Lovely Lattice

Each month I make a dedicated set of cards for people who have birthdays. This month I have a husband/wife couple who both have birthdays in April. It's not like me to send the same card to the same household. So this is a one of a kind card for a very special friend. 

Let's see how well my memory works to describe how I made it. Card base is Whisper White, then 1/4" layers of Soft Sea Foam, Mango Melody and Whisper White for the focal image. 

To make the image(s) I made a mask using Lovely Lattice and background stamp Crackled. 

Bit of history in making the mask... I was going to make it set off the card front but I MESSED UP. It's not an image that works well for fussy cutting. But that "scrap" works perfectly for the mask. I stamped the image (Lovely Lattice), used the mask (temporarily adhered it on top), then stamped Crackled. 

If you look close you can see that Crackle is not behind Lovely Lattice. 

Colouring the image is done with Stampin Blends Mango Melody, Soft Sea Foam and Crumb Cake. The image was initially stamped in Soft Suede.

Crumb Cake was also used on the ribbon. I used a different technique for that too - bows are not a successful item for me. :) 

I do hope you enjoy reading the story behind Lovely Lattice. I'm Just Saying, thank you for reading this far. If you have any questions on techniques or products, send me a message. 

Christie

Party Panda

My March birthday cards have been received, I hope. So here's where I remember the creation details in the blog post. As I found it easiest for my February cards, I did them gender neutral and minimalist for March.

I hadn't used Party Panda, and I've had it for years. I thought this set fit the bill for March. 

So this one is focused on the pandas. I HAD to get the size of that layer just right. I layed out the pandas as I wanted them and took a quick measurement. To keep the scale of the layer in line, I decided to have the balloon pop over the edge. 

I lined the stamps (face down) on my grid mat and removed the middle guy. This allowed me to use the massive F block and have both stamps on one. I layed out the middle panda on an E block (my most used size). 

Having the 3 pandas on two blocks allowed me to "mass produce".  I stamped the 2 pandas on all the layers then came back and stamped the middle guy so I stayed in a rhythm. 

Once they were all stamped, I used a Bermuda Bay marker to fill in the balloon, even though I was going to cover it up. 

Now for that last bit to be explained. I wanted the balloons to be on a dimensional but didn't want it to be a solid colour. I took a scrap of Whisper White and using a Blender Brush added colour. It didn't have to be perfect and gave a touch of a translucent effect. 

Using a light grey stampin blends I filled in the "shadow" from the pandas, so they were grounded. 

See that I used a polkadot ribbon and a polkadot hat, didn't plan that but it totally worked. 

I'm going to show what the card assembly looks like. It's on layers of DSP and cardstock. Behind the focal image is a layer of basic black, dsp (2 variations) then on a black card base that was cut to be 4 1/4 scored at 5 1/2 (landscape). The inside has a white layer for writing the sentiment. 

As always, if you have questions on products or techniques, please let me know. I'm happy to answer. Just saying, if you've read this far, thank you. 

Christie