Saturday, August 13, 2011

A party for my friend

When I was still a working girl I made a lovely friend, Joan.  Her birthday was this past weekend and we were invited to her party up in Estes Park.  It was a lovely day up in the mountains - with just a touch of rain and gorgeous temperatures! :)  My boy was able to climb rocks (which he told us over and over on the way up that there were good rocks to climb there, no THERE!) and take his first turn at a pinata.  I often miss those friends that I made at BMA... hopefully we'll see each other more often now.
Here is the card I made for Joan's birthday - I hope she loves it!
I found this gorgeous Inkadinkado stamp at Jo Ann's a while ago.  Actually, I found two stamps with similar images, this is just the first to be featured. :)
The glass was colored with a mix of Copic markers and distress inks with a water pen.  The flower was colored with watercolor markers and a water brush.  Unfortunately, you can't tell that I followed Dina's instructions for adding dimension to the flower.  I don't think I used enough pressure to really get the petals popped up. *sigh*  Oh, well.
The mat was just a piece of kraft paper run through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder.  After inking the embossed section I ran it back through to flatten it.  It's always best to cut it to size *after* you've embossed and flattened - the paper always seems to stretch in unexpected ways.  Everything was edged with more distress ink in either brown or blue, except the ribbon (seam binding! yay!) which I colored completely with the same DI color.  Once it was all put together and photographed I added a bit of black Spica to the center of the flower.  Figures! :)
One more thing to share before I head off.  I received a surprise package in the mail from my lovely friend Lauren early this week.  In the box was this:
Why, yes!  That is a lovely card there on the left... and a three part prezzie on the right! :)  What's in it you ask?  Well you'll just have to wait and see! :D
Thanks for dropping by!

5 comments:

mel m. m. mccarthy said...

This card is SO incredible I'm sure Joan will love it, madly. The colours & the texture and the layout. Gorgeous! The party sounds wonderful. (Rock climbing is the best!)And what a gorgeous gift from your friend Lauren. You SO deserve it!

SYLVIA-ANNE said...

A beautiful card Mari - love the embossed panel and the image - gorgeous colouring too.
What a wonderful card and gift - wonder what's inside???!!

Hope all is well with you and yours - hugs, Sylvia xxx

Karen B. said...

Your card is just divine! Love the splash of colors with the blue and orange!

Elizabeth Allan said...

Mari you art is beautiful and your blog is inspiring. Great intensity of colors on this card. Can't wait to see more of your designs.

lauren bergold said...

holy macaroni wouldja *LOOK* at that amazingly dimensional totally realistic bottle!!!!!!! HOW do ya even DO THAT??!?! (i know, you told us basically and i could read the inspiration post but i just never quite GET IT the way you do!!!) i cannot see how miss joan would fail to be massively impressed and delighted by this card but if she was you can steal it back and send it to me!!! :)