Something for the ladies today

Good Morning Ladies,

Welcome into April, where is this year going, we had lovely spring sunshine yesterday, lovely blue skies but boy was that wind cold, Paul spent most of the day in the garden, getting quite a lot done, digging his vegetable patch over and preparing his potting shed! I think he may be creating a 'Bolt Hole' so that he can escape from us three women!!

I needed to make something pretty yesterday so I took a break for 'Man' cards! I hope you don't mind?
I saw that there was a 'Live Demo' on Card-I-O stamps Facebook page, so I went and watched it and decided to have a go at what she created, I didn't have any of the stamps that she used so I had to 'improvise', it's by no means perfect but I quite like how it turned out.
She used a special oval mask  and did something I have never seen before, she placed the oval mask over the front of her card and then opened up the card blank and rubbed over the back of the card (that the mask was on) with waxed paper and then used a ball tool to emboss around the oval to make the card raised up inside the oval aperture of the mask, so the card was sat flush with the edge of the mask, she said it was so that the ink didn't bleed under the mask while you were blending.
I didn't have the mask and didn't bother with the embossing thing, I simply die cut an oval out of another piece of card and laid it over my card front, I did tape the card to the back of the stencil so that it didn't move around.
I then tried the technique that was used on the video, which was blending your inks with a 'Dry' wet wipe, this didn't work for me, mainly because my Versa Color inks are new and very wet, so I tossed the first piece of card and tried again using a blending tool.  I used Atlantic Blue and Peony to blend lightly around the outside of the oval, keeping the peony colour towards the top.
I then took the range of stamps that I have from Card I O and randomly stamped them using the same colour as I used for the blending, with the addition of Bamboo for the leaves.
I had a pleasant surprise when I lifted my make shift mask, to find that it had worked and that I had a half decent card.
I rummaged around in my stamp box to find a nice sentiment and came upon this lovely one that I bought from Inkyliscious ages ago, I hadn't ever used it, I really think it works for this card.
I finished the card by adding some Berry Burst card behind the image and tied a matching bow.
Then mounted the whole thing on a 5 x 7 inch card.

I had quite a productive day yesterday, I made a hearty Minestrone Soup, that everyone loved, it was very filling as it had diced potato, small bits of pasta and cannellini beans, along with a lot of vegetables, so it was very healthy too.
That is the most I have felt like doing for a while so fingers crossed it means I am on the mend.

I will sit and draw partners for the Easter/Spring card swap today and list them tomorrow.

Have a lovely day my dear friends,

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra
xxxxxx