Here's a card I made for both the CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #34 and Dynamic Duos #59. The Dynamic Duo's challenge was a sweet one - to pair grey with any colour choice. Any choice! So many beautiful options to choose from that look fabulous with grey. And so what did I go with you ask?!! Brown!!! Don't ask me. Weird, I know. It all started because I wanted to use one of my wood veneer Studio Calico butterflies. I embossed the butterfly in a light gray which gave it kind of a cool grunge look. Again, weird, because I don't really associate butterflies with grunge!! And then I wrapped some brownish twine around the butterfly to create it's body and antennae. I liked the look of that, and thought - well, I guess I've got my second colour now. So I had to work the whole card around brown, grey and a bit of grunge. And let me tell you, it was a marathon to come up with a finished product. It started last night, and finally ended this afternoon with a card that I can't even now say I totally love. However, I do think it would be a good masculine card for someone going through a tough time.
Here are the challenges:
Nothing like "forcing" a card! But here it is:
As I mentioned I heat embossed the butterfly with white embossing powder and then rubbed it down with grey ink. But before embossing, I used a versamark pen to dab on some polka dots just to jazz it up a bit more (not sure if you can see them in the picture - they're quite subtle). The leaves are from Paper Smooches Reflections - I stamped those in white ink first and then gray overtop (a little tip I learned from Julie Ebersole's blog) and then I used a white gel pen to put dots on the leaves (and that little nugget came from Jennifer McGuire's blog just yesterday). I created a subtle grid background as well with brown ink which represents the vertical panel on the sketch. Added a little grey button under the twine and some grey liquid pearls finished the job.
Hope you like it!
And thank you so much for visiting!
Shannon
One word: GORGEOUS!! Repeat: GORGEOUS!! Your journeys into exploring with new techniques are proving fantastic! The 'over-topping' of white+gray, and vice versa, the addition of the gel pen dots (I saw that post, too! Excellent ideas; hope I remember to use her tips when I get around to adding a white pen to my collection...) and the lovely, subtle background: totally amazing, totally stunning and totally GORGEOUS! Creativity + talent - you're showcasing both in the most impressive ways! LOVE this!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is stunning! I absolutely LOVE how you have done the sweet butterfly!!! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Dynamic Duos, we sure hope to see you back again soon :)
ReplyDeleteHow can you NOT love this card? It's so elegant and has such a soft look. Wonderful card!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you joined us at Dynamic Duos this week Shannon :)
Wow, you really amp it up a notch of a hundred!
ReplyDeleteThe button, ditress, stitch effect - WOW, WOW, WOW!
You are versatile gal! You can do cutie pie, and grunge to perfection! This does NOT look forced at all. JUST SUPER!
Have a great weekend Shannon!
-Kimberly
PS the name of your blog makes me laugh! ...how did you come up with it - I bet it is a great story!?
OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOSH! This is a gorgeous card! I absolutely love love love that butterfly and design! AMAZING! LOVE!
ReplyDeleteps... THANK YOU so much for leaving love on the Virtual Smooches blog during the month of June!! I love sharing my videos-- and I love that you enjoy watching them:) THANK YOU!!!!!!!!