have a great day

Someone please stop me! I'm supposed to be relaxing but I can't stop blogging! LOL My new Hero Arts Shoes set was begging to be inked up so I just had to make this card using the Color Throwdown #150 combination which is perfect for the Hero Arts July Contest Summertime Theme. I bought the nesties used to make this card shape because I was inspired by my talented friend Donna Mikasa's cards here, here and here. I ended up with both Wonky Rectangles and Reverse Wonky Rectangles so be prepared to see a lot of both in the future. :Þ

I learned something about making these frames during sublication (making cards to submit for publication). When they are embossed, they shrink so the edge of the white panel shows at the edges behind the frame. It looks a lot better if you trim a millimetre off all sides. I used the direct-to-paper inking technique on the flip flops and you can see in the close up photo how it leathered up the paper. I love how real the sandals look! I was going to fussy cut the flower and layer it but I got lazy. Everything else is pretty straight forward.

Do you like my new watermark? I bet you're not the least bit surprised to see another bike! I asked Unity's Lisa Arana create it for me. She is so talented and sells a lot of super cool watermarks. I only have about ten of them now. ;) Check out Lisa's blog HERE for more info!

Sources: SU Certainly Celery cardstock; Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Hero Arts Clouds, Joy Ride & Shoes; SU Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red & Pink Pirouette inks; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; Spellbinders Nestabilities Wonky Rectangles; MFT Fresh Cut Grass die; QuicKutz Epic Six; SU Basic Rhinestones; Stampin' Dimensionals

Thinking of You

I made this card using one of the sketches for the Hero Arts April Contest, as well as the colour palette from Color Throwdown #135. This is my first time playing in this colour challenge and I thought these would be great colours for the masculine part of the Hero Arts April Contest as well.

I used the Classic Bike and the tricycle from Joy Ride to create a background for the red panel. As Michelle Bartnett explains in this tutorial, you must remove the actual portion of the image that is missing from the space instead of just spreading it apart, otherwise it does not look realistic. I did just that where you see a tiny portion of the red strip is missing to expose the yellow card base.

I chose a couple of sentiments from Essential Messages and linked them together with the ampersand from Typewriter Letters. I popped both the ribbon tail and the circle and added some charcoal twine to finish. It took a lot of maneuvering of the pieces to get this card just right but I'm extremely satisfied with it. Now I don't know if I can give it away. LOL

Sources: SU So Saffron, Real Red & Naturals Ivory cardstock; Gina K Designs pure luxury Black Onyx cardstock; Hero Arts Classic Bike, Joy Ride, Essential Messages & Typewriter Letters; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Vivid Red ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large; QuicKutz Epic Six; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" long reach circle punch; SU paper piercer; Anchor cross stitch needle; The Twinery Charcoal baker's twine; Stampin' Dimensionals