Inkspot@Papillon: Home Sweet Home Card - Lawnscaping Challenge: Create a Background

Home Sweet Home

This card took a long time. Some cards just roll out so easily, and then others I trip and stumble over. I kept changing my mind and trying different things, and changing and trying, and changing and trying. Some of the photos have different elements in them, but you can see the end product in the photo once I finally decided what I wanted. Fear not, I plan on adding video to these posts just as soon as I get it all figured out and find a decent light source. For this particular post you'll have to make do with photos only, I'm afraid.

We've had such grey weather here in southern Ontario lately that I really wanted bright, happy colours. Anything to make me feel like spring is getting closer.

I looked through my small supply of stamps, and came up with the only set of Lawn Fawn stamps I have so far. Don't get me wrong, I love Lawn Fawn. They're images are absolutely adorable! I just don't have much of anything at the moment, so my choices were very limited. In fact I had the choice between Home Sweet Home and Home Sweet Home. Not much of a choice there!

I used 110 lb Neenah Solar White card stock for the base, cut at 5"x10" and scored and 5" to make a 5x5 card. I really love 4x4 and 5x5 cards as they're a little less common. It's harder to find envelopes for them, but if you use an envelope punch board, you can whip one up in no time at all, which is what I do. It's also a great way to really personalize your card.

Next I cut a 5x5 piece of the green patterned card stock by Momenta. I'd never heard of this brand of card stock, but oddly enough, in one my rare visits to WalMart I came across a few different pads of card stock made by this company and it's really pretty amazing. Very cute patterns in nice bold colours at a really reasonable price. I'll try to post a link along with all the other supplies I used at the end of this post.

Next I cut a piece of 80 lb Neenah Solar White card and put it through my Silhouette, using a scalloped edge border. This border isn't completely even which gives it a cute sort of playful appearance. I cut it at 4.875" square so that it would layer nicely on the green and have a border around it. I chose a matching pink card stock, cut it at the same measurement as the white with the scalloped edge, cut it down and layered that over as well.

Here you can see where I started to change my mind a bit. My original thought was to create a background using the little bird and leaf stamps and colour them in with Copics. I've done this a lot in the past, but for this particular card it just wasn't working for me. The background became too busy and the yellow added one too many colours. So, into my "Ideas" box it went. Maybe it will reappear at a later date.

Next I used another piece of the 80 lb white, and cut a circle using the small Lawn Fawn Stitched Circles on my Cuttlebug. This was the biggest circle in the set. I took a matching piece of the green card stock which has a really cute pattern on it and compliments the stamps really nicely. I cut a matching circle using the same tools, and then created the wave using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hills Border die set.

This is when I started second guessing my choice of backgrounds, and scrapped the idea. I cut another piece, and chose the leaf stamps, squiggle, solid and heart outline, arranged them on a block in a pattern I liked and stamped them in Versamark. I chose a pearl white embossing powder from Martha Stewart and heat embossed it.

Note: The Martha Stewart embossing powders actually work really nicely. I have a few other brands and this one stands up with the others. It was also one of the first ones I bought at my local Michael's store when I wanted to try it out (with a coupon!) and I'm pretty happy with it.

With all my background pieces done, I set about stamping the focal image with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I used Copics for the colouring, and die cut the birdhouse and banner, adhering them with dimensionals to give it some extra character. I stamped the little blue hearts with Stampin' Up Soft Sky, added some glitter with clear Wink of Stella on the birds and the door, and finished it off with Glossy Accents on the heart between the birds and the little door knob.

I try to never leave the inside of any card blank. I just can't resist adding a little something as an extra treat, so I stamped some leaves on the bottom and right side with Ranger's Shabby Shutters Distress Ink.

Nothing on this card is done perfectly, and I designed it in that way. The stamp set is playful and has a fun quality about it. I just felt like if things were done perfectly, it would take something away from the feeling of the card.

I had a great time making this card, and I'm really looking forward to getting some more sets from Lawn Fawn. They really have a whimsical feel and the possibilities are endless.

Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the card and come back to see more!