You're so special--card

Hello again!!

I thought we could take a break from all the fabulous new Halloween and Fall products I've been showing you--not that they're not fantastic--and show you a card.

This card caused me some trouble.  Well, the background did anyway.  I've had the backing piece for several months now, maybe even 2 or 3 and I just never got the right inspiration to finish it off. Nothing felt quite right--I have one or two of these lying around on my craft table.  I hide them away in a little basket I have and bring them out every so often to see if staring at them for a few moments will spark some creative inclinations in me, or if they'll just still be unfinished.  We all have those moments I'm sure.


I made the background section (the green with the white embossed fern print) on it when I had only just started my cardmaking.  It was a fairly simple series of techniques to get to the finished piece, but to incorporate it into a card?! Well, as I said, it caused me trouble.

I'm not going to go into detail on the "how to's" as I think most of it is pretty self explanatory but here is a quick point form of what I did--as always, feel free to email me/leave a comment if you have any questions.

The backing card
Here are the products I used;
Hero Arts Fern Silhouette woodblock stamp, Hero Arts Friends Definition cling stamp
Tim Holtz Distress inks in Walnut Stain , Forest Moss, Peeled Paint (just a little)

White embossing powder

Versamark ink

How I did it:
* I stamped the Friends Definition cling stamp onto cardstock and waited for it to dry.
* I distress inked the background in mostly greens, with a bit of brown around the edges.
* I distressed the edge of the card and added Walnut Stain ink
* Using Versamark, the Fern Silhouette woodblock stamp and White embossing powder, I created the fern image (note how I sat the fern in different positions on the cardstock so you could see various areas of it.  I didn't want the repeated image to be identical but merely uniform--or complimentary)

The Front section/embellishments
The central label;
I hand-cut the label after tracing around one from a tag on something I got in the mail the other day but it's a spellbinders Labels #9.
Distress ink in Antique Linen, Wild Honey, Black soot
Hero Arts Graph background woodblock stamp (it's very pale but shows up more in real life)
Hero Arts Great Flourishes Messages Clear Stamp set(sentiment)
Memento tuxedo black ink
Perfect Pearls in Kiwi
Glossy Accents (around edge of the label for extra shine)

extra items--gold ribbon, , 4" paper doily, black cardstock, Prima say it with pearls flourish (discontinued)--you could easily replicate this with Kaisercraft bling.

This label section was very easy, just lots of simple little steps to create a lovely finish.
*First I cut out the label and inked the whole label with Antique Linen
*Next I stamped the Graph background with Antique Linen (this gives a really nice finishing touch and added interest)
*I stamped the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink
*I inked the label with distress inks (Wild Honey--I'm so in love with this color)
*With Black Soot distress ink I edged the label
*I dusted perfect pearls over the entire label
*I added a fine line of Glossy Accents around the entire edge of the label and tied the ribbon around it.
*Using Antique Linen & Wild Honey distress inks, I coloured the doily.

Then I just adhered everything to the backing card (the label is on dimensional tape) and added some bling, which I cut apart to my liking!


I love how elegant it turned out.

Here's a close up look so you can see the shimmer of the perfect pearls--gorgeous right?!

Hope you like it!!  Please feel free to comment or contact me if you have any questions!

~~~thanks so much for looking!!

Linda
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