Today I have the honor of being Guest Designer at AAA Cards Challenge #258 "Sketch"! This is my 4th time as Guest Designer at AAA Cards Challenge - it's always such a treat! I decided to use this challenge for a Valentine's Day card. Here's a link to the challenge and the sketch:
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I mulled this around in my brain a bit before finally starting on the card. It looked like the intent was to predominantly use 1/3 of the left side, balanced on the right by the sentiment. I chose to use one of my old standby die sets from Impression Obsession (DIE169-R "Hollyhocks") - I love this die set and don't seem to get tired of using it. For this rendition I decided on using some very old Valentine's printed 2-sided paper - green and black floral on one side and coral and red pattern on the second. I cut the hollyhock stems from both sides of the paper and fussy cut and glued the blooms from the coral side to those on the green side. Then I went in search of some paper that worked well with those colors - I thought this warm gray was perfect. As I started laying out the hollyhock stems, I felt I needed a bit more green and a subtle background to anchor the stems. I cut a gray panel with a stitched rectangular die and stamped a PTI flourish on the left with Hero Arts "Wet Cement" ink (another favorite). Then I stamped the sentiment with PTI "Ocean Tides" and glued the panel to the card base. I determined I needed a couple of extra branches to balance the hollyhocks and die cut them from Birch Press Design #57529 "Budding Twigs Contour Layers", without using the buds, and glued all of this onto the face of the card. The final addition was a couple of coral die cut hearts to extend the images upward.
I custom made a coordinating envelope and lined it with lightweight gray-green paper.
Thank you, AAA Card Challenge for letting me play along this month as Guest Designer!
Fabulous card and take on our sketch Fran. Thank you for being our Guest Designers this fortnight over at the AAA Card Challenges
ReplyDeleteThank you so much being the guest designer at AAA cards this week Fran. I'm loving the grey on grey with the flourish stamped under your fab die cut hollyhocks.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work, Fran. What a great way to play with the sketch, Jo x
ReplyDeleteFran, this is a lovely Valentine and matching envelope! Love those colors and your take on the challenge design. It's all so classy!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully done, love this card, Fran!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous card. I too love those dies so thank you for an inspiring idea so guess who is going to bring them out to use once again. I love the flourish stamped under the hollyhocks too.
ReplyDeleteI always forget to use my DSP for my die cuts, and you did it beautifully! Such a gorgeous card, and mounted on the grey makes it pop! SO glad you were our guest designer at AAA Cards this challenge, you did us proud! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteKristin Sluhan
DT. AAA Cards Challenge