If you have been crafting for any length of time like I have, you sometimes make purchases with the best of intentions and then -for whatever reason -just never get around to using them. Such is the case with several stamps and stamp sets that I will be using over the next week or two. Today's stamp set was purchased over a year ago from Paper Wishes, but I just used it for the first time yesterday. My card was inspired by Sketch #1 over @ Power Poppy.
I started my card with a light gray A2 card base and layered the blue speckled checkboard patterned paper on top -leaving just a thin border. Following the sketch, I trimmed the blue and white banner layers, punched the gray tab with an old punch from Stampin' Up and fastened it on with a staple.
Stamping with Black hybrid ink, I laid out the houses (from Paper Wishes/Hot Off the Press) and the sentiments (from Amuse Studio) to get a feel for my layout. Once I was sure what I wanted to do, I used my Stamp Perfect positioning tool (I just got the 10 x 10 size and really love it!) so that I could repeat stamp if necessary. It came in really handy when lining up and stamping the wrought iron fence along the bottom. I also masked both houses and stamped the tree in the back yard.
I decided to get creative and did some freehand drawing with an archival fine line black pen around and on the houses -adding brick to the chimney and a brick walkway on the left along with a stone pathway to the front door on the right. Coloring was then done with my Prismacolor pencils along with some blending help using Gamsol and a few blending stumps.
I sponged the edges of the white banner layer in charcoal ink to help it coordinate better with the speckles of the patterned paper before adding Liquid Glass to the windows of the houses and the punched "To My" tab on the right side. I used clear Wink of Stella to subtly accent the clouds with some shimmer and popped the whole piece up with small foam pop dots.
This card is now all ready to go out in the mail to my husband's older brother the first week in May.
I kept the inside super simple this time, only using 2 stamps from an older wood mounted birthday set from Stampin' Up.
Such a fab image! Love how you did the tabs and your colors. Hugs, Autumn
ReplyDeletethanks so much!
DeleteGuy cards are always awesome and I do like that you personalized this one. Colorful and cool, he will surely love it. Thanks for playing in our Power and Spark challenge this month.
ReplyDelete