Follow Your Bliss…

Happy weekend!

A friend of mine commissioned me to make 4 cards for her. Yesterday’s giraffe card was one of them, and here is another. This one was a specific request for me to use Balmy Breezes for a bday card for her friend in Florida.

I was looking through some of my patterned paper, and came across this piece of double sided Wild Asparagus textured cardstock. I thought the blue, sage, and sand colors would be perfect for the beachy theme.

The reverse side of the stripe is the sand color, so I decided to adhere a strip of that across the top of the striped bottom. I stamped the trio of palm trees across the top with versamark ink, because I wanted a soft, subtle effect. Then, I stamped the palm crest using stamped off basic brown ink. I machine stitched all around this panel, and set it aside.

• TIP: If you don’t have the right color ink to match your cardstock, don’t forget your VersaMark! It’s *always* the right color, and gives a beautiful tone-on-tone effect!

I chose naturals white cardstock for the focal image, and stamped the tree with basic brown ink. I watercolored it lightly with sage shadow and creamy caramel ink from the lid of the pads, then sponged on some bashful blue. I tore around the image, then misted the edges with a bit of water, so I could easily curl them. I dried it with my heat tool, then sponged the edges with bashful blue and creamy caramel ink.

As luck would have it, I remembered I bought this Martha Stewart sage twill! I ran a bead of fabri-tac across the seam of the 2 papers, then adhered the twill and trimmed off the ends. I added the sand colored Bazzill brads, then adhered this entire panel to the bashful blue card base.

• TIP: If you want to cut down the bulk created by using the heavier twill ribbon, use fabri-tac adhesive. You will only have to adhere it to the front, and it prevents the waste of having it wrap around the back!

I applied the “Happy Birthday” rub-on to the twill, and mounted the focal image on dimensionals.

Stamps: balmy breezes

Ink: basic brown, caramel, sage, bashful

Paper: bashful, naturals white, wild asparagus stripe

Accessories: ms twill, bazzill brads, aquapainter, sewing machine, white thread, crate paper sentiments rub-on, sponge, fabri-tac