Beautiful Moments for Spring

Good morning!  Here it's rather wet and gray, so I figured you might need something a little like spring to brighten the day.  I wanted to use more of the Friendly Hello Designer Series Paper because I love it so much.  This is one of the Sale-a-Bration freebies in a bundle with the Friendly Hello stamp set.  If you can't tell by now, these two things are some of my very favorite items from Sale-a-bration.  This card was made to showcase the pretty prints of the Designer Series Paper.

I really struggled to get the colors right on this one and I'm still not sure if this works.  I knew I wanted those two prints of DSP for the card, but the rest, hmmm...  

To go with the spring theme, I ended up choosing Fresh Freesia for the card base.  It's cut at 4 1/4" x 11" then scored at 5 1/2" and folded in half.   The two pieces of the Friendly Hello DSP are cut at 2" x 3 3/4" and 2" x 4 3/4" respectively.  I tried numerous colors for the layering and finally settled on Soft Succulent for this.  The two pieces were cut at 2 1/4" x 4" and 2 1/4" x 5".  They were attached flat to the card front using adhesive.

I knew I wanted to try the Beautiful Moments stamp set for this card.  I tried several different rectangle and oval shapes to die-cut the focal image on this card.  After much debating with myself, I went with the Beautiful Shapes Dies that I had gotten recently but hadn't yet used.  I hoped the largest hexagon shape would frame these two little girls perfectly.  Guess it was time to give it a little love and caring!  

The girls were stamped with Crumb Cake ink onto Basic White cardstock to keep it very soft.  The coloring was all finished with Stamping Blends -

Skin - Petal Pink Light and Dark

Hair - Crumb Cake Light and Dark, Cinnamon Cider Light

Dresses - Fresh Freesia Light and Dark, Pale Papaya Light and Dark

Buckets - Soft Succulent Light and Dark, and the Color Lifter

For the sandy area, I used an Aqua Painter and just went over the stamped color to add a very pale wash of color.

After coloring, the little girls were die-cut.  Oh my, a perfect fit.  It still surprises me how well they fit on that hexagon, because I was concerned the die would be too small.  Just goes to show you really need to check all options even if you're pretty sure it won't work.  You just never know!

After spending time with my sister last week, I thought these words were very appropriate for the image.  The sentiment is part of the Beautiful Moments stamp set along with two other sentiments.  You know how I really like sentiments that employ two different fonts on the same stamp, so that makes the sentiment extra special!  It's stamped onto a 5/8" strip of Basic White cardstock using Soft Succulent ink.  

To stay with the shape of the hexagon, I used the Banners Pick-a-Punch on the arrow side.  I think it goes well with the hexagon shaped corners very nicely.

The little girls and the sentiment were both popped up on the card using Dimensionals.  I thought the card would be done at this point, but it needed just a tiny bit of bling.  The tiny Brushed Brass Butterflies (say that really fast five times in a row!) were just right.  Not too shiny and not too big as to overpower these little girls.  

I do believe this card is finished after struggling with it for hours.  Now I need to put away all the layers that were cut, but not used.  And also, the dies that were tried and didn't make the 'cut'.  silly pun 😉

If you struggle to come up with just the right ingredients to make your card, whether it's layout, color, shape, accessories, or whatever, know that we all struggle that way at times.  And some of us struggle more than others.  Hmmm, not naming names here, but the initials could be SC!  Anyway, I do love what I do, and I love sharing this with you too.  So please bear with me when I have one of those 'struggling' days.  We all just keep trying to do our best, and sometimes we have a real winner and other days it's just ok.  As long as we love what we're doing, it's all worth it!!

Keep up the creating!

Sharon

PS Quick reminder - Sale-a-Bration ends next Monday.  Don't miss out on what you've been wanting to order.  Thanks