Spring Inspiration

Being that we were all talking groundhogs and spring a couple days ago, I got the itch to work on some cards with nice, light springtime colors. A Pottery Barn catalog came in the mail and I flipped through it thinking that there'd be all sorts of inspiration inside. I found that I was a little disappointed. The pages reminded me more of fall than spring, but I was determined to find something to use. There was really only one page that seemed remotely spring-like and I ripped it out before sending the rest of the catalog to the recyling bin: I saw Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, and maybe Creamy Caramel in the pillows and went to my cardstock drawers to pull some colors. I was right about the Celery and Bashful Blue, but Creamy Caramel sitting next to them wasn't doing much so I swapped it for Kraft--that was going to be the color for my card base since the couch was the base for the pillows.


I wanted an airy component for this spring card, and I had been wanting to try the "Vitalized Vellum" technique that I had read about. I grabbed my Celery and Bashful ink spots, and then the Apricot one too (to simulate sunshine!!) and added color to my vellum cardstock. I used a dauber to blend the edges of color, being careful not to distort or muddy the colors. Then I used the solid image stamps from the "For All You Do" set (butterfly, medium and small flowers) and proceeded to stamp some of the color OFF the vellum. This gives a shadowy effect that makes a great background that is SO much cheaper than colored vellum found in some stores--and "vitalized vellum comes in any color and pattern you wish!!



This technique worked quite well in my catalog-picture-inspired card:

The vellum piece (once it's dry) gets mounted on a piece of Whisper White so the pattern shows through a bit better. The craft card base pattern is stamped with Versamark, while the focal point is stamped with Certainly Celery. The Thank You is done in Ballet Blue.

Those of you who really know the ribbon section of the Stampin' Up catalog might notice that it seems that I used Bashful Blue 5/8" grosgrain ribbon. Normally that wouldn't be very notable--except that there IS NO such ribbon!! To create the effect of wider ribbon, all I did was use 2 pieces of the Bashful Blue 1/4" grosgrain side-by-side and then cover the center "seam" with a piece of Celery 1/4" grosgrain. Problem solved!! Where there's a will, there's a way!!