a little card with lots of encouragement

When I saw this week's sketch at Retro Sketches I knew what stamps I wanted to ink up and I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to use for embellishments but then this one took on a life of its own!  I had to keep the card size at 3 1/2 x 3 1/2" to make good use of the stamps I wanted to use for the front and I had to vary from the sketch a bit and use 4 strips instead of the 3 shown in the sketch, but I tried a couple of new things on this card and was pleased with how they turned out.  Despite the card's small size, I still managed to pack a lot of encouragement into it and I plan to send it to my daughter for a little pick me up  as she has a really busy week coming up at college and she's at that midway point from when this term started and spring break begins.

details:  All products are from CTMH.  I started with the Laughing Lola.  The strips are made from the flip side of the magenta patterned paper and the zip strip from that paper.  I started off with the frame stamp in the Family Photo set (a Hostess Rewards set from the autumn/winter '13 Idea Book) and the sentiment is from the Paisley Perfect set stamped in black ink on Lagoon cardstock.  I have been experimenting with CTMH's  shimmer tape and found it can be cut with decorative edged scissors so I covered the frame image with black shimmer trim and trimmed with scalloped edged scissors.  For added embellishments, I used purple glitter gems and made my own bakers twine by twisting black and purple embroidery floss together with a strand of metallic silver I pulled from some metallic twine from another kit.  For the inside of the card, I used the A Typeface set in black ink.  I used gold embossing powder with the frame from the Laughing Lola cardmaking WOTG and the other sentiment from the Paisley Perfect set on black cardstock.  I used the Artbooking Cricut cartridge to cut the "be yourself" banner and the sentiment "always and forever" and then just fussy cut as I just wanted to use the "always."  I also used the Artbooking cartridge to cut the "1 of a kind" out of the gold cardstock that came in the Lola pack and "sweet" banner out of Gypsy cardstock.  Below are some pictures of how I lined up the shimmer trim on the frame stamp, just in case anyone needs a visual (which I usually do the first time I try something, lol.)

Laughing Lola peace signs

My daughter is pretty much a hippie at heart and she has always loved smiley faces and peace signs so I wasn't at all surprised when she picked a comforter for college that featured brightly colored peace signs everywhere.  Since the first picture frame/dry erase board I made last year, I had promised to make one for my daughter when she was ready to go to college so I loved that the Laughing Lola paper kit so closely matched the colors in her comforter.  I can't wait until she gets home from her last shift at her summer job and I can show it to her!

I had hoarded saved some of the Ocean blue from the discontinued summer colors CTMH had several years ago.  This project is doubly nostalgic actually because this was the first paper pack I bought from CTMH and I got  it specifically because that blue was and still is my daughter's favorite color, and this is the last project I will get to make her before she leaves home.  Other than the Ocean, I used the Lola snakeskin pattern for the peace signs and letters, Gypsy and the Lola purple for the solid colored peace signs, and the zip  strip from the paisley page of the Lola kits as a border.  The letters for her name are from the Artbooking cartridge and the peace sign is from the "Feelin' Groovy" Cricut cartridge, which is also something I bought with my daughter in mind, and it has seen a lot of use, LOL!

Happy crafting, Annette