We’ve made it through another week, and I don’t know about you but this one went by quickly with Ash Wednesday in the middle. The start of Lent always means a lot more rehearsal time for me. Such is the life of a singer! Despite some crazy weather at the beginning of the week, we’re enjoying more springlike weather here in North Texas.
But the real business you’ve all come for is Sketchy Fridays, so we’ll get right to it! For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we’re using a card sketch to design our featured card. Right now, we’re working through a full series of designs using the card sketches found in current Stampin’ Up! catalogs.
This week’s card is based on Sketch #16 from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Today’s design features the Lovely Garden paper and decorative masks, along with the Textured Notes dies, all from the new Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives release.
I decided to try a different technique with the decorative masks after seeing several other demos use it. The masks for the Thankful Garden stamp set are made, not only to use with the stamped images, but also can stand alone to make lovely watercoloresque images.
Our card starts with a base of Balmy Blue cardstock with a background panel of the Lovely Garden designer series paper. I decided to reiterate the floral images on the focal panel, so I used the masks and 3 shades of purpley-pink (Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia, and Petunia Pop) to create the flowers. I cut them out with my paper snips. I created the focal panel by first using the Textured Notes dies to cut a piece of vellum (because I wanted the lovely background pattern to show through) and then the piece of black and white polka dot from the Lovely Garden pack. I tied some Fresh Freesia velvet ribbon around the background panel before adhering and then adhered the focal panel pieces over it. I layered the flowers with dimensionals to give some depth. I stamped the sentiment in Fresh Freesia on white using the Mixed Labels stamps and cut it out with the Something Fancy hexagon die. The sentiment mat is cut from Petunia Pop glimmer paper using the Mixed Labels dies. I put a twist of gold thread in between the two sentiment layers for a little added sparkle before adding some of the starburst sequins.
Today’s sketch inspired a few changes here and there to the suggested layout. Remember, a sketch should never tie you down but just make the process of getting started and finishing a lot easier. When all is said and done, I really like the softer look you can achieve by using the decorative masks by themselves like I did here, but I’m probably much more likely to use them in conjunction with the stamped images because I really like the definition and detail. But isn’t it fun to try new things?!
We’ll be closing out our series tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop in and see how we finish off our week!
Product List
Song Sparrow Papercrafts 