Let’s get personal for a moment: Sometimes, life happens, and I don’t feel much like crafting. Other days, life happens, and all I want to do is sit down and craft. Last week was a “I don’t feel like crafting” sort of week. My little buddy (our dog, Duke) got pretty major leg surgery and we’ve been adjusting to his healing process. On-top of that, we needed to make an area for him that discouraged jumping on any furniture, which ended up being my craft space. So, crafting wasn’t incredibly high on my priority list.
Also, up until last week, I have been posting at least 1 card every day to my Instagram account @justanotebyjustin. Last week, I skipped a few days. It broke my crafting heart a little, because I was on a 108-day streak! But, like I said, life happens.
And, sometimes, when life happens and you stay away from your craft station, your card making batteries get recharged. Let me tell you, I envisioned this card in my head, and it ended up turning out even better than I anticipated.
First, I used the Kindred Stamps “We’re in a Club” set (unfortunately it’s no longer available, but check out their other amazing sets here) and colored in the little boy and girl with my copic markers. My favorite part to color was the little girls orange hair with the purple bow. I was SO happy with how that turned out.
I ran some white cardstock through my Cuttlebug with a Lawn Fawn A2-sized Stitched Rectangle Die, because I wanted a simple card base with just a little bit of detail on the edge.
I also had a Hero Arts Stencil Set I bought from Joann’s a few weeks back on sale, and I adhered that with some light tack spray to my card base.
So, I’ve found a combination of Distress Oxide Distress Inks that really make a bright rainbow pattern, and also make a beautiful ombré. The order I used (from top left corner to bottom right corner)
- Picked Raspberry
- Abandoned Coral
- Spiced Marmalade
- Squeezed Lemonade
- Twisted Citron
- Tumbled Glass
- Shaded Lilac
I blended the Distress Oxide Inks in that order, and it created a beautiful rainbow bubble ombré.
I then ran another piece of white cardstock scrap through my Cuttlebug with a small stitched rectangle die and stamped my sentiment. It fit PERFECTLY. Seriously, one of those crafting moments where the light shines through the clouds and it all just feels meant to be.
To give this card a little more structure, I framed the sentiment rectangle in some purple paper, and created a band that stretched it entirely across the card.
Finally, I adhered my characters with soyme foam tape and added a bunch of small white enamel dots.
Whenever I pair an envelope with a card, I usually go one of two ways:
- I find the main color family that’s being used, and use a shade within that family.
- I pick up on a small detail color that’s found throughout the card, and play off of that.
For this card, I felt I used purple the most, because of the color of the sentiment ink and the cross card band. With there already being so many colors present in this card, I thought if I used a shade of purple, it would keep it from being overly busy.
I paired this card with a Paper Source A2 Lilac Envelope with a piece of purple gingham patterned paper from Lawn Fawn as the liner, and I was extremely pleased.
And, voilá! I came up with this bright and happy card certain to bring a big smile to the face of any adventure seeker!
Happy Crafting!
Justin