DCM - M-A-Y!

Well, it's been a while....

I've not managed any crafting this month as it's been pretty full on with work and while we had some nice weather I finally finished a few of the books on my to-read pile.

Including my favourite read of the year so far, A Gentleman in Moscow. What a read, one of the few books where I read almost every single word and had to force myself to slow down and drink it all in. Just beautiful storytelling....

So with some time free last weekend, I had chance to get cracking on my card for this week's Darking Cardmakers challenge set by Kathy!

Kathy has challenged us to represent the letters M-A-Y on our cards in some way... some out of the box thinking required perhaps. ;)

Well I was immediately inspired by my Distress Oxide colour chart and decided I could use some yellow, Fossilized Amber and Wild Honey for a mustard tone blending into one of my favourite shades, Abandoned Coral.

So that was the Y and A taken care of. And the mustard was kind of there if you squinted. Am I allowed to say I was inspired by Dried Marigold?

No? Well I did use a Mix of colours and my sentiment does start with M, in fact it contains "May!"

That was as cooperative as my brain was being at the time...

Here's the end result!

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Hello Lovely, Mama Elephant - Birthday Messages, MFT - Big Birthday Wishes, The Stamp Market - Dotted Background
Die: Mama Elephant - Big Happy Birthday, MFT - Wonky Stitched Square STAX, Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels
Other: Distress Oxides

I definitely needed to find a way to make the whole sentiment rhyme - and hurrah, I had a "TO YOU" stamp that would work on the inside! Splendid.

So about that background. Once I'd picked the inks I wanted to work with, I decided I could also make a background on glossy paper in case I preferred that. So in addition to that fully blended background there was some ink smooshing on glossy card (it turned out nice and will become a future card), and I didn't waste what was on my craft sheet and blotted it up with another piece of card (that will become another card sometime).

The next day all three backgrounds went into my Misti to be stamped with that fab floral outline by Concord & 9th ready for heat embossing.

Once they were all heat embossed I realised I'd run out of time again, and left them overnight so the next evening it was time to actually make my cards - or so I thought.

Nope, the drama that unfolded meant I spent an aaaaaaaage making just this one card and using some colourful language when the white heat embossing welded itself into my new Mama Elephant Happy Birthday die and showed no signs of budging. I spent ages trying to get the stuff out as I needed to cut the sentiment from black cardstock 3 or 4 times to layer it up. It transferred to the black cardstock on the first few passes (so they're on the bottom layer) and although no longer transferring to cardstock now, the embossing is still not cleaned out properly... My poor Stamp Market Jumbo Tag die also experienced the same fate before I realised what had happened.

So lesson learned - always place baking paper between your die and distress oxide heat embossed background just in case this ever happens again! Never experienced anything like this with embossing...

But yes, it went a bit smoother after that, I puzzle pieced the black sentiment into the background, building up the layers and offsetting the original cutout on top so it looks like it has a drop shadow effect. I looked to my tiny sentiment collection for some accompanying words and found a perfect match for my needs thanks to Mama Elephant's Birthday Messages.

A few sequins and the front was done.

For the sentiment inside I used a favourite sentiment set from MFT stamped onto a background from my stash created with the Stamp Market's Dotted background and Minty Fresh ink from Lawn Fawn.

And finally my card was done! A real labour of love.

Here's hoping the next card is smoother sailing!

Make sure you check out the wonderful card creations by the design team over on the blog and play along if you can! :)

Happy crafting!

 

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Concord & 9th - Hello Lovely stamps Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC	Mama Elephant - Birthday Messages stamps Shop at: EH | SHC	MFT - Big Birthday Wishes stamps Shop at: EH | SHC	The Stamp Market - Dotted Background stamp Shop at: MISC | SSS
Mama Elephant - Big Happy Birthday die Shop at: EH | SHC	MFT - Wonky Stitched Square STAX dies Shop at: EH | SHC	Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels dies Shop at: SSS	Distress Oxide ink pad - Abandoned Coral Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Fossilized Amber Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Wild Honey Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Minty Fresh ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH
Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	PTI - True Black cardstock Shop at: MISC	Pretty Pink Posh - Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix sequins Shop at: EH | SSS
Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Sakura - Quickie Glue pen Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Marvy Jewel Picker Shop at: AZ	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI creative corners Shop at: EH | SBC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Ranger - Mini round ink blending tools Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

Comments

[Kathy]

Oh gosh, what a traumatic time you had, I feel I should apologise for making you go through it all!

If its any consolation, the card you've made was worth it - it is absolutely fantastic and I love every single thing about it