Happy Mother's Day

I've been participating in Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Dies" class the past couple weeks. On Day 6 of class, Laura Bassen had a lesson on "DIY Stencils." She showed how you can create your own stencil using a border die. Her card inspired me to create this one.

I began by masking off 5/8" on all sides of a piece of white cardstock I'd die cut with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangles" dies. I also die cut one edge of a piece of transparency with one of My Favorite Things' "Snow Drifts" dies, to use as my stencil.

I chose to do a rainbow pattern, with Distress inks in Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, and Seedless Preserves. I began by inking the top of my masked panel with Picked Raspberry, and worked my way down. I placed my stencil towards the bottom of each color "band" to mask it off as I blended on the next color. I made sure to keep changing the position of my stencil, so the lines didn't all go the same way.

After I'd finished inking the panel, I removed the masking tape. I matted my panel on a piece of black paper, with a 1/16" mat on all sides. I cut a piece of fun foam to slightly smaller than the panel, and glued it to the back, to help provide some dimension. Finally, I glued that to a white A2 card base.

For the greeting, I die cut a banner with the banner die from Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Journaling Card" set, once from white cardstock, and again from the black paper. I printed one of the greetings from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Mother's Day Sentiments" onto the white banner, and glued the black one to the back, slightly offset. This helps set it off from the background more. After I glued that in place on the card front, I used Ranger's Multi Medium Matte to glue down some clear gems. I am sending this card to Operation Write Home, for one of our overseas heroes to send home to his/her mom!

I'm entering my card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.