This card was commissioned by a long-term friend who was looking for a 40th wedding anniversary card for her parents and asked me if I would be willing to make one for her. I immediately said yes and as soon as the weekend rolled around, I sat down to create as I need to send the card to her quickly so she receives it in time since she lives out of town.
When I got started on the project, I remembered how insecure crafting for somebody else is. I don't mean me making a card I'm sending to a friend on my behalf. I'm talking making a card that somebody else will hand out. Commissioned cards are usually requested for special events and I'm always worried that I'll miss the mark. I ask a few questions to get an idea of what they need, but I try not to go too deep into details as then people start to get really precise on what they are expecting and this is where the risk of disappointing becomes really high and the inspiration gets killed really quickly becomes the parameters are too strict. The irony is that over the years, no one has ever looked the slighest bit disappointed when I've handed in my creations so I've grown a bit more confident, but I found out today that the worry will never truly go away.
I played a long time with various elements before I finished this card. I like where I landed, but I just hope the result is not too busy. The starting point was a background I had made last week when I tested out stencils and various texture paste options. In this case, I had inked the edges of a blue cardstock with Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide ink before applying Moonlight Pearl Luna Paste through Finnabair's Ornate Lace stencil. On a side note, Luna Paste is my favorite sparkly paste, because the shine is gorgeous and the texture of the paste is smooth (no grit). The downside is that because it is so smooth, it tends to easily run under the stencil and you don't get as sharp edges to your images, as evidenced here with the lace pattern, which is not well-defined. I'll admit I should have at least taken the time to use Pixie Spray on the stencil to help out, but I only remembered about it as I was starting out and at this point, I was just testing out products so I didn't bother.
I was really liking my background and found it to be a good starting point for the card. I then pulled out the Large Numbers dies and die-cut 40 out of Burnished Rose, my favorite colour of foiled cardstock. I got the idea of pull out my Prem dies from Birch Press Design to back the numbers. I was trying to decide what colours to use and thought metallics might be nice, so I used Champagne foil paper for the base. I actually meant to cut through it with the die, but I forgot to switch to my Chrome precision plate, so it only embossed and didn't cut properly. Turned lemons into lemonade and made this my base layer. I will say, the Chrome precision plate is one of the best purchase I made for my Big Shot. The difference in results is notable with detailed dies. For my other three layers, I used the Pearlescent Specialty Paper currently sold by Stampin' Up! in its mini-catalogue. Used the same paper for the second layer and inked it with Distress Oxide ink. The result is really, really faint, but it was enough to create contrast and for the third layer, I went with Soft Sky.
My friend had requested for "Congratulations" to be the sentiment on the card, so I pulled out my word die. I was trying to match cardstock and had trouble, so I decided to make life easier for myself by inking some lighter blue cardstock with Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide ink and I got the result I wanted. The sentiment was getting lost over the busy background, so I embossed a piece of cardstock and inked the dots and edges with the same ink to soften the result. I wanted the add a heart somewhere and I remembered I had some chipboard hearts in my stash, so I went looking for the box. In my reorgnization efforts last year, I took all of the chipboard pieces from Stampin' Up! out of the 12" x 12" sheets they came in and put them all together in a box. It not only saved me space, but I've started using my pieces again on various projects throughout the year. I not only found a heart, but also a long tag and a crown, so I incorporated those in my design as well.
I covered the crown with embossing. Various layers of embossing. I started with Platinum powder, sure that it would match the champagne foil paper nicely. Nope - way too yellow. I added VersaMark and added Silver, thinking the two colours would melt together and create a in-between. The result was just silver and totally clashed. So I looked at my stash and I found Vintage Beeswax in there and thought it might tone down the metallic a bit, which it did. The result is a matte brownish shade and even though it was unexpected, it totally works. I added blue and cream pearls to dress it up, and added Café au lait pearls to the numbers. For the chipboard heart, I did a first layer of Blushing Bride powder and then while the powder was hot, I sprinkled copper powder on it to give it texture and tame the pink down. I also brushed the VersaMark pad against the edge of the heart and added more copper embossing there as well. I added a piece of Blushing Bride satin ribbon to tie in the pink, and I added a cream sparkly flower from the Sugar Cookie Christmas collection.
The card size is 4½" x 6½". My friend had also requested to include, if possible, a quote from Honoré de Balzac inside the card, so I used my printer to add a liner with the quote and a couple more chipboard hearts embossed the same way in there.
Then came the challenge of having a big enough envelope. My first try was using the pearlescent Specialty paper and it failed, as I made a card for the size of the card itself and it was way too tight with al of my layers, especially the flower. I went back to the drawing board and switched to Very Vanilla cardstock as I didn't have a big enough piece of Specialty paper anymore. I went up a size and made my envelope. I stenciled the Ornate Lace pattern on the flap using a stripple brush and Chipped Sapphire ink. On the front of the envelope, I embellished with leftover pieces from the card - the center of the circle and the numbers I had embossed and discarded because the pattern made it way too distracting. The purple tape I had used to keep the stencil in place unfortunately had ripped my cardstock when I pulled it up, so I added copper washi tape inside the envelope flap. It hid the boo-boo, but also made the envelope look quite fancy. Finally, I was wondering how to close the envelope, since it's not lying flat. I thought about using two circles and twine, but then decided to pull out my snaps and try this out instead. At first, I couldn't reach far enough with my tool on the bottom flat, but then I remembered I could cut it at an angle since it was the inside of the envelope, and that solved the problem. The envelope gave me a lot of grief, probably because it was getting late and I was ready to be done with the project, but I didn't want to rush things just to finish, so I kept going and finally finished it to my liking.
All that is left to do is package is safely for shipping and cross my fingers that both my friends and her parents will be pleased with the results.
Supplies
Stamps: Au fil des ans (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Buckaroo Blue, Soft Sky, Metallic Foil Sheets, Pearlescent Specialty Paper,
Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!); Burnished Rose Mirror Cardstock (Tonic)
Ink: Soft Sky, Buckaroo Blue Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark;
Chipped Sapphire, Frayed Burlap, Speckled Egg Distress Oxide (Ranger)
Accessories: Monnlight Pearl Luna Paste (Cosmic Shimmer);
Blending Brushes, Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder, Blending Tool (Ranger);
Sugar Cookies Christmas Flowers (Prima); Ornate Lace Stencil (Finnabair);
Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder (Seth Apert for Emerald Creek);
Blushing Bride, Silver and Copper Stampin' Emboss Powders, Envelope Punch Board,
Onboard Chipboard, Wrapped in Texture Embossing Folder (Stampin' Up!);
Vintage Shimmer, Bluebell and Café au Lait Pearls (Studio Katia);
Prem A, B and C Dies (Birch Press Design); Snaps (Suntatop);
Félicitations Joyeux Anniversaire dies (Simple à souhait)
