A Birthday with Patterns Galore.

One of my favourite colours is green, and when I saw the Pile it On challenge this week - mix your pattern scales - I thought of the perfect green patterns I could use for this.

I love these patterns, and I have wanted to use them for a while but I didn't have the right idea for them until today.  These are Jillibean Soup patterns, and I love how graphic and bright they are.  I decided to use a kraft base, and since I can never leave well enough alone I decided to round all of the corners on all papers and ink the edges with brown.

I embossed the sentiment on a small piece of kraft, banner cut the end, and inked the edges of this piece as well.  I had chosen this lovely piece of green seam binding to coordinate and was just going to put that around the middle, but felt it was not enough, so I added some kraft washi tape with printed text underneath the ribbon. I added the sentiment with some foam tape, and adhered some coordinating Prima flowers with Zots.

I still felt as though something was missing so I added some different sized self-adhesive pearls, and placed them as if they were sprinkled over the sentiment.  Lately that is one of my favourite things to do.  :)

For the inside of the card I corner rounded some leftover scraps, inked them in the same brown ink, and embossed the matching sentiment in the same white.

I really love how this card turned out and I hope my friend I had in mind while making it will enjoy receiving it!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

1.  Creative Craft Challenges - Distressing.
2. The Paper Shelter - Birthday Cards with Sentiment.
3. Moving Along with the Times - Keep it Real/ No Fantasy Figures.
4. Pile it On - Patterns, Mix your Scales.

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Jillibean Soup Summer Squash Soup, Blossom Soup 6x6 mini pad.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up!  Petite Pairs

Ink:  Color Box Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan, Versamark Watermark Ink pad, Martha Stewart Bright White embossing powder.

Embellishments:  Ribbon Carousel Moss Green vintage Seam Biding, Washi tape purchased from Le Box Boutique, Prima Flowers Camille Almanac, Stampin' Up! Jewels Basic Pearls.

Adhesives:  Tombow Mono Permanent Runner, Zots, foam squares.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, sponge.

Mother's Day is coming...

Mother's Day is approaching and I wanted to make something but I wasn't sure what since I don't really have a specific Mother's Day stamp.  I was flipping through my patterned paper when I came across a sheet with various sentiments on it, in the Fiddlesticks version of a My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 6x6 pad. I thought I might use one of these blocks as a focus for a card, but I couldn't decide on one so I made two cards.

I love the patterned papers in the Miss Caroline collection so once I decided on which sentiments to use I decided to use at least three other patterns on my card.  I started with the wood grain, chose the plaid to coordinate, then chose a floral to mat the sentiment.

The wood grain had a floral pattern in two corners, one floral section was taller than the other, so I trimmed the backgrounds according to the height of the florals, then matched the rest of the papers to fit the card front.  It just worked out that one sentiment was taller than the other so I placed the tall one with the card that had more wood, and the shorter sentiment fit perfectly on the plaid section of the card that had half wood and half plaid. Its amazing that some things not planned work out so well.:)

Before adhering I lightly sponged all papers with gray ink, and rounded the corners to keep things soft.  Once the main patterns were adhered to the white matting I added some beige seam binding that coordinated nicely.  I also matted the sentiments with just a thin border of white to make them pop out a bit, then matted the white on the floral.

At first I thought I was done, but as I looked at the whole card I felt like something a bit 'more' was needed.  At this point I pulled out some Stampin' Up! self-adhesive pearls and added them in random sizes around the sentiments.  Just the thing that was needed!

I love that some 6x6 packs include sentiment sheets with them.  Since 6x6 patterns are generally shrunk down these sentiments are perfect for cardmaking.  And I think the sentiments I've used here are perfect for Mother's Day!  :)

I would like to include these cards in the following challenges:

1. Creative Stamp Friends - Mother's Day
2. Really Reasonable Ribbon - Mother's Day or Feminine plus ribbon.
3. Speedy Fox Challenge - Use three of something.
4. One Crazy Stamper - Mothers.
5. Party Time Tuesdays - Mums the word.
6. Creative Card Crew - Sentiment as Focal Point.
7. Deep Ocean Challenge - What a Wonderful Woman.
8. The Pink Elephant - All about Mom
9. Craft Your Passion - Torn or distressed edges.
10. Ribbon Carousel - Word to your Mother.
11. Friends of Speedy TV Challenge - Mother's Day

I used the following supplies:

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Basic Gray, Whisper White.  My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Fiddlesticks 6x6 Designer Paper Pad.

Ink:  Stampin' Up!  Going Gray.

Adhesive:  Tombow Mono Permanent Adhesive Runner, Glue Dots, foam squares.

Embellishments:  Ribbon Carousel Croquette Beige Vintage Seam Binding, Stampin' Up! Jewels Basic Pearls.

Tools:  Paper trimmer, scissors, We R Memory Keepers Corner chomper, sponge, We R Memory Keepers brad setter (used the pick end to lift the pearls from the backing sheet and placing on card - works much better than the tweezers I used to use!)