Saturday, December 27, 2014

Lotus Thank You

Welcome back again!  Can you believe it's almost 2015?  Every year during the holidays I think about how grateful I am for all the wonderful things in my life - dear family and friends, good health, a roof over our heads and food on the table.  Very thankful indeed!

Today I am sharing my thanks with a card I made for a wonderful friend at work.  She does so much for everyone around her and does it with grace and kindness.  I used the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for my card design.


Looking at this layout with the circle at the apex of the two cross pieces, I thought the new Lotus Blossom stamp set (free during Sale-A-Bration with a $50 purchase) would work perfectly.  I found some lovely scraps of Venetian Romance to use with this sweet image.


As you can see, I rotated the sketch 45 degrees so I could place the sentiment on the bottom right of the card.  The fun part of the Lotus Blossom stamp set is that it takes three stamps to make the final image, but Stampin' Up has provided a little help with arrows that guide your stamping so you can layer them accurately.  The first two stamps were with full strength Island Indigo ink; the third stamp was inked then stamped off to produce the lighter areas.  I do have to say it took me a few tries to really get them all to line up perfectly.  But I think it would be easier if two colors were used rather than just one.  I'll have to try out that theory on the next card I make with this set.


Sequins with rhinestones placed in the middle added a little bit of sparkle, with the large one meant to draw the eye to the sentiment.  I do have to apologize about the photos - I'm not quite sure why the green turned out a bit more lime like than pistachio - it didn't appear that way after photo editing or when saved to my jump drive afterwards.  I have no idea why they appear much more yellowish-green when saved to Blogger......

Thank you so much for your visit!  I hope you'll take the time to use the link above to visit the FMS blog and maybe even play along - there's still time!  I'll be back very soon with a couple more posts (a backlog of cards I was unable to post earlier this month).

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Lotus Blossom
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Pistachio Pudding, island Indigo, Venetian Romance dsp
Ink:  Island Indigo
Other:  Scallop Circle Punch, Circles Collection framelit, Frosted Sequins, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon.  Fancy Fan embossing folder.

2 comments:

Karren said...

Beautiful card! The colors look amazing together and I just love that lotus blossom stamp. Thanks so much for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches.

Kim S said...

I so love all of your fresh greens! That Lotus Blossom is going to be a must-have! Thank you for playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches.