You Mean so Much to Me

I have caught the "stenciling" bug, ever since I took the "Stenciled" class by Online Card Classes a couple of months ago. I got the Tim Holtz "Rays" stencil not too long ago, and had not yet used it (yes, this is becoming a familiar song on this blog!lol). One of Operation Write Home's bonus sketches includes a sun ray design. I suppose the original intent was paper piecing, but I thought an adaptation of it would work perfectly with this stencil.

The upper panel in the sketch is 2.5x5.25", so the stencil covered it with room to spare. I taped the stencil over a piece of yellow cardstock cut to size, and smeared Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel medium over it with a palette knife. After I had gotten a good application of medium, I pulled the stencil up, being VERY careful not to smear the medium that was on the cardstock. Then I laid that panel aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.

For the lower panel, I cut a piece of bluish-purple Core'dinations textured cardstock, using a pair of decorative-edge scissors on one long edge, mostly to add a bit of interest and help disguise the seam between the two panels. I had a sentiment from the "With Heart" set by Doodle Pantry I had printed off on white cardstock a long time ago, that has been sitting on my scrap desk. I decided it would be perfect for this card, so I die cut it with a label die from Spellbinders and inked the edges with Mustard Seed Distress Ink and an ink blending tool.

After letting the sun rays panel dry overnight, I applied Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink with my ink blending tool to the uncoated portions of the cardstock panel. I cut a piece of copy paper to 4x5.25", and adhered the rays panel & purple panel to it, so I could work with them as one unit. I matted that with a piece of gold cardstock by American Crafts, and then adhered that to a piece of black paper--a bit of glow with drama. When I went to adhere the sentiment label to the card front, I noticed a couple of small spots of yellow ink in the middle of the label. Probably inconsequential, but I couldn't let it go. And I couldn't ink the whole label, since I knew from experience that it would smear the printing. So I die cut another label from the same yellow cardstock I'd used for the rays panel, and reprinted the sentiment on it. Then I carefully went around the edges with Spiced Marmalade, just to add some dimension, and glued it to the card front. I colored two clear acrylic gems with purple alcohol ink, and glued them to the label ends with Glossy Accents. Finally, I adhered the whole assembly to a card base of white 110# cardstock by Georgia Pacific. Another card for a hero overseas to send home to his significant other.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "D is for Distress"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Mother's Day or Special Girl"