Happy Accidents

Today consisted of house cleaning, watching movies, web surfing and, in just a bit, some crafting. But first, I want to share a card I made over the weekend. This is another card that I just lost myself in. I started with a blank piece of white cardstock and each element I added just brought it alive. I have to say most of what I did was just happy accidents. Nothing was planned, but somehow it all came together. As I type this, I'm watching a huge blizzard outside my window. Yes, an official blizzard. There's so much snow blowing off of my roof, I can't see past my front porch. One of the best parts of a blizzard is that everyone is home, safe and sound.

First I stamped the cherry blossoms using what I thought was going to be clear glitter embossing powder. Apparently, I hadn't cleaned the stamp properly, so when I stamped the image in Versamark I got a variegated pink tone. At first I was a little bummed about, but I added the embossing powder anyway. I loved how it turned out. I decided I wanted to have a soft sky effect, using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, I used my blending tool added the blue, making sure I stayed darker around the edges.

I stamped the butterfly image from Martha Stewart  in Versamark and embossed it using navy embossing powder I had in my stash. I also embossed the edges using the same navy powder. I did this similar to the way you would ink up the edges of a card to give it an aged look, only I used Versmark.

I felt the cherry blossoms needed more color, so I used my Copic Sketch Markers and added purple, brown and green. I cut slits in the paper, keeping to the contour of the butterfly, making sure my ribbon would fit through it. Using Papertrey ribbon, I thread it through the slits, behind the butterfly and attached the ends to the back of the card.

I used the "love is in the air" stamp from the 40:31 Creations Love stamp set. I added silver brads to each corner and layered this onto a piece of white cardstock.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock in Enchanted Evening for the card base. Lastly, I added the butterfly layer to the card base.

I have to admit, at first, I didn't really like the Distress Inks. I didn't understand what made them different. But now that I've started using them and am not so intimidated by them, I love how they look. They give a very soft effect to anything you use them on.

Now, it's off to the basement to make another purse for a friend and to work on some Valentine's cards for coworkers. I'll try my best to post something tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by,
Dana Desmond