Sending Love

Good morning my friends and welcome back to the craft room! Today I am going to share a clean and simple Sending Love card with you. When I first started thinking about this card, I had a million ideas rolling around in my mind. To set things in place, and clear my head I grabbed my Project Idea sheet and sketched out what I wanted. It’s amazing how much easier it is to create something when you have a plan. As I created my card, I added the items that I used to the bottom of the sheet so I wouldn’t forget.

Creating before making

This past week and a half I was sick with Covid but occasionally had a bit of energy to do something creative. I had fun making the tea dyed paper for my sister and wanted to give that another go. Rather than using tea, this time I used the left over coffee from that morning.  The first few sheets were lighter than I wanted, so I added some instant tea to the mixture. After letting them soak an hour or so, I placed them on my plastic table cloth. Just like with my sisters papers, I used a few stencils to get some pretty designs.

Here are a few closeups of the papers I chose to use in this card. As pretty as they are, the stenciled design wasn’t as defined as I wanted. But they were not going to go to waste.

The Flower

To make the flower for this card I used my Recollections Daisy punches. I have three different sizes, 2″, 1 1/5″, and 5/8″. Looking back at my original idea, the thought was to add some distress ink to the edges to enhance the shape. Unfortunately, the copy paper used for the dying process gave me a very thin and uncooperative flower to work with.

To add some dimension to the flower I got out my McGill Flower Shaping Kit. Being extremely careful with the light weight paper, I sculpted the back of each petal with the medium ball stylist. When all of the layers were done, I turned them over and used the same tool around the center of the flower. I have a short video, Daisy Shaping, that I made about 5 years ago showing how I shaped this daisy. The first tool in the video would have ruined this thin paper, but it does shows the same idea. When I put the flowers together I used two die cuts the same size for a fuller bloom. Looking back, I would have alternated using a light and dark piece for each layer. I think that would have added a bit more interest to the flower.

The Ribbon

I have been wanting to add seam binding to my stash for a while. Recently I bought a spool of natural colored seam binding from Amazon and this project was the first time I used it. I’ve dyed satin ribbon before and followed the same idea here. Before starting, I sprayed a little bit of water on the seam binding. Next, I smooshed the ink pad onto my glass mat and then went in with the ribbon.

It was a messy time, but still satisfying to watch the ribbon change color. After letting the ribbon dry for a bit (it needed to be a bit darker) I repeated the process. The final color is so pretty in real life. If I need or want it darker next time, I’ll use the re-inker rather than using the ink pad.

The Finished Sending Love Card

After putting the card all together it still looked like it needed something. I decided to use Rock Candy Confetti from Trinity Stamps. I added a small piece to finish off the center of the flower, but then I was lost. Because I don’t use sequins often, I had no idea how to lay the rest of them out. So, what’s a girl to do? I headed for the experts! I posted a picture of the card in a Facebook group I belong to and asked for opinions. One of the ladies liked the way the confetti looked but suggested adding a colored sequin to the center of the flower.  I really liked that idea. So I used Copic Markers in E19 and R59 to change the color of the confetti in the center of the flower.

To create the card I used the brown and ivory card from the Coffee and Cream 110lb paper pack from Recollections. The sentiment, Sending Love & Hugs, is from the Adore You stamp set by AlteNew and is stamped with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. After trying out a few different ways to place the other confetti on the card, I walked away for bit. Right before bed I just glued them down where ever they landed, and I like it!!

This was such a fun card to make and a great way to get my creativity back after being sick. I’m curious, do you use sequins on your projects? How do you decide where to place them? Let me know down in the comments!

Thank you for dropping by the craft room today! Have a wonderful week and I’ll see you again soon!