A Wonderful Friend

After doing a couple of one-layer cards, I decided to go for one with lots of layers, which I think is a little more my style. My main inspiration for this card was actually a2z Scrapbooking Supplies' "Stars & Stripes" June Linky Party challenge on their blog. I had done another card earlier this month for this challenge, which was more patriotic. This time, I decided to go for bright, summery colors.

I based my design on one of Operation Write Home's sketches from May:

For the focal panel, I decided to do a technique I learned in the Watercolor for Card Makers class at Online Card Classes. Tim Holtz demonstrated how to use Distress inks and a stencil to create a monoprint. I used watercolor paper; Tim Holtz's "Stars" stencil; and Distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Peacock Feathers to create my monoprint. Then I set that aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.

For the striped background, I adhered strips of green & yellow cardstock to a blue piece, then ran the whole panel through my die cutting machine with the "A2 Tiny Stars" embossing folder by The Paper Studio. I stitched around the edge with my sewing machine and some turquoise thread. I love stitching on paper like this, and don't think to do it often enough. Usually it's more like, "Oh shoot--I could/should have added some stitching!"

I matted the background first with a piece of magenta cardstock, then with a piece of white cardstock I colored by blending Mowed Lawn Distress ink over it. I used the same combination for matting the focal panel.

I cut 3 banners from white cardstock, and white heat embossed the second part of my greeting on the longest one. I blended Peacock Feathers over that one, and Tumbled Glass & Broken China over the other two. I die cut the "You" from more of the magenta cardstock, using this die by Simon Says Stamp, which coordinates with the stamp set I used.

After gluing the matted focal panel to the embossed background, I adhered the banners, and glued the die cut on the upper two banners, slightly overlapping the third. I used a trick I learned from Debby Hughes in that same watercolor class. To glue down detailed die cuts like the "you," apply small dots of glue to the back, then tap the back side onto a piece of scratch paper to take off a little of the glue, and stick it down to your project. This way, glue doesn't tend to smoosh out around the die cut.

This card definitely took more time to make than the one-layer cards I did. But I had lots of fun doing it, too!

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "You Gotta Have Friends"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "I Ought to Use This More" (sewing machine)