Artisan Blog Hop Day #4

Welcome to Day #4 of the Artsan Award Blog Hop. If you didn't get a chance to come by yesterday, let me explain. This years' Artisan Award winners are having a BLOG HOP. We're going to show you all of our winning projects, and let you know a bit about how we made them. If you check out all projects over the whole hop you will see 100 winning projects. So don't forget to stop by tomorrow! Underneath my project, you will find a link to the next blog on the tour, and at the very bottom of this post you will find a complete list of all 10 blogs, in case you get lost on the tour. You should have just come from Connie Collins' blog. Isn't she terribly talented. I love her work.

 

This card is another hybrid project made with My Digital Studio.  I think this card is my favourite of all the cards I entered.  For starters, it's got purple and green (best colour combo - ever!!!!!) and it took me more than a month from start to finish to create this card.  I was inspired by the work of Dawn McVey.  Don't ask me which card of hers in particular, I just love her stuff.  Anyway, I also just love the stamp set Notably Ornate, but I don't actually own it myself.  I printed out several images from My Digital Studio in Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait, and Crumb Cake.  Eventually I settled on mostly Concord Crush and a bit of Crumb Cake.  I printed them out in several sizes to see if I could get them to work with the punches I have.  So the large frame I cut out by hand and then sponged the edges (to hide the flaws!)  The oval frame I cut out by hand and then distressed the edges again. 
And here's where I got stumped.  I wanted to mount it on Concord Crush, but I wasn't having any success cutting out a frame freehand.  If only I had a scallop oval that would fit!!  But then I was struck by a rare thought of inspiration.  Click here for my tutorial on how I framed the oval. 
I was thrilled that I was able to punch out the circle frame from Frames with a Flourish using the 1 3/4" Scallop Circle punch.  Remember that I printed out several copies of it and it took several tries for me to get one that was centred perfectly.  But unfortunately I printed it out on Perfect Plum cardstock.  And I had made my scallop frame from Elegant Eggplant cardstock.  And then I had these butterflies punched out with the Beautiful wings Embosslit, in Concord Crush.  I was a bit hesitant to combine all 3 purples because they aren't all the same tones of purple.  But once I laid the whole card out before I glued it, I decided that it was worth taking the risk.  I mounted the entire middle on several different layers of cardstock.  But I really wasn't happy.  I decided to put some ribbon along the bottom, but I find the Stiched Poly Ribbon difficult to ruffle, and I knew I wanted a ruffled ribbon for more of a vintage look.  So then I took some Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon and inked it up with a Concord Crush classic ink pad.  It took a long time to dry out, but once it was dry I ruffled it along the bottom of the card.  And FINALLY I was happy with it!!!

I hope you enjoyed today's project, now hop on over to Heidi King's blog to see her next amazing project.

SUPPLIES:

Stamp Brushes - Notably Ornate, Frames with a Flourish

Cardstock – Elegant Eggplant, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Whisper White, Confetti Cream, Perfect Plum
Classic Ink - Concord Crush, Crumb Cake
MDS “Ink” –Elegant Eggplant, Crumb Cake
Adhesives – SNAIL adhesive, Sticky Strip, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots
Punches - 1 ¾” Scallop Circle – Trimmed and shaped to fit around large oval frame image, Two-Step Bird Punch Extra Large,
Accessories – Baja Breeze ½” Seam Binding Ribbon inked with Concord Crush Classic Ink, Whisper White 1/8” Taffeta Ribbon, Beautiful Wings Embosslit with the Big Shot, Very Vanilla Vintage Flower Adornments, Perfect Plum Designer Button, Pewter Mini Library Clip,
Non-Stampin’ Up! white thread

THE ARTISAN AWARD WINNERS BLOG HOP 2011

1. Connie Collins  

2. Sandra Farrell   (You are here)
3. Heidi King  
4. Heather Klump   
5. Cheryl LeFore   

6. Laura Mellinger

7. Jennifer Picard    

8. Heather Stevens
9. Summer Stone    

10. Heather Summers