Chicory

The current challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs' blog is "Patriotic or Red, White, & Blue." I prefer to use ODBD stamps for their challenges if possible, and didn't really have anything by them with a patriotic theme in my supplies. So I decided to go with the red, white, & blue color scheme instead. This is my first card.

I based my design on May Flaum's "square in a square" sketch, as featured in Week #2 of this year's Camp Scrap "By Design" class. Yes, I did an oval within a rectangle, but the principle is the same. (As a side note, if you have not registered for camp, I would highly recommend it! May is an excellent camp director, and the emphasis is on having fun. Registration is open for a couple more weeks, so head on over and go for it!)

I started by creating my background, since I knew it would take quite some time to dry. First, I die cut an oval from the center of a piece of blue cardstock, using the largest die from Spellbinders' "Classic Ovals" Nestabilities set, to create a frame. I got a Prima stencil and taped it over the frame. Then I smooshed some Chipped Sapphire Distress ink onto my non-stick craft mat, and used it to color some Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel Medium. (I chose the Chipped Sapphire because it's a darker blue than the cardstock, to give a nice tone-on-tone effect.) I spread that over the stencil with a palette knife until I had a fairly thin, smooth layer. I carefully lifted the stencil, and set that piece aside to dry.

For the focal panel, I die cut & embossed an oval from watercolor paper, using the same die I'd used on the blue frame. I stamped the "Chicory" image from Our Daily Bread Designs onto that piece using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, and colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush.

After the gel medium on the frame panel had dried, I mounted it to a piece of burgundy cardstock, cut to 4.25x5.5". I glued my stamped oval piece into place in the frame's opening, and adhered the finished card front to an A2 card base. And there it is--an elegant card for a hero overseas to send home to his sweety!