The Legend of the Dogwood

"At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross.

To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said, "Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross–two long and two short petals.

"In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember."

There is nothing in this world that says "Easter" to me more than seeing a Dogwood Tree and Pink Dogwoods are (of course) my favorites!  We saw lots of them on our 2015 vacation as we drove through Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. My husband had not seen pink ones before and it was a definitely a treat for me as well.

As I worked on another card for the The Card Concept Challenge #51 and was admiring the inspiration image, it occurred to me that I should be using some "Kraft" Cardstock with a Pink Dogwood Bloom to create an Easter card. I have had this Dogwood Bloom stamp by Impression Obsession for a number of years but I hadn't ever used it before.  These days you can buy the cling mount version of this stamp which is fantastic. Now that I have fallen in love with water coloring, I had to try it with this stamp. It's not an outline image, but I figured I could work with it.

I stamped the image in Versamark on Canson Bristol 96# Watercolor Paper and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I love the soft white of this paper over some of the others out there on the market. Since the petals are mostly white, I painted the entire flower using a solution of Perfect Pearls & water, then let that dry.  Once it was dry, I took my lightest pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen in Sugared Almond Pink and went around the outer edge of each petal and blended that with more Perfect Pearls Solution. One of the nice things about the pigment powder is that you can make your solution as shimmery as you like.  I just touch the very tip of my damp brush into the powder and mix it with a bit more water on an acrylic block.

I went back in with the same color to add depth to that area for my second and third layers. The final touch on the blooms was using Pale Rose for the indication of each nail in the petals.  The leaves were mostly covered with gold embossing powder but for what was showing, I used Mowed Lawn Distress Marker. When it was dry, I die cut it using the largest of the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles.  The mat was a scrap of Pink Pirouette Cardstock that was laying next to my die cutting machine that I cut down to be 4 1/8th x 5 3/8ths.  I adhered it to a top folding A2 Kraft Card Base.

I die cut the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive "Easter" sentiment from some gold foiled cardstock and adhered it using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  This card is Perfect for the Classy and Elegant Category on The Card Concept #51 Challenge, AAA Cards, the CAS Mix Up March 2016 Challenge and the Double D Challenge to make an Easter Card.  I made quite a few Easter cards this year, but this one is a favorite. It was the simplest to do but really makes an impact.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Please feel free to leave me a comment.  I really enjoy reading them.

Celebrate - Tim Holtz Style Inspired by a Song

While I was at my daughter's last week, we ran over to the local Michaels Arts & Crafts Store to get an adhesive runner so I could finish swatching my Peerless Watercolors and adhere the remaining swatches the way all of the previous ones have been done.  I ended up finding a Studio G Mini Tape Runner with more than enough (9 feet) to finish what I had started at home and it was $1 or something super cheap like that.  Of course in the attempt to find a tape runner at all, I was in the Stamping/Scrapbooking Section.  I noticed a Tim Holtz Sizzix Framelits Celebrate Stamp & Die Set in the clearance section for.... $3.99! Holy Cow! Since my daughter had just mentioned that Birthday Cards are something she uses a lot, I knew it would be perfect and a deal that I could not pass up.  I don't know if I've ever gotten a better deal.

I love the super sketchy, architectural type drawings of all Tim Holtz's Blueprint Style Stamps and this one is no exception.  It's smaller than what I would like and I think I might have to get the larger stamp at some point in time but I'm pretty tickled to get this one at such a great price and especially since it included the matching dies because I detest fussy cutting and me a craft knife just don't go together that well.  I have one but I try not to use it.

On several pieces of Canson Bristol 96# Watercolor Paper I stamped and heat embossed the images in Simon Says Stamp's New Antique Gold Ultra Fine Embossing Powder and heat set it. I knew I wanted bright, cheerful and vibrant colors so I went straight to my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in Cobalt Blue, Emerald Green, Persian Green, Orange, Red, Purple & Deep Violet. To add the shimmer  to the color I used Perfect Pearls Pigment Powder in the following:  Interference Red, Interference Blue, Forever Violet, Berry Twist, Turquoise and Perfect Pearl.  Simon Says Stamp has a choice of 36 colors but when I've purchased mine, I try to think about what the base color (Red, Blue, Green, etc.) is and whether or not I use that color as part of my card making so I only have about 8 colors.  The two I didn't use here are Gold and Pewter.  I tend not to go for trendy colors except that I heard about the Interference Red from a YouTube Video.  It's kinda pink or kinda purple, depending on your light.

After I allowed everything to dry, I die cut the watercolored panels using the My Favorite Things Stitched Squares in the 2nd largest size and then die cut the party hat carefully with the coordinating die and all of the "Happy Birthday" Banners. Additionally, I cut one Party Hat out of Fun Foam for each watercolored panel. I also cut one Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle from various gold foiled papers.  To assemble the card I made top folding A2 card bases from Stamper's Select White Cardstock. I applied the negative square to the stitched rectangles using regular Tombow Mono Adhesive. I glued the watercolored Party Hat to the Fun Foam for each hat using Glossy Accents and stacked an acrylic block on top for several seconds to let it set and then went about adhering the background panels to the card bases before starting to mount the party hats into their space on the card fronts.  It was quick and super easy to do since I skipped foam tape in favor of Fun Foam.  I used the negative to help place or line up the positive image.  For the little banner piece, I cut several foam squares in half and then adhered those to the card base as well.

Oh how I love gold foiled paper and gold embossing powder. Silver just doesn't pack the same punch most of the time although there are exceptions.  These cards were surprisingly easy to do and I know my daughter will love having them to give to my grandson's friends. I'll be entering these cards over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog where the theme "Inspired by a Song" is up for this week.  My song is "It's My Party" by Leslie Gore way back in 1965.  I'll also be posting this over at the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my blog and I hope you'll come back soon.  All comments are very much appreciated if you'd care to leave one. Have a great weekend, everyone.  See you soon!