April Showers

My goodness, it's Wednesday already! This week is going by in a woosssssh! I'm here today to share my Creative Inspirations DT card with you. We have a sketch to challenge you this week. I really loved the sketch - too bad I covered up all the nice layout features with my embellishments. Why did I spend so much time dry embossing and then clear heat embossing that black panel, and then sewing it down with a fancy stitch? All you can see is a little corner and edge peeking out. I am going to use this sketch again and hopefully will restrain myself next time. What do you think - can I do it?

The Details (there are lots of dets this time as I worked on this silly thing all day on Tuesday): The wonderful vintage calendar is from a site called Clearly Vintage which has an abundance of free vintage images. I downloaded all 12 months and hope to do a card a month with them. I printed it onto Very Vanilla CS and sponged it with Creamy Caramel.

The DP is digital from Designer Digitals, again printed on my home computer. Last week, a reader left me a question about ink usage when printing DP. It's really not too user unfriendly. I put a color cartridge into my printer in November and didn't change it again until March. Nowadays I don't do too much color printing other than card making so most of that was to print DP. I am not displeased with that amount of ink usage - especially for the instant gratification I get when I can alter and print my own paper, matching it up with other elements I am using.

The DP was also sponged with Creamy Caramel and distressed. The circle panel was stamped with the SU Script BG stamp in Vintage Photo and sponged also with Creamy Caramel. The black panel was dry embossed with the CB Victoria EF and then brayered with Versamark and clear embossed. I made up my own sentiment "There can be no rainbow without drops of rain", printed it and then dry embossed it with the CB Organic border EF, sponged it with Creamy Caramel, punched it with a MS border punch and sewed it down. Bow is crinkled seam binding, flourish is a die cut from a BossKut die with Creamy Caramel paper and sponged with the same ink.

The flower is hand made using a Spellbinders Flower Petals die. My inspiration came from this post. You have to see the amazing flowers and really beautiful card Grace Nywening made. Using Very Vanilla CS, I cut four each of three sizes of flowers and stamped both sides with a Tim Holtz floral flourish stamp in Vintage Photo. Then I sponged all edges with Creamy Caramel and snipped each petal from the edge to almost the center. Then I squirted each die cut with Tattered Angels glimmer mist to saturate them, shaped each individual layer and let them dry. Then I stacked them together, gluing each layer. Finally I am happy with a flower that I made! I thought it was the perfect finishing touch.

So, I spent way longer than I should have messing around with this little masterpiece. Hope you like it! I sincerely appreciate the time you take to leave me a comment.

Please check out the wonderful sketch and fab prize this week at the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge blog. Actually, it's two prizes: super yummy ribbons from Crafty Ribbons AND the opportunity to be our guest designer for the month of May!!! The other DT members have some wonderful work for your inspiration! Hop on over, get inspired and make a challenge card for this week's sketch challenge!

Hugs and blessings,

Challenges:

Caardvark's - Monochromatic

Quixotic Challenges - Make a Splash

My Time to Craft - Quick Quotes

All That Scraps - Sewing on your project