A Special Card for a Special Post

Its been another gorgeous day today - sunshine and 18 degrees! So pleasant for the middle of Winter and it feels as though there may even be a touch of Spring in the air! Today is my 150th blog post and whilst still a very small number compared to those who have been blogging for years, it still surprises me how much I have grown as a Card Maker since it was first suggested that I should start to enter some Challenges. During the last 150 posts I have entered many challenges and even won a few :-) And am honoured to now be a Design Team member for the Paper Craft Crew and also a Guest Designer for a challenge recently with the Team at Just Add Ink too. So thank you for your support of me and for all the wonderful encouragement from friends without which I never would've had the confidence to begin ( You know who you are :-) )

And so i have a special card for you today - it is one I made for Carolyn, from the Paper Craft Crew for her birthday last week and I know she likes it :-) So now I can share it with you too!

And funnily enough it is based on a Sketch Challenge too :-) This time from Freshly Made Sketches

I didn't enter it into the Challenge though as I didn't want to Post about it before the card arrived in Queensland (or it wouldn't be a surprise!) and of course the challenge finished some days ago now but here is the sketch anyway so you can see where the inspiration came from :

Yes, the card base is White and the striking DSP is from the Moonlight DSP Stack - such a handy little pack, so perfectly sized for card fronts! Next I cut some more White card using the On Film Framelits and added some dimensionals underneath before stamping the flower. It is one of the images from the Flower Patch set - photopolymer so is really good to have a stamp mat or I use a large Mouse Pad underneath (thanks Katerina!) so that you can get a clean image as the stamps are harder than rubber and need a soft mat to help transfer the ink - especially to solid images. I actually stamped the same stamp several times and hand cut out the layers - yes there are framelits, but not for all the layers of this particular image and I wanted to create a layered flower. For the leaves I stamped the larger image first and then the detail using the same ink - and it is so easy to line them up as being completely clear you can see right through them!

And next came a butterfly - this one from Kinda Ecelctic - as I know Carolyn loves butterflies it  seemed an essential element :-) and a little bling to finish.

Card stock: Whisper White, Pear Pizaz

Designer Series Paper: Moonlight Stack

Inks: Strawberry Slush, Pear Pizzaz, Blackberry Bliss

Stamps: Flower Patch, Kinda Eclectic

Accesssories: Big Shot, On Film Framelits, Flower Fair Framelits, Elegant Butterfly punch, Basic Rhinestones, Lucky Limeaid Bakers Twine (Retired)

I was so glad to hear that Carolyn loved her card - it is so lovely to be able to make a card for a friend and fellow card maker and tailor it to what you hope they will like :-)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today. I hope that you too continue to enjoy making cards and other projects if you haven't already started entering Challenges then I encourage you to give it a go!  You never know how much it might help you grow  - and what lovely friends you may meet along the way!

Happy stamping until next time

Jan