This was the first card that we made at the South Burlington stamp club gathering. I try to do the “harder” card first while everyone is fresh, and this card did take a little longer to assemble. It wasn’t difficult by any stretch, but poking out all of the fiddly bits from the black flower cluster took a while. We did find that my die started to not cut quite as well, and a tip that I have if that happens is to run it through the machine more than once. I’m not criticizing the dies – I think my dies are working fine. But I’m very frugal and my plates for my Big Shot are very well loved so perhaps that contributed. Also every machine is calibrated a teeny bit different, so dies that work perfectly in one machine may need multiple passes in another.
Other than the diecut, this card can be put together very quickly. I want to especially point out the greeting stamp that I used. This is a wonderful new set called “Go To Greetings” from the new catalog that was designed by a Million Sales Achiever named Sandi Hartka. I knew the second I saw the set that I had to purchase it. There are extremely useful sentiments like “Happy Birthday” and “Just a Note” in 3 different font styles so you can have just the right wish with any design you come up with. My hat’s off to Sandi – it is a HUGE accomplishment to reach $1 million in sales, and she helped design a truly fantastic set. I encourage you to check it out on page 26 or online here so you can see it’s awesomeness!
I used this sketch from the Global Design Project as the inspiration for my card. I knew right away that I wanted to create an ombre effect with the 4 vertical strips in the design, and the colors that I chose seem to do it well with just the right amount of contrast and fade between each one. I did consider using some of the new In Colors instead, but I wanted the strips to not be quite a “loud” in the design and provide some interesting background to the diecut flowers and the greeting.
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