Love

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge theme this week is "A Piece of Paradise." My idea of paradise (or at least one of them) is springtime. Especially here in Texas, the wildflowers are generally magnificent. The dogwoods are also in bloom. While not too common around here, I've always been intrigued by pink dogwoods. So when I saw the dogwood stamp in Hero Arts' "Butterflies #3" stamp & die set, I was just inspired to color the flowers pink.

I began by choosing one of the sketches offered by My Favorite Things, to go with their "Blueprints 15" die set. I've been wanting to use that larger wonky panel for some time, but never seemed to find a good image for the design. This dogwood stamp seems to fit the bill.

After stamping the image onto 140 lb. watercolor paper in Antique Linen Distress ink, I colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. The Antique Linen is a light color that is basically water-soluble, so it lends itself well to no-line coloring, especially with watercolor. Or, in this case, Inktense pencils. When the color had dried, I cut it out with the coordinating die.

I found the script patterned paper in my scrap stash, and cut it with the wonky panel die. I die cut the stitched circle from it, and also from a piece of green cardstock. Finally, I used the stitched rectangle die in the "Blueprints 15" set to cut a piece of burgundy cardstock by Momenta. After die cutting the heart from the green circle, I assembled my pieces. I adhered the patterned paper piece to the burgundy, then inlaid the circle in place. I felt there was not enough contrast between the patterned paper and the image, so I went over the paper with Frayed Burlap Distress ink, to darken it a bit. Finally, I glued down the focal image.

The tab was part of the sketch, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to include it. I didn't want just a blank tab, but I didn't know if I had a word stamp that would be small enough. I looked through some of my stamp sets, and decided on Hero Arts' "Year Round Sentiments." I masked off the first & third words in the "I Love You" stamp, and inked up the "love" with Versamark. Then I stamped it on the die cut tab, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I finished by gluing it in place.

Because of the muted color palette of the card front to this point, I decided that having a white mat was too stark. (The burgundy die cut panel was just a bit smaller than an A2 card.) So I found a piece of light tan cardstock in my scraps, cut it to 4.25x5.5", then adhered it to a white card base. I adhered my card front panel to the upper left corner of the mat, leaving an 1/8" border on the right and bottom. And that finished this card, which I will send to Operation Write Home.

I'm also entering this in Hero Arts' "Nature" challenge.