Something old something new

Hi there,

for the first time this year I felt like I lost my Mojo, courtesy of head cold that struck last Friday. I really liked the colour combo that Makeesha picked, for this week's challenge, but could any idea penetrate the fog in my head – nope! So it was definitely time to get inspiration from someone else’s great work. I had seen a card I liked instantly (scroll down to the second card) on Debbie Olson's blog and decided to CASE it for this challenge. Firstly here are the colours for the challenge.


And here is what I came up with. I rather liked the result actually.

For the something new component I inked up some new rubber – the large Fifth Avenue Floral rose (this set was definitely not on my wish list when I first got the catalogue but I had seen so many lovely cards in blog land it ended up on my get soon list). I stamped this in Rose Red on the top Rose Red layer. I also stamped two flowers, in Rose Red, on Very Vanilla. Then I stamped it, overlapping, inked up with Mellow Moss on Very Vanilla. This panel was laid over a Always Artichoke with a eyelet border along the bottom, and a Mellow Moss layer at the top. To colour the two Rose Red flowers I used ink from the lid of the Rose Red ink pad and my aquapainter. First trying to give it a overall base wash and then slowly adding layers of colour to deepen petal highlights. Once that was done I cut out one flower in its entirety, the second I cut out only the central portion. To finish up the flowers I added some little vanilla half pearls to the centre of each and then added crystal effects to the inner edges of the petals. The crystal effects really gives the petals some dimension and shine, hard to see in the photo unfortunately.

To accompany the flowers I stamped a branch from Touch of Nature, twice onto Always Artichoke and Mellow Moss, then loosely cut them it out. Then I turned them over so you have a cardstock branch but no stamping to be seen. These were arranged around the flowers, which I had mounted up on dimensionals. The final touch was the sentiment, including something old and new. New the “happy birthday” from Think Happy Thoughts” and the old with a retired Mellow Moss button threaded with some retired Moss gingham ribbon. The inside, as usual was finished off simply to match the front. Oh and I rounded the the top left and bottom right corners of the card.

Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Think Happy Thoughts
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss, Rose Red
Ink: Mellow Moss, Rose Red
Accessories: Eyelet border punch, 1 ¼ circle and ¾ circle punches, corner rounder, Mellow Moss button, Mellow Moss gingham ribbon, glue dot, aquapainter, Kaiser vanilla half pearls, crystal effects, dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive.