Sunday, January 26, 2014

Floral Birthday Wishes




Welcome back!  As the weekend winds down, I've got my card for Pals Paper Arts to share with you.  They had another great sketch challenge this week, so I really wanted to play along.


After seeing the sketch, I flipped through my stamp sets and ended up choosing the LONG neglected Apothecary Art.  The floral image evokes a kind of vintage, romantic French Country look, so I pulled out some retired Beau Chateau designer paper to use.




As I was looking for a piece of watercolor paper, I realized I had the floral image already stamped and colored that had ultimately not been used on another card.  Time saver!  The leaves had been colored with Always Artichoke, so I went over them with a bit of Soft Suede ink on a blender pen to have them better match the designer paper.  After hand cutting the stamped image, it was mounted on a piece of Soft Suede cut out with the matching framelit.



I was a bit nervous about stamping the sentiment directly on the floral stamp, as my Marina Mist ink pad is still the old style and it is not used often, and despite using my reinker on it last night, I was afraid the watercolor paper would absorb too much ink, leaving a less than crisp image.  So it was stamped on a separate piece of watercolor paper and trimmed it down to make a banner to pop up on the main image.


That sweet paper flower is from the retired Artisan Embellishments kit from last year's Occasions catalogue.  I sponged it with a bit of Crumb Cake, as I did the rest of the card along with Soft Suede, to give it more of an aged look.  I now realize I used a lot of retired products on this card; good thing they don't have an expiration date!

Well, I'm off to get everything prepared for the upcoming work week.  Thanks so much for taking a look, and I'd love to hear from you if you have time to leave a comment!

Hugs,

Stef


Product details:
Stamps:  Apothecary Art
Paper:  Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Textured Pink Pirouette, watercolor, Beau Chateau designer paper
Ink:  Craft Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake
Other:  Eyelet Border punch, Labels Collection framelit, Very Vanilla Seam Binding ribbon, Artisan Embellishments kit, Basic Pearls

5 comments:

Peggy Noe said...

Beautiful card Stef, a true work of art! Thanks for playing with us at Pals Paper Arts!

Susan said...

Oooooh! So pretty and so vintage. I love this card. That Beau Chateau paper was one of my favorites ever. Wish it was still in the catalog! You've got talent, no doubt about that!

Mary Decker said...

This is one of the most beautiful cards I've seen, ever! Thank you for posting it!

Penny Hanuszak said...

I like everything about this card Stef. I think your choice to use a banner instead of stamping directly was a good choice. It adds to the overall look of the card. The flower is a beautiful touch too. TFS.

Beth Beard said...

Very vintage and oh so lovely! Thanks for playing along with us this week at Pals Paper Arts!