PP334 -"Cut It Out" Theme Challenge

Today's card was inspired by a MFT design team member's card I saw on Pinterest and the theme challenge at The Paper Players blog.

I decided to try using my Fun Stamper's Journey rectangle die set in a new way...using 4 at a time to make a pierced frame element directly in my card front.

 The first step was stamping the clover (retired from The Angel Company) in archival black ink all around the edges of my 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" side folding, horizontal, white card front...creating a wide border. I then colored them using watercolor crayons and a small water brush. Using an acrylic block as my palette, I pulled and puddled color from 2 different shades of green crayons and mixed them with water to get the shade I was going for.

I gave it a few minutes to air dry and then helped it along with my heat tool to speed up the process. Once the piece was sent through my Amaze die-cutting machine with all 4 dies taped together to cut the frame directly into the card front, I lined it with foam tape to pop it off the card base. I wasn't entirely pleased with the spacing on the pierced elements, but these were the only dies I had to work with, so it will just have to do! (And my perfectionist self just needs to get over it, lol)

I trimmed another piece of white cardstock to 4" x 5 1/4" and adhered it to the inside of the card front so that I would have somewhere to re-adhere the middle piece of the frame so that I could stamp the word "lucky" on it with a retired script alphabet stamp set from Close To My Heart. This was done in FSJ Black Licorice hybrid ink and then embossed with clear powder to give it a slight bit more dimension.

Assembling the card front was like putting a puzzle together and once complete, I used my clear Wink of Stella pen to cover all the white space on the recessed middle retangle with a soft, subtle shimmer before adding the 7 green sequins. I then tied some green jute along the left-side spine of the card, securing it with a mini pop dot under the knot of the bow. 

While it's not a perfect card, I am still pleased with the way it turned out and had fun experimenting with some of my crafting tools during the process...and isn't that what it's really all about? Now it can go out in the mail to one of my March Card Swap Pals.