Dishin' the Dirt

Beginning last Wednesday, Splitcoaststampers has been hosting a series of challenges (design, sketch, technique, color, etc.). More specifically, it's being driven by past and present Design Team members (also known as the Dirty Girls) for the fan club members.

I've been stamping my little heart out and havin' a ball - attempting to play in the dirt pile!!!

As a result, I've been updating my SCS gallery like crazy lately. I'll be posting a new one each time I blog.

The first card I'm posting here was for a sketch challenge. I love to follow sketches. They are the building block for good design. I try to create a sketch for each of the classes I hold and show how easy and versatile they are to create and personalize. Of all the cards I've done for the Challenges... this is my favorite...

The card base is Night of Navy (stamped with the Weathered Background) with a panel of Brocade Blue, Going Gray, Basic black and white (I used Georgia Pacific White cardstock from Walmart... it is a fabulous cardstock with "tooth" and body / weight).

I stamped the Brocade Blue panel with Baroque Motifs swirl (brocade and whisper white). I added the flowers with Night of Navy kissed off first. The Grey panel has French Script background. The edges are distressed.

The main image was embossed with silver detail powder. The center flower was made using the Faux Metal technique, punched into a tag (3/4" circle), stitched on the center of the swirl with dark gray embroidery floss, and a black crystal glued to it. I used my scraps from the Faux metal piece to punch small circles for "faux brads" and glued them onto the panels. The small silver square was a Making Memories tin tile and is stitched to the cardstock with gray embroidery floss.

Tip: I glued the tin square to the cardstock and used my needle to
create "pilot" holes before attempting to stitch. This ensured that the
square would be exactly where I wanted it to be and I wouldn't damage the
cardstock, trying to hand-stitch blindly on paper.

There are tons of details to the card, but I really loved every thing about it. I rarely say that about a card I make.

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

p.s. This is slightly related... so I'll just add this here as a sidenote. I've had a couple of SCS top stampers either comment on a card of mine or post here on my blog. I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is for me. Perhaps it's the validation... or maybe it's because they are celebrities in their own right... whatever it is, it's been great and I'm humbled!