For You...

Greetings Paper and Such Friends!!  I hope that you have had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying a restful Sunday!  Today I'm bringing you a creation using the newly released Tenderhearted set.  I've also used the Deer Dad set for my interior sentiment.  Just a great combination!

I needed a birthday card so I started with Tenderhearted, minus her teardrop.  To achieve this, I used my tiny teardrop shaped Momento ink pad to ink the entire image keeping the ink away from the tear on her face.  I could have inked the entire image and then gone in with a cotton swab and wiped the ink away but I worried about leaving any extra ink residue therefore causing a smudge on her face.  So I carefully inked the entire image slowly.  And when I stamped it came out perfect.  No smudge, no ink where I didn't want it.  Just right!

I then colored my image with my Copic markers.  After I'd colored her skin (complete with teeny, tiny freckles) and hair, I paper pieced her pants, shirt, trim on her shirt, flowers and arms.  I knew that if I wanted to paper piece her shirt, I'd have to first do the entire shirt, arms and flowers as cutting out those flowers, stems and tiny areas around her arms and hands would prove rather difficult.  So here's the order in which I went.  I first stamped and pieced her purple pants.  I then stamped the image again on to the grey dotted paper.  I then trimmed her entire shirt out including hands, flowers, etc.  I pieced the entire shirt down on top of the pants making sure they didn't over lap too much as to leave any bulk.  I then inked again onto my green cardstock in order to cut the pieces of trim on the top and hem of her shirt.  I then inked one more time onto my Copic Express white cardstock and only colored her hands and flowers.  I then trimmed that out in one piece and adhered it down last making sure that the dimension of her shirt and hands looked right.  I then coated her hair, flowers and shoes with Glossy Accents and set aside to dry overnight. 

Yes, it was a lengthier process than coloring or just flat paper piecing but I love the look and how it makes the flowers in her tiny hands pop off the card front.

I added a lot of stitching for added visual interest, some hand rolled felt flowers, a few square brads and three perfectly placed pearls adding just enough but not too much bling. 

My cardstock is from SU! and Bazzill and my designer papers are MME that were leftover scraps on my desk.  I'm trying REALLY hard these days to use what I have...and I have a lot, a lot, a LOT of scraps!

My interior uses the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Deer Dad set along with a bit of stitching and more scraps to pull in the color palette from the card front.  I truly love this set, if for no other reason than the wonderful ability to mix and match the sentiments...especially for those hard to create masculine cards.

Thanks so much for visiting me today and I hope you find time to get creative!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith