Birthday Card

Sometimes I like to challenge myself to pull out something that doesn't get much use and have fun with it. Occasionally I do clean out products that I don't think I'll ever use again, but this was a flower stamp (Stampendous Fresh Bloom) I really do like. It's an outline stamp that would be pretty colored in, but I decided to make a colorful background and keep the flower simple.

With white cardstock as my base, I stamped the flower with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with clear powder. Using a foam blending tool, I blended several cheerful Distress ink colors on top. In addition to great blending, one of the cool things about Distress inks is the way they react with water. It's fun and unpredictable! So...after blending, I spritzed the paper with water. After waiting a few seconds, I blotted the water off, and was left with bleached-out areas. The embossed flowers preserved the white and stood out nicely against the colorful background.

The sentiment if from Altenew's Label love - stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I trimmed closely around the sentiment and mounted it on top of the stamped panel. To add a little more pizazz, I glued on a few sequins using Ranger's Matte Medium. I mounted the panel on top of some coordinatingl cardstock, and adhered the whole thing onto a white card base.

Muse Challenge

I'm excited to say that my Celebration card was chosen as one of the top 3 cards from the Muse #106 challenge! (If you'd like to read the post about this card, click here.)

Each week, a new challenge is posted. Participants must comment on at least three of the entries and vote on their choice. I don't always have time to join in, but it's fun to see what everyone makes based on the challenge card. Here is what I've done for this week after looking at the challenge card:

I selected some papers from a 6x6 pad called  Vintage Bliss from Simple Stories. This makes it much easier to combine patterns, since the designers have done all the work for you - everything coordinates. I layered my paper strips on a dark gray background and stitched them in place with my sewing machine. 

The sentiment is from Altenew (Label Love). I first tried it on white cardstock, but didn't like how it looked so I stamped again on a scrap of the pink polka dot. (I used my favorite ink for stamping sentiments - Versafine Onyx Black.) I trimmed the left edge with pinking shears and cut a notch on the right hand side. This is also stitched down using the sewing machine.

I had a skinny little strip left over from trimming the gray panel, so I experimented with placing it to the left of the main panel with a sliver of my card base showing through. I used tiny little dots of Glossy Accents to glue it down.

Here's the challenge card:

I was inspired not only by the patterned papers, but also the space left for the sentiment. My color scheme is brighter, but I went with a neutral for the background. This card is definitely more about the paper than the stamping. I had fun making it - hope you enjoy seeing it!

Till next time,

Immi