I set my background aside to work some more on my main image.

I had stamped and colored my main imaged on a 4.25 in x 5.5 in sheet of cardstock. I wanted to use one of my Nestability sets - so after going through them all! I decided on one and used the next size for the mount...hmmm... I decided to embossing the image layer... now what? It doesn't really pop like I want - so out came the Distress Inks and sponge again and I used the die as a mask. On the mount layer it just seemed to need something to tie it together a bit more so I used the inside of the die as a guide to put down some faux stitching.

I decided to make the effort to match up the inside of the card too -

I decided I wanted to repeat the usage of my stamps again to mirror the front of the card. I first stamped the main image pansy in the center of the back of the card and the the sentiment in purple then I used the FotM pansies for the bottom corner and the script stamp across the bottom. It just felt like it still needed something so I softly colored in the pansies to match the front! It was then I decided to stop.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Bazzill, Neenah

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps Pansy and Pansy Flower of the Month; Kitchen Sink Stamps Whole Family

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, London Fog, Grape Jelly; Brilliance Victorian purple; Distress Inks Antique Linen

Copics - BV00, BV02, BV04, BV08, Gooo, Goo, G14, G17, Y11, Y15, Y17

Cuttlebug Swiss Dots

Nestabilities