However, things can't remain the same, if we want to allow for growth. Right? This opportunity allows for new talent to be spotlighted and Ashley has a great eye for picking the right gals! Cristina K has joined the team and I remember seeing many of her creations at the Embellish challenges - either as a winning design or a "What's Hot" spotlight. So I feel so lucky to be able to stalk her work now on a bi-weekly basis.
So I would like to dedicate this card's creation to Maile Belle.
This week I whipped my rather dusty Inkadinkado stamps out, that I used for a Christmas project back in 2009. The colors came together pretty quickly for me, especially cause I had enough foresight to purchase Mister Huey in a beautiful blue hue (Lunchtray). No questions asked - it had to fit in there somehow! I also had a toothbrush box (saved from a trip to Bangalore in 2008 - one can never have enough toothbrushes for cleaning or crafting!) made out of corrugated material. I have always found the texture fascinating and wanted to do something with it. Here is the card in a nutshell:
Stamps: (Birds Galore) Inkadinkado
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Vintage Cream) Papertrey Ink; (Basic Card Stock - Cream) Recollections; (Offbeat) Basic Grey
Ink: (Tea Dye Duo - Chai) Papertrey Ink
Embellishments: (Perfect Pearls - Perfect Bronze, Perfect Copper, Distressed Inks - Vintage Photo) Ranger; (Steel Dies - Cloud 1 & 2 Die Collection; ) Papertrey Ink; (Mister Huey - Lunchtray) Studio Calico; (Glitter Stickers - Bronze) K&Company; (recycled corrugated box for toothbrush)
I initially had this idea of using the corrugated cardboard as tree bark, and started inking it up with Vintage Photo. I liked the distressed look on the edged and went to emphasize the uneven edges with my finger nail. (Super cool technique I learned from watching the talented Ashley in one of her Wednesday Tutorials.) The sky was created by playing with Mister Huey and I went for an uneven coverage - heavier on the left, lighter on the right.
I found a fun scrap piece of Basic Grey paper and knew I wanted to create some fun clouds with the pattern paper. Since I wanted to give the clouds some dimensions I swabbed some edges with my Papertrey Chai cube. This also blended the blue in better for the entire card's design - which was becoming more and more vintage-y. My bird was "colored" using Ranger Perfect Pearls. It has a gorgeous Copper and Bronze finish that shimmers in real life. The photo capture doesn't do it justice.
After playing around with some placement I opted to stick two letters from my leftover alpha stickers - that were conveniently available in the awesome shade of brown! Perfect for this challenge.
I was pleasantly pleased with this card, since it fell outside of my comfort zone. And I loads of fun creating this one! Will you be playing along?
