Prickly Deadlines

I'm on a roll! Two blog postings in a row!

I actually got asked to be a guest designer over at Digital Two for Tuesday! I was so honored and so darn excited! I got to pick the date and weeks ago when Cora emailed me I thought, 'surely by September 14 things will have calmed down at work...' Okay I was wrong but there's nothing like a deadline to 'get your motivation on'!!!

I had my choice of either of the images or - being the over-achiever that I can TEND to be - I could use both of the images. Actually I couldn't decide so I did BOTH. You can pluck the images from cyberspace over at Digital Two for Tuesday. It's fun, it's free, it's fabulous!

Cora
~Base card Paper Trey Ink - Vintage Cream
~Layer of My Mind's Eye
~Stripe of My Mind's Eye
~Fabric trim
~Image from Digital Two for Tuesday~Image is colored with Copics, edges curved using curve punch, edges smudged with Versamark Sand, clouds dotted with blue acrylic paint using a stiff stencil brush, additional 'sky' added using Versamark Powder Blue and a sponge
~Rose colored Prima flowers with flower metal brads
The layout was inspired by Card Patterns.

I loved this image the minute I saw it! My BSF's (Best Sisters Forever - Judy and Gail) and I went on a fabulous trip to Ireland, England and Scotland - a long time ago - but the memories are fresh and the feelings are warm. I immediately thought of our holiday to Scotland when I clicked open the image of the thistle! I smiled just thinking about the giggles, the laughter, the wonder, the sharing - it was an amazing journey.
Memories of Scotland~Base card - Stampin' Up Elegant Eggplant
~Layer of REALLY YUMMY design paper - K & Co Jubilee Bright Flowers I knew the second I saw this design paper that it would be PERFECT for the thistles that awaited me at home. (I was with my dear husband - at Archiver's on Saturday - he said, "what are you going to do with THAT?" I said, "you see this lavender/purple/gray-green corner?" "I need it for a card". His facial expression was - "what makes those neurons fire in that head of yours", he vocalized, "so you are buying that 12" x 12" sheet of paper (REALLY????!!!! HOW DARE he call it a SHEET OF PAPER) because you need just that 4" x 5" corner?" I replied, "Step aside, you're in the light." And YES my husband went in to Archiver's with me - his maiden voyage! He was very well behaved. I left him in the equivalent of the 'tool aisle' (punches, scissors, die cuts and machines) and went merrily on my way.
~Horizontal layers of dark hunter green and very pale green solid cardstock topped with another layer of the same design paper - from the OTHER corner (And he thought I was only going to use 4" x 5" of this scrumptious pulp!)
~I wanted to mirror the prickly nature of the flowers so I tore a strip of very pale green fabric keeping the raveled edges...well....raveled, then I stitched a gathering stitch up the middle and...you guessed it...gathered it up! After it was gathered I smudged it up a bit with lavender and grey inks.
~Large purple metal rivet (Sista Gail bought me a present! A Crop-A-Dile Big Bite complete with a slew of rivets - there just happened to be this lovely purple one in the set.) I used it because I liked the contrast of the smooth and shiny with the dull and prickly of the rest of the card.
~The original digital image is really only two thistles. I wanted a clump of these Scottish beauties so I printed it once at a slightly larger size, once at a smaller size and then mirror image/reversed the smaller size and printed it yet again. (It would never do to have four - had to have the odd number - so it took printing the image three times - but I think it was worth it!)
~Image colored with Copics: V17, V04, YG11, C-3, C-1, G000, YG63, and RV24. I really tried to keep the green to its true gray-green color. Then I topped the prickly little tops with two purple shades of Flower Soft. (These too were an intentional - one card specific purchase - I knew when I saw the images I HAD to use purple Flower Soft! The edge of the cardstock is smudged with Memento London Fog and then adhered to a single layer of purple mulberry paper (again - think prickly...)
Since I use three embellishments I'm going to link this to Paper Sundaes.

Check out all four of Cora's sites:
Paper Flowers
Clearly Vintage
Clearly Vintage on Etsy
and of course Digital Two for Tuesday!

So how cool is this - my cards are on the Digital Two for Tuesday AND she called me a "talented artist"! I think I hear my muse settling in on my shoulder...
All good wishes,
Nancy