Convention Swap

This is the card I did for the convention card swap last year. I used the Embrace Life set which is one of the most versatile sets I've ever seen, I love that set! I also used one of my other favorites, the white Signo gel pen. I had them about half finished when I left home so I took them on the plane and worked on them on the way.

We had a 2 hour layover in Dallas so we walked to the terminal we were leaving from and I worked on them in the airport until time to board and continued while we were on the flight from Dallas to Vegas. The next day we had the long drive from Vegas to Salt Lake and I was able to finish them by the time we got there. I guess it was a good thing it took so long to get from TN to UT so I could get them finished! Ever the procrastinator I am.

Since I was making 150 cards I decided to use all those scraps I had of Certainly Celery cardstock. It is my favorite color that Stampin' Up has so I use it a lot and had a bunch of scraps. A lot of them were about 1/2" wide so I decided to go with the strips over white cardstock for the background. I stamped the leafy image from the stamp set on the white before adhering the strips and inked the edges with Certainly Celery ink. I also inked aaaaallllllllll of those strips and the pieces that I stamped the flowers on. No wonder these cards took so long!

I stamped the "Embrace Life" sentiment with the craft Whisper White ink but all of the other white is where I highlighted the flowers with the Signo pen. I wish the picture was better. Like I keep saying, I either have to get a better digital camera or figure out how to take good pictures of cards and layouts with my SLR camera.

Embrace Life card

I've been trying to figure out a way to get better pictures of my cards and layouts to post on my blog. It isn't going too well but I used my SLR camera for this card. I took a whole roll of film of cards and layouts and took them to the developer and told them I only wanted a cd, no prints. They are better than my digital camera's pictures but the editing program isn't the greatest.

I love the Embrace Life set! It is very versatile and I've used it in a variety of ways. On this card I stamped the flowers in grey ink and colored them with Pretty in Pink ink with a blending pen. I then masked the flowers to stamp the leaves in grey ink and colored them in with Certainly Celery markers. Then I added pink leaves around the edges of the card using Pretty in Pink ink. After stamping the leaves I sponged with the same pink ink over the leaves to soften them. It may not show up well in the picture but it makes a great effect on the edges of the card.

The black sets the pink off beautifully. I matted both the stamped image and the whole card front with black cardstock and put black ribbon under the stamped image with a simple knot on the right side. I finished it off with the sentiment stamp from the set. It was a quick card to make and I think it has a great impact. I hope you enjoy it too.