Mom's birthday card

Hi there! Today I thought I'd post the birthday card I made for my mom. Don't worry, she got it already (even though it was late - very late). I think I inherited my aversion to the post office from her! lol

I thought I'd start by showing you the first version. While I love the image panel, the card came out *ugh*. As much as I *wish* I didn't make any mistakes, I'd really rather keep it real. I mean, I make ugly things (doesn't everyone?) but I do TRY to go back & fix it. You just got invited along to see how.... :)


I just love this stamp from Third Coast (well, they are one of my very favorite companies) she looks so purposeful and mysterious. This card just didn't look purposeful - OR mysterious! lol I think I was trying not to use too much black, thankfully I've passed that phase. I can tell you that I worked really, really hard making the base card the right color, choosing the accent stamp & coloring it and making the placement *just so*. Yuck.

Sorry to burn your eyeballs out like that... how 'bout this instead? Oh, much better! Once I got past my aversion to black (really, how could I be averse to black?!) things started to fall into place. By changing the orientation of the image piece and using basic tone on tone stamping I brought life back to the important parts!

You may be wondering about that panel. It's not actually a difficult technique, I just sponged Lumieres on a piece of watercolor paper until I liked the way it came together.

The woman was chosen long after the background was done. I think she was waiting for the perfect background. Eh, it's what I do. Stamp by the seat of my pants, that is!

Thanks for dropping by!

Recipe: Woman from Third Coast, corner from Bo Bunny, Halo Blue Green & Gold Lumiere paint, watercolor paper, Charcoal chalk ink, Brilliance Graphite Black, gold gel pen, black & gold c/s, pop dots