Another 'Pattern Built Background' card

Good Morning Ladies,

I hope that you are all well, I am pleased to tell you that the Radiator that we bought works like a dream, I popped in to the Craft Room and switched it on before I went to clean work tops etc in the Kitchen, made myself a cuppa, by the time I went to sit in there it was at the perfect temperature, not so hot that I needed to take my cardigan off, just a comfortable working environment, which is a huge improvement. 

Now onto today's card...

Another totally different style of card for me, I have to say that this one was a bit of a 'labour of love', in that it had a lot of elements and they were all hand coloured. Not that I minded I popped some music on and played happily!

The first thing I did was to emboss a 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inch piece of card with the Couture Creations 'Tied Together' Embossing folder.

This gave me the basic outline for my 'pattern', as it has a good repeating pattern to follow.

The next step was to colour a piece of card with some Distress Oxide inks, I chose the same colours that I used for yesterdays card as I loved the blend, it was bright and warm at the same time.

I didn't worry too much about blending them perfectly as I was going to be die cutting from this piece.

I used an old Impression Obsession multi flower die that I have had for years, its great for die cutting a large number of flowers in one go (36) in fact!  I made sure to get some flowers in each of the three colours and some of the blended areas too, so that I could make the pattern a gradual blend from light to dark.

So next cake the long process of individually picking up each flower and gluing it into place, making sure to get the shades correct.

I did think that the flowers would be all that was needed but that embossing folder also leaves a natural space to add gemstones at the point of all of the diamonds, adding crystals just didn't look right so I found some pearls that were the right size and reached for my Stampin Up Blends in colours as near to the Distress Oxides that I could get, I used...Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Calypso Coral, I blended a couple of the colours to help with the gradient. As you can imagine this took my some time to complete.

Then came the time to add them to the background, I found the easiest method was to add tiny spots of glue to each of the gaps and them add the gems in diagonal rows according to the colour.

I did worry at first that it all looked a bit much but I think that because the pearls are the same colour as the flowers (or there abouts) it kind of blends in and continues the colour pattern, where adding plain gems would have broken up the design.

I was then left with the 'Sentiment Dilemma' once again, I didn't want something that obscured half of the background, so I went for a similar idea as yesterday's card.

I die cut the 'Love' & 'You' dies 2/3 times in black card and layered them up, I then double embossed them with clear embossing powder for a lovely glossy finish (although it doesn't really show in the photo'!

I hope that you like the idea. 

I also want to say that using an Embossing Folder made building a pattern so much easier, so if any of you are struggling give it a try, a few of Sue Wilson's E Folders would work for this method.

Pat is coming over today so I will clear my desk ready for some 'Groovi' Fun !!

I hope that you all have a lovely day, however you are spending it.

Love and hugs to all 

Sandra

xxxxxx