Hi. My name is Martha and I am new to blogging, and Verve stamps (I don't have any YET but want them! They are super!) My card for the DIVINE DETAILS is a card I made the end of June. (I have been separated from my card making stuff for a month because we had to leave it at our Condo in WI until we return in August...long story!) Because the card was for someone who has my mother's heart, I put extra thought into all the details. Which I notated below. Sorry it is so long. : (My usual process is to pick the sentiment and main stamped image first, stamp those off several times and color using SU markers, Twinkling H2O's, colored pencils or SU Water Color Wonder crayons (I don't have any Copics YET!!! But they are on my Christmas Wish List and I want all the colors. : )
I choose a few different selections of card stock that are compatible and audition those until I get a feel for what I like and what might work together. I have a degree in art so am familiar with the basic Art Principles learned in Art 101 in college. I then pull out all my punches and extra tools to see what might work, and play around with layout ideas (I have never used someone else's layout as some do but I am sure some of the stored images of them come to my remembrance when I am trying to choose what goes where.) I hope to participate in some challenges in the future.
I start cutting and matting, and punching and adhere the different layers, lay them in the proper places to make sure they are acceptable to my artist's eye, look for ribbon if I have room for it and other embellishments, and then stick it all down using different adhesives and pop dots to raise some items up for dimension. Last is adding glitter in the form of Stickles. I have embossing tools but have not gotten into that very often. I know it sounds simplistic to list it so simply, but the truth is this process may take me a week or two to accomplish. I often will work on it an hour or two auditioning the stamps, and then leaving them set out for a day while I do laundry, etc. I go back and look at them again to make sure. My stamps are not very organized, so it is a true labor-of-love to HUNT through boxes and bins of stamps to see what I find. I know this isn't the best system, but since we usually have to haul my stuff back and forth between MN and WI every other month, it is the best I can do for now. I am hoping to have a room of my own for my crafting someday. I am already 67 years young, so I had better hurry up. LOL
Here goes my card description...
June, the month for weddings! I have been working on a wedding card for our exchange student Krissia, who lived with us 5 months in 1993 and became a daughter to us. I wanted to create a really different card and when I saw the tri-shutter card, decided to give it a "try" (no pun intended!) Krissia is a beautiful, and elegant woman and deserved a card that will become a piece of art for her to look at and remember. Today is her wedding day and her wedding is happening in about an hour from now. She will be wearing a cream colored dress (appropriate for second weddings) and silver shoes and accessories. For her going away outfit, she is wearing purple, which is the national color of Costa Rica where she lives. I have incorporated these colors into the card. So here is the recipe and the pictures of the card from different angles.
1)The basic card is Bazill paper in white. It is 6 1/2"x12".
The score lines are vertical at 2", 4", 8", and 10".
The horizontal cuts begin at the 2" score mark and go to the 10" score mark.
The cuts make three sections, 1 1/2", 3 1/2" and 1 1/2" wide from top to bottom..
2)There is a vertical panel on either end of the card in cream Bazill card stock.
3)Then there is a layer of a cream paper that has swirls and is textured. I rounded the corners by hand because the texture wouldn't punch with my corner rounder and edged it in silver paint.
4)The front panel is white card stock, corners rounded, with a layer of a cream floral on white
card stock that has been punched with the SU scalloped punch. The scalloped edges are
rubbed with silver and the two pieces are adhered together and then punched with a tiny
hole punch in each scallop. I used an SU marker in Pale Plum to give the holes some color.
5)The heart is a clear stamp on white card stock in Martha Stewart black ink. I rubbed the edges
in silver, matted in white and rubbed those edges with silver also. I painted the open back
ground with Twinkling H2O's in Heavenly White. I painted the flowers with Sweet Thistle
and used SU Garden Green for the leaves and the stems. I put a flat soft yellow half pearl in
the center of some of the flowers and added a row of three pearls at the side of the heart. I
stamped a Stampa Rosa"LOVE"( in script) in silver on the lower left of the front panel and
tied a sheer cream ribbon over the "love" with a small bow. The heart was adhered at an angle and the top rounded parts on foam squares and the center and bottom "V" are flat to give the heart an uneven dimension. At the top of the panel, I put a silver curly-Q (From a Martha Stewart lace punch and was leftover) being held up by two cream-colored doves (Martha Stewart dove punch.) I colored the curly-Q with silver paint.
6)The middle sections were covered with pieces of "wedding words" paper. It had gold
lettering, so I colored all the words with silver. : ) If they don't sell what you need you must
improvise! I also drew in silver paint 2 hearts entwined in spaces between the lettering. I punched some Martha Stewart small hydrangea flowers from purple card stock, glued them on in places in the upper section and lower sections. I drew with the SU Garden Green marker some vines and leaves.
7)For my focal image in the center of the card, I put a House Mouse bride and groom. She is
wearing a cream colored dress and veil, has purple flowers and pearl earrings (remember
those little flat pearls on the front? Too cute!) I stamped the image in black on white CS and
fussy cut them out. The groom is wearing a black tux and purple bow tie and cumberbund. I
used brown Fun Flocking on the areas where they have fur. Have to make them look real,
right? I used the cream-colored H2O's in French Vanilla for her dress and used SU black
marker for the suit. I tried to water the marker ink down to create a little shading. Wish I had
those Copic markers that are easy to do that with. Maybe for Christmas! The couple was
matted with purple and adhered with foam squares. I added PSX "Congratulations" in black
ink, fussy cut it out and matted in purple also and placed it under the couple.
8)For the back section, I layered the cream Bazill and the cream textured paper the same as
the front. I stamped in black on white with a PSX "God Bless You". I punched it out using a
Marvy scalloped circle. I punched small dots in each scallop and edged it with silver. I
punched a larger circle in purple using a Marvy scalloped circle, patted the edges with the
silver ink pad making a marbled effect about 1/2-3/4" in. I adhered the white "God Bless
You" onto the purple with a dotted runner. I used foam squares to put the w
hole circle inplace so that the card could fold and bend where it needs to.
And lastly, remember those punched out small flowers with the drawn vines...they looked too
plain so added a white center to each.
AND I am making a duplicate to remember all the new techniques I learned making this special wedding card! I will try to put the pictures in order to show you how it looked going together. I hope you enjoy my first tri-shutter card. Thanks for taking a peek!
