Almost Artisan – Card #2: Merci

The inspiration for this card came from a couple different places. The idea of doing a card that was inside a room looking out at the Eiffel Tower had been bouncing around in my head for a while. The original draft of this included the bird cage off to the side. The layout didn’t really work, so I scrapped the bird cage to just focus on the window.

The inspiration for the background came while I was at a panel discussion for my full time job. The hotel room where the event was being held had a brocade-like print wallpaper that had light vertical stripes on it. I quickly jotted down the idea and tried it out that night. I first tried it with white and vanilla craft inks, but the look wasn’t quite right. So then I tried the Champagne Mist shimmer paint and it was perfect!

To make the stripes look nice, I used my Hobby Blade to cut a rectangle into a beat-up presentation cover I “rescued” from work. I then positioned it over the cardstock and applied the paint using a sponge dauber.

The landscape was painted on Watercolor paper using Watercolor Wonder Crayons and the Eiffel tower was stamped on Brushed Silver card stock with StazOn.

The window frame was made from Kraft (now Crumb Cake) cardstock that I stamped with the Woodgrain stamp and then colored using Creamy Caramel Classic Ink applied with a Stamping Sponge. I then cut it off and then attached using dimensionals.

The frame with the sentiment is from the Hodgepodge Hardware in Styled Vanilla. For the insert, I stamped the flourish stamp in Chic Boutique in Versamark and then gold embossed. I then stamped the sentiment in Old Olive.

The frame is attached with Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon that is tied with some Linen Thread that has had Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint applied to it.

Recipe:

• Stamps: Chic Boutique, Woodgrain
• Ink/Coloring: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Versamark, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Creamy Caramel Classic Ink
• Paper: Storybook Specialty, Watercolor Paper, Very Vanilla, Kraft (now Crumb Cake), Brushed Silver
• Accessories: Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Linen Thread, Gold Embossing Powder, 5/8″ Old Olive Satin Ribbon

Hello, or should I say bon jour?

Here is a quick card I made for the Splitcoast Stampers weekly color challenge this week.

The color combination was Basic Grey, Bravo Burgundy, Crushed Curry and then White/Ivory/Kraft. Here is what I came up with:

Recipe:

• Stamps: Chic Boutique
• Paper: Basic Grey (textured), Crushed Curry, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White (with My Digital Scrapbook Script DSP printed on it in Kraft)
• Ink: Basic Grey (to distress the grey cardstock), Basic Black (sentiment), Chocolate Chip (image), More Mustard (to distress the Curry), Creamy Caramel (to distress the white), Close to Cocoa (to distress the white)
• Accessories: gold brads, non-SU fleur-de-lis border punch, non-SU fleur-de-lis punch, mini glue dots, SNAIL