In Loving Memory

Happy Labor Day to those of you that live in the US. One of the perks working for the state government is getting holidays off.  My previous jobs were working in the medical field and let’s face it, sick people still need to be taken care of – holiday or no holiday.

If you came here today looking for the new Digi Design House challenge, I’m afraid I have a bit of bad news.  Unfortunately, The Angel Company (DDH is a branch of) made the tough decision to close its store due to the tough economy that many are experiencing.  I had a blast being part of a new venture TAC started with it’s digital stamp division.  I LOVED getting to know my fellow Design Team partners and marvelling in their creativity week in and week out.  I have all of their blogs bookmarked so I can pop in now and then and continue to be inspired by their fantastic works of art.

As a final send off, I decided to make two cards with the same image but showing you how different they can look just by changing up a few things.  I fell in love with the colors used in  the photo inspiration from Sketchy Colors to use Brown, Beige and Purple.

I used a pansy digi from DDH and using my graphics program I added the sentiment on all four sides of the image.  I printed off the image, die cut the image using a rectangle Spellbinder and then free-handed the border connecting the sentiments to make a frame around the sentiment.  So easy but I think quite effective.

For my first card I’m using the sketch from this weeks challenge at Totally Gorjuss.   I colored the image with copics.  I used a Marianne Design diecut for the swirl under the larger butterfly.  The border was made using a Martha Stewart punch that I topped with two different ribbons; one sheer and one twill.  The butterflies are stickers from K & Co.  I also added a few rhinestones to the center of the flower and into each of the punched border flowers.  The background DP is from Life’s Little Occasions by K & Co; I love the soft, muted colors found in the collection.

For my second card, I using this week’s sketch from The Sweet Shop.  This sketch is similar to the first card but this one has a panel behind the image.  I did something a bit different too for this card.  Rather than print the image on the standard white cardstock, I chose to print the image on colored cardstock.  By doing this, it automatically gives the card more of a vintage, old-world feel to the card – it soften all of the colors.  I did have to use deeper copic colors but I think it turned out pretty well.  I again added two layers of ribbon but this time topped them with a bow.  I added a few pearls instead of rhinestones, again keeping with a more vintage look. I didn’t use an DP to make this card but rather I used two different embossing folders to give the card a bit of dimension.  I small K & Co butterfly was added to complete the card.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I hope you’ll stop by again soon!  Dee

Other Challenges:

Ribbon Carousel – All Tied Up (use at least two spools)

Charisma Cards – Anything Goes     Scrapbook Sisters – Anything Goes

Sukkersott – Condolences      Sentimental Sundays – Sympathy