First Card of 2011

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoyed last nights celebrations.  I stayed put and watched some films with Emma, then at midnight we let off a Chinese lantern.  I'd never seen these before and it was fun to watch it take off and then eventually disappear into the clouds.  There were a lot of them travelling across the sky last night, I much prefer them to fireworks!

I was determined to make a card today, and I've only just got it finished!!  You know when you set off with a vague plan, change it dozens of times and then end up with something completely different - well that's what happened today.

The card I was making was for my niece's birthday later this month.  I had decided I was going to use Patchwork Julie and my new Marianne Creatables frame die and that was my starting point.  This is the finished card and now I'm really not sure if it's all a bit 'too much'.

I used lilac cardstock from PaperMill as my base card.  I took some white pearlescent paper, stamped some flowers using versamark and then heat embossed using clear detail embossing powder.  I then placed a Big N Juicy hydrangea ink pad face down on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and then covered the paper in the ink.  I applied the same ink to the Marianne frame, this time using Cut n Dry foam.  The circle that Julie is mounted onto I ran through my big shot with a flower embossing folder.  Julie and the patchwork dog are coloured using watercolour pencils.  My background paper was then matted onto silver mirri board.  The sentiment is from LOTV, I love these sentiments, I stamped in silver and then embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  This was then matted onto silver mirri board which had been punched out using a scallop circle punch.  I then used another of the dies from the same set to die cut the feathered shape in the top left-hand corner, as I felt it needed something to balance it out.

When I was looking for this stamp set earlier today, I found a number of stamps which I haven't yet used.  So, I'm determined, instead of keep buying new, I'm going to start using craft goodies that I've already got.  How long that will last, who knows????? 

Jo