Free Lemons!

The current challenge theme at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday blog is "Something New." While the stamp set I used for this card is not technically new, it's new to me. In fact, this is the first time I've used it. I decided to make an encouragement card for a hospitalized child, to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids. I really get a kick out of this greeting (in fact, it's the main reason I bought the stamp set), and hope it will brighten his/her day, too!

The inspiration for my card came from this one by Kristina Werner. I knew I wanted to create my own patterned paper for the background, but didn't have a yellow/light orange ink to stamp the lemon slices with. So I stamped them with Versamark onto a piece of yellow cardstock that I'd die cut with one of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangles" dies, then heat embossed them with American Crafts Zing! Clear embossing powder. I used Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks to create an ombre background, by blending the colors over the cardstock piece. The heat embossed areas resisted the ink, allowing the yellow to show through.

I used a similar technique for the greeting. I clear heat embossed the greeting onto a yellow tag I'd cut using one of the dies from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set. This time, I used Crushed Olive & Peeled Paint Distress inks to blend over the tag. Again, the heat embossed areas resisted the ink, giving me a yellow greeting with no yellow ink needed! To finish the tag, I punched a hole reinforcer with a 1/4" hole punch, glued it to the top of the tag, and punched a 1/16" hole through that. Finally, I tied some yellow bakers twine through the hole.

I initially wasn't going to cut the curved edge in the lemon panel; rather, I planned to place the tag onto the background and call it a day. But the tag just seemed a little lost on the background, so I ended up using one of the dies from the "Stitched Borders 1" set by Pretty Pink Posh to cut the curved edge. For the piece behind that panel, I blended Crushed Olive & Peeled Paint onto another piece of the yellow cardstock. I adhered that to an A2 card base, and then adhered the lemon slice panel on top of that. I adhered the tag with foam adhesive, and that finished this card.

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Inky Background."