Butterfly Time Silver Anniversary Thank Yous

We recently celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary and I needed to send out a few thank yous.  

My inspiration for these cards was the silver, clocks, and butterflies, which all related back to the gifts we received, as well as all the colorburst/watercolor techniques so many talented cardmakers are using at the moment.  I can't justify buying any more coloring products so I made do with my watercolors and a splatter technique after stamping the clock stamp in Delicata silver.

I know it isn't strictly colorburst but it seems to imitate the part I like, that moment when the color hits the paper and bursts into many patterns and colors.  So my happy little heart just splattered away!  And I love the white space it left too.

With the clock and gears they were stamped before any techniques and I love the way the splatters layer on the shimmer of the Delicata ink.  I also decided to add the vellum for the sentiment to emphasize the subtlety of the shimmer.

The butterfly was stamped at the end and layered upon the splattered colors.

What it took -
Card size - 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in
Cardstock - Recollections 110 lbs white, 65lbs gray; Watercolor paper; Vellum;
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps 3 Step Butterflies; Kitchen Sink Stamps, Stampendous Many Thanks; Hero Arts Watch Gears;
Ink - Delicata Silver; Memento Angel Pink, Memento Rose Bud;
Color - Koi Watercolors

High Flying 16th Birthday!

I made this card for my cousin on his 16th birthday.  I forgot that I actually used this stamp on his card a couple of years ago.  Must try harder next year!  I freehand drew the curve for the flight and cut it out.  The rest is stamping, spinner card instruction from Splitcoast Stampers, coloring in and airbrushing for that soft sky effect.

Ingredients
Card Size 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Solar White Classic Crest Smooth
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps (airplane), Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics

Paintball Turkey

Wow what a few weeks it has been - I uploaded my next few entries a few weeks ago and with one thing and another I'm just getting the "words" or back story to go with the photos up. I don't know how to do that flash thing that the lovely Joan B at Paperlicious does that hides part of the blog but I might add all that at the end but probably not.

Anyway here is the backstory to this card! It was for my youngest male cousin who's birthday is the week of Thanksgiving.  He had just recently been with all my lads paintballing, and of course they are yellow.  So although I can't take any credit for the hodge podge of inspiration I think I brought those together in a pretty fun way.

"SPLAT!"

You can feel it can't you?  Especially with that dripping goo punch greeting bar!  Genius I hear you exclaim! Oh yes! I can hear you!

Right - the nitty gritty - looked up loads of paint splats on line.  Planned to just print one and couldn't get my computer to speak to my printer in a way I needed it to do.  On to plan B.  Wing it!  So I cut out my own splat and fussed about and eventually adhered it to the card base.  Decided to color the turkey and paper piece it to the splat.  Googly eye was a must at this point.  Then worked on the greeting bar.  I punched both colors and then layered.  Found out that the black was too narrow so bodged creatively added another bit of cardstock to the upper border to complete the look.  Stamped the greeting.  At that point I decided the splat didn't stand out enough.  I knew I was tempting fate and it wouldn't be "perfect" then I justified that it was riduculous to worry about a splat being perfect.  Ideally I would have outlined it before I had adhered it to the card but by this point needs must and I did my wobbly best.  Yeah, you can see the imperfections but I think that adds to the charm... yeah it adds to the overall charm!

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Recollections, Georgia Pacific, Wassau
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento, Multiliner pen
Color - Copics
Accessories - Googly eye, Dripping Goo Punch

Cheerful Winter Birthday Wishes

Well someone out there in blogland who I knew I would remember and have now promptly forgot inspired me to get out my versamark and shimmering chalks, so a shoutout to whoever you are!  Now I had to have these chalks and I can probably count on less than one hand how many times I have used them!

This was for my mother's birthday.  I find that people with winter birthday's tend to get "winter" cards whether they like them or not so I try to step out of the norm and give them sometime a bit more bright and cheerful especially if it isn't really their favorite time of the year.

There really isn't anything too new or too unique about this card except it was going to have a white background as it was going to be a CAS card.  Maybe, it might just eek into that category.  I have had all the products stamps/chalks/inkpads and ribbon for years and it was good to break it out and use it - very satisfied feeling using up the stash of procured pretties.

So anyway - I stamped the center and the petals with versamark and then used shimmering chalks on them  I then stamped black outlines over the chalk.  Next I added the stem and leaves in versamark and again out came the chalks.  At this point I looked at the card.  It was white, pink and green with chalk halos around.  I could have stopped at this point, but I decided I wanted MORE! so I made a yellow halo around the flower to make it bright like sunshine and who doesn't need more sunshine this time of year in the northern hemisphere?  I reevaluated and decided that I may as well chalk the entire card and added the blue background.  The rest is pretty straightforward of placing the ribbon, stamping the greeting and added white gel pen for some added texture.

I think it is good to share the process every once in a while as there is no set way of making a card.  Sometimes I do make the card I set out to make but most of the time it is a creative process of adding and subtracting and deciding what would work best.

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth, Black from stash - I believe Waussau textured.  It's pretty lightweight.
Stamps -  Kitchen Sink Stamps- Never a Loss 4 Words and Pretty Petals
Ink - Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Shimmering Chalks
Accessories - grosgrain ribbon

PS - if you look for a stamp set name under the wrong manufacturer you aren't too likely to find it... Think it is time to call it quits on the blogging today! Take care!

Such a sweet birthday

Such a sweet treat to wish someone a happy birthday don't you think?  Well, of course sometimes you need more and more an more to share all the delicious goodness and the good thing about these sweet treats is that they are ZERO calories!

This sweet card concoction is for my Sister in Law.  It was all pretty straight forward once I decided I wanted to use these stickers that I picked up earlier in the year at Michaels, on sale nonetheless!  Oh yeah!  You can't really tell but I added some stardust glitter pen to the cupcake and the candle flame.  I thought a card full of sweet confection was the perfect foil for my homemade baker's twine.  I'm a bit iffy on how it turned out but I know the recipient isn't someone that would fret about whether it was fake or not.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest

Ink - Memento

Stamp - Stampendous (image); Kitchen Sink Stamps (greeting)

Color - Copics, Sakura stardust gel pens

Paper - The Paper Studio

Accessories - Homemade Baker's twine; Recollection cupcake stickers. Rhinestone.



Tree of Love - Wedding inspiration

So as with earlier this year we recieved an invite and I used it for my inspiration.  Truthfully the bride had shown me pictures of her wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses several months ago and I had been mulling over the details on making just the right card for this girlie girl bride.  Any time I spoke with her or her family it was about the pink dressed with black buttons all the way down the back.  I kept trying to make something like that work and just didn't like anything I could think out.  Then the invite arrived: a sillouetted couple with branches (and trees on the envelope and back) and hearts... hmmm....

So I went with the color scheme, and a tree full of hearts, lots of hearts.  I thought the polka dots embossing alluded to the black buttons down the back of the dresses.  Psst. Look closely at the tree trunk.  I "carved" the couple's initials in the trunk!

Truthfully I completed this card without the black heart... and it needed a bit more pop.  Yikes I had already used the largest of my dies to make the aperture.  So I used the negative and attempted to trace around it at 1/4 inch and then hand cut it to make the frame for the aperture. 

This is the inside of the card.  The pink polka dot paper from the paper pack didn't quite match so I went with the black and more hearts which we used to sign the card.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest, Recollections (pinks)

Paper - The Paper Studio

Stamps - High Hopes (image), Kitchen Sink Stamps (greeting), I Brake for Stamps (Inside)

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Spellbinders heart dies; Polka dot Embossing folder;  Heart punch unknown.

Red Hearty Happy Anniversary

So I got creative block and got to trawling Etsy one night, well lets be honest one day & night and got inspired by loads of graphic letterpress cards.  I had wanted to make a Clean & Simple card for my BIL & SIL for their anniversary and this is what I came up with.

I don't know if it completely works.  What do you think?  I like all the components and I really liked it when I sent it.  I think I'm just second guessing myself now.

Anyway at least I used some dies that I have had for a few years and have never used! Oopsie!

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

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

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories - Spellbinders Heart Dies, Cuttlebug Male & Female dies, Ribbon, Heart brad.

Hmm Happy Mother's Day?

Now if you are in North America you will probably not understand my question, but as I made this to send to my MIL in March for Mothering Sunday in England you will understand that my question is really me scratching my head that it took me so long to upload, edit and post it using my software (check out that snazzy watermark! WooHoo! I'm only years behind the times!). *catches breath after that run-on sentence*

Right now down to the nitty gritty I have had these 6x6 had to have them K&Co paper stacks for years! and I have USED THEM! is it party time or what?  Part of the issue is that they were in my notorious "safe place", you know that place where you put something to keep it safe and then promptly forget where it is.  I have decided that since my supplies take up an entire pie safe (double wardrobe size for those that measure that way) that I need to use what I have and yes I have donated some things but I'm a hoarder and I prefer to force myself to use it.  If I give it away I have no ownership of my purchasing.  Oh dear I have digressed a bit, anyway I decided to 3D decoupage three of the papers into a card for my mother in law and stamp the sentiment in the middle, it probably would have been quicker to just stamp a card from scratch with all those small cuts but I was pleased with the outcome even if I couldnt' find an envelope to fit it...in the end I had to throw it in the padded envelope with her present and pray for the best.

I assure you the usage of those three sheets of 6x6 for the layers have made a dent in my supplies! LOL!

Ingredients
Cardstock - Neenah
Paper - K&Company
Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps
Ink - Memento
Accessories - foam tape/dimensionals

3D Hydrangea card.

I really like how this card turned out.  What do you think?  It's the birthday card I sent my dear Mother-in-law.  It was quite time involved but pretty simple to put together in the end.  My general stamping style isn't "pretty" but I think this actually fits in the pretty mode.  I had to post this so I hope it survived its 4,000+ mile journey somewhat in tact.  I think if it hadn't my Mother-in-law would have said. 

I can't really say how this card came about...if you are into reading, it was a very stream of consciousness event.  I was playing and inspired from a variety of sources. 

Last year I made my MIL a really involved card with multiple layers of stamping, embossing etc.  So I knew I had to come up with something at least equally as good.  I was playing with my hydrangea punch in January just punching card excess from the previous pink card and playing with my embossing stylus to see just what it took to make those magnificent flowers I have been seeing everywhere.  Well, by the end of television viewing time with the family that night I had quite a few formed blossoms in hand!  I had to decide if/how to incorporate them on a card for my MIL.  I went through my stamp collection and found out the Kitchen Sink Stamps Hydrangea set... hmmm... lets take this dimensional like a photo and have the stamped hydrangeas set the scene and the 3D one as the focus.  I was also inspired by the clean look from the Simplicity blog and the CAS threads on Splitcoaststampers.  I decided to use my memento ink and just go tone on tone on tone for the step process to keep the focus on the main bloom.  I finished off the 3D blooms by gluing a small pearl in the center of each and then mounting most of the petals on pink circle to have the ability to play with the placement.  After I placed the circle of petals on the card base, I then added more to make the blossom look more organic.

Recipe

Card Size - 8.5in x 5.5in

Cardstock - Neenah, Recollections (pink), DCWV (green)

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Ink- Memento (Angel Pink, Bamboo Leaves)

Accessories - pearls

Perfectly Pink Girlie birthday

I do so many masculine, boyish cards that sometimes it's really good to let myself go and really go for it with the girlie ones!  There is lots on this card but supplies-wise its fairly straight-forward 3 cardstock choices, two inks, 4 stamp sets, markers, nestabilities, circle cutter and a bit of bling... hmm maybe there is more to it than I thought!  I guess it just goes to prove when you are in the zone with a card it flows.

To be honest I colored this image last year.  I always have trouble at the beginning of the year switching from Christmas and winter blahs to getting cards done and as my Brother in Law and dear, youngest cousin have birthdays 4 weeks after Christmas I just can't afford to lose my mojo like that.  It's the first time I have tried to do that and I have to say I really enjoyed the process.  I picked this image for my cousin because she has this little black cat that honestly follows her around like a dog and pines for her when she is at school by sitting by her bedroom door and crying for her loudly. 

 I chose the pinks from what I had left over from a Recollections paper pack that I bought a couple of years ago and decided I wanted to stamp tone on tone and just see how that turned out.  The base is Neenah and I stamped "9 Today" repeatedly to create a background.  I then used the same ink to continue with the greetings on the pale pink cardstock.  The large circle was cut before stamping and the small circles after.  I wanted the greetings to stand out a bit more so one I highlighted with white dots and the other with white faux stitching.  After cutting and matting the image with nestabilities I felt the whole card needed a bit of bling so I adhered three rhinestones in each corner of the mat.

Recipe

Card size -  8.5in x 5.5in

Card Stock - Neenah, Recollections

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps, High Hopes stamps

Ink - Memento Tuxedo black, Rose bud

Color-  Copics, American Craft white gel pen

Accessories - Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, Rhinestones

Ye Old Buzzard -that's my BIL

So my brother-in-law turned 50 and what was I to do but rub it in his face.  It wasn't until I was nearly finished with this card that my husband decided to suggest a Hawaii Five-O theme.  Really? You wait until I am nearly finished with a unique card that isn't useful for anyone else we know this year?!  Anyway I stuck with my original plan and will have to try to remember to use the Hawaiian theme in the future!  So here's my attempt at elder humor -

It's a combined stamps project.  What can I say if I like a stamp I use it.  And I really like how these combined.  The image is from High Hopes Stamps and the Large numbers are from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I love both stamp companies - High Hopes for their whimsy and Kitchen Sink Stamps for their beauty.  I wanted the graphic punch of a cartoon with this card, do you remember the days when we used to get excited about the color in the newspaper and how they used to print the comics in color on Sunday?  I guess I'm showing my age because its a fond memory of mine and that was the sort of feel I was going for with this.  Did I get it right?  The multi-colored line of "50" is the envelope.

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source

Stamps - High Hopes Stamps, Kitchen Sink Stamps, Stampendous (the small 50 on the balloon)

Ink - Memento tuxedo black, Big Juicy Pad (kaleidoscope effect), Versamark

Color - Copics

Accessories - White embossing powder

The bluebird of happy birthday

Wow I guess I really have been away from my blog for a while what with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and life in general.  Well hopefully this card will help you cheer up and inspire you to think warm thoughts!

This card was for my Sister in Law.  She loves gardening and although her birthday is at the end of October I thought it would make a change for her to get a card suited to her interests rather than the autumnal season.

What isn't obvious about this card was immediately after stamping "Sister in Law" I lost the stamps.  They are clear and I couldn't find them on my work table anywhere.  I looked and looked and nearly emailed the manufacturer about whether they make replacements after I had exhausted any idea of where they could have fallen when they just turned up right where I had previously looked.  I'm putting it down to pre Christmas stress!

I like the juxtaposition of the formal font for the greeting with the whimsical stamps.  Do you think it works?

I stamped the front panel wanting to keep all the stamping on one layer and make an impact with the white space.  The bird and birdhouse on the inside I did stamp and cut out and apply as I didn't want bleed through to the back of the card.  I also put some scrap cardstock inside an envelope and stamped and colored the envelope with that inside to prevent bleed through to the back of the envelope and to give my Sister in Law a glimpse of what her card was going to be about.

I really like this card - almost too much to send!

Recipe

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source (black)

Stamps - Kitchen Sink Stamps, High Hopes Stamps

Ink - Memento tuxedo black and blue danube (?)

Color - Copics

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.

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

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

A 2010 card! but only on the scanner

Sorry I don't have fancy photography for this one - I had camera issues and had to get it sent on its overseas journey - so on the scanner it went.

I covered the entire front in S.E.I. designer paper Alpine Forest (the white around the card is the scanner lid). The image is from Clear Dollar Stamps. I used it for my BIL because it reminded me of the birds that advertise Guiness which is just perfect for my BIL. I chose the cardstock to reflect that history and earthiness of the thick stout. After deciding on a layout I thought I should emboss a greeting but I wanted it unobstrusive, so I decided to use my Kitchen Sink set and Zig white embossing powder so that the "Brother" was there but not glaringly so.

I think the card is a little quirky with the mix of earthiness and cute birds but I think I like it because of that; I could have bought a card that was either or but this combination is truly unique because it is handmade. What do you think? Did I take it too far? Not far enough?

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock/Paper - Neenah, S.E.I.
Ink - Memento, Versamark
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps "Hanging Out" , Kitchen Sink Stamps "Whole Family"
Copics - 0, B000, B00, C3, C5, C7, E50, E51, E08, E49, R35, R37, YR02, YR04, YR07,