Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Well, THAT took forever!

Hello!

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

5 comments:

  1. 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!!!

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  2. This 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 :)

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  3. How can you NOT love this card? It's so elegant and has such a soft look. Wonderful card!
    I'm so glad you joined us at Dynamic Duos this week Shannon :)

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  4. Wow, you really amp it up a notch of a hundred!
    The 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!?

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  5. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOSH! This is a gorgeous card! I absolutely love love love that butterfly and design! AMAZING! LOVE!

    ps... 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!!!!!!!!

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