WPlus9 Birthday Challenge Week 3: Trend Watch

Another snowy day here. I started my morning by slipping and falling on the ice. Ouch!! My wrist and arm are a little sore now but I think I am OK. I should have known to go slower, too. That area is always a little icy on our driveway.

Since we are stuck at home…again…what better then to create a card for a challenge.

Today I am playing along with WPlus9's week three Birthday Challenge. The challenge was to create a card using one of the current trends. The photo below was taken from their blog and I chose three of the trends to use.

I created a sympathy card for this challenge. I used stripes, metallics and sequins on my card. I was really excited to make this card because I got to experiment with Hero Art's Silver Shadow ink. BIG mistake that was. I made a royal mess all over my card, my desk and my hands. It is a very juicy ink when it is new AND needs to be heat set, something that I did not realize. Even then, it still comes off a little on your hands. One reason that I rarely use metallic inks on my projects!! Enough about my ineptitude.

The first thing I did to start my card was to stamp silver stripes in a diagonal pattern onto white card stock using Mama Elephant's "Basic Border" stamp set.

I then set that aside to dry. Next I die cut and stamped flowers using WPlus9's "Fresh Cut Floral" stamps and dies. Can I tell you that this is one of my most favorite sets of all time? The flowers are tiny but I LOVE the two step stamping and the way they can be layered on top of each other on a project.

I then took the silver and white striped paper, wrapped a piece of gray bakers twine around it three times and tied it into a bow. I stamped a sympathy sentiment next from PTI's "Words of Comfort" set in smokey shadow ink underneath the twine and put a die cut doily from My Favorite Things underneath where I tied the bow. My next step was to adhere it to the card base with adhesive foam. (You can see some of the smudging in this photo. I need to fix that!!)

Now it was time to layer the flowers together. I wound up going with a minimal approach to the layering. I had originally die cut and stamped a lot more then I used. When I was playing around with all the little pieces, I found that less was better for this particular card design-especially with the delicate doily. I wanted that to show since I took the time to cut it out.

While I was layering the flowers, my ink started to smudge a bit on my hands. Remember, I didn't know that I had to heat set it. I was able to use an artist eraser to get some of it off but then I smudged it AGAIN. I finally heat set the ink even with the smudging. After all that work, I didn't want to throw my card away so I had to figure something out. Here is where the glitter tape came in.

I know that some of you crafters are hoarders like me so when you make mistakes like this, you grab something from your stash to fix it. I had bought a big pack of American Crafts glitter tape on clearance at TJ Maxx at Christmas time. Yes, I was supposed to be buying gifts but when you find a deal, you cannot pass it up, can you? I know that I can't and I LOVE this glitter tape. I wound up cutting it into strips and adhering it onto my card in between the silver stripes to hide my smudged ink. Since my card front was already on the base, cutting the edges of the tape was a bit harry. I think I cut it pretty close, considering. It looks pretty darn good, doesn't it? I am still irritated because I am a perfectionist when I send out my cards. I don't like there to be any imperfections.

My last step was to glue some white and silver sequins randomly onto the card. I also added a bit of Stickles glitter glue on the flowers for a little bit of punch. My card was complete!!

As I was blogging this, I decided that I also need to do the inside of the card so I stopped and did a bit of stamping. Here is what it looks like:

I think I will be copying this design again for future use. However, I will heat set the ink and lose the glitter tape, though I like the look. I just hate using that much on one card. (Yes, I am cheap.)

I appreciate you stopping by my blog today. Enjoy your day!!

Nora

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