Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.

Hope you are all having a great week.  I certainly am!  It's my last two days of vacation and we have definitely been making the most of it.  Well, as it was SNOWING!!!! again today, I spent a little more time in my stamp room and found a couple of challengs to play along with.  I saw this amazing photograph across at runway inspired challenge and was immediately drawn to the strong colors - especially the orange.  It made me remember that SU had retired More Mustard, and I still don't understand why!  

Here's the photo

I blew it up to really get a feel of the various elements in the photograph.    Here's the things that inspired me:

• The strong colors - especially the blue/green and the gold/mustard
• The fact that she's in a forest
• The pale vertical lines created by the trees
• The butterfly pattern on her skirt
• The overall textures from the patterns and the items in the forest

Then, I checked out the challenge at Moxie Fab World where the challenge is to use Stencils on your card.   Well, once I reviewed the stencils that I have in my stash, I knew immediately how I could pull the two challenges together.  Since I attended the onlinecard class stencil class, I've really fallen in love with stencils and even though I only have a handful, I'm hoping that SU might bring some out in the new catalog :-)

So, now that you know what inspired me, let's see if you can identify some of those elements in my card:

Firstly, I have NO idea why typepad is pulling in my photos and making them look as though they aren't in focus!  I promise they are!

Don't you just love this color combo?  I do.  It's Island Indigo and More Mustard.  I used two different stencils for the tag.... a honeycomb stencil that I used to apply Inka Gold Metallic rub with a finger sponge dauber.

Then, can you see the horizontal lines on the tag?  I created those with a stripes stencil and two drops of Basic Grey refill ink mixed with alcohol and I misted the stencil from about 8 inches away.  That way I managed to get the vertical inspiration stripes - although they are horizontal on the tag:-)

I then heat embossed the sentiment with Black embossing powder.  Of course, I had to capture the butterfly element and some of the complexity of pattern from the skirt.  I didn't want to overwhelm the butterfly, so I used the SU Grid stamp that had been inked with Indigo Island ink and I pressed a piece of More Mustard card stock to the stamp.  I used the Itty Bitty Butterfly punch to create the butterfly and used a Gel Roller to give the lines just a little bit of glimmer.  I adhered the butterfly to the tag and added to small black enamel dots.

I just couldn't leave the base blank.... as I really wanted to bring in more of the feel of the wood from the inspiration photo - and more of the texture.  I inked up my new Woodgrain background stamp with Versamark and heat set it with clear embossing powder.   All that was left was to add a little more of the American Crafts ribbon that Pammie sent me for my birthday.  It's perfect for this color scheme!

I was really happy with the end result.  It's not often that I look at a card and am happy with all of it, but this one, because of the strong colors (love these colors together btw!) and the textural elements.

Don't forget to pop along to Moxie and Runway Inspired challenge and check out the fabulous cards... oh.... and play along, too!

On a personal note:

The world sure looks pretty....

I know it's pretty.... but it's the end of March!!!! and I am tired of snow already!   Even the poor deer are getting tired of it.

The snowflakes were huge, btw!

Then, one last photograph.... here's why it takes me so long to make a card.  Mr Charlie, who had been fast asleep on his cat climber - decided it was time for a cuddle and it didn't matter that I was in the middle of making a card... he was going to have a cuddle regardless!

Well, I'll be back with another card tomorrow.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

• Card stock:  Island Indigo.  More Mustard
• Stamps:  Woodgrain background.   Grid (on butterfly).  Sentiment:  Wet Paint (PTI)
• Inks:  Versamark. Island Indigo.
• Tools:   Bitty Butterfly Punch.  Heat Gun.  PTI Tag die.  Inka Gold Metallic Rub.  Sponge dauber.  Ranger stripes and honeycomb stencils