A Nautical Wedding Card

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog's theme for this week is Nautical/By the Sea. I don't really have any beach themed stamps or dies but whenever I think of Nautical, I automatically think of a Naval Officer's Uniform, Sailor Dresses, Sailor's Suits, Sailor's Knots and even a few Sailor's style outfits I've had through the years.  There's some interesting information on Wikipedia about this style that came to be popular for women and children in the 20th century.  For this card I naturally got out my stash of Navy Blue and Gold Striped Paper. Sadly, this is the last piece of it.  I have a little left from the Diagonal Stripe but only enough to use on maybe two cards.

As I sat and looked through my stamps and dies, I didn't have the one thing I really wanted for this challenge — a compass. So I went to look for one on the Internet and found one in some free clip art.  I had to pull it into my photo editing software to fix the rotation, but I remembered how to do that without too much difficulty. This image was just what I wanted. I tried to print it from Microsoft Word, but that didn't work. When I opened it in Windows Picture Viewer I could tell it to print from there, what kind of paper I was using (Stamper's Select White Cardstock) and it also allowed me to print at 600 dpi for a presentation quality image.  I've tried to print on Cardstock before without success so I was excited to notice these setting as available in that program.  I'm using an HP Inkjet Photo Printer that I've had since we moved to Oklahoma more than 6 years ago. The printer before this one was also an HP Inkjet Photo Printer.

Once I had the compass image printed, I cut it with the 2nd largest My Favorite Things Stitched Square Stax Die.  I cut the striped paper in the largest square die from the same set. I cut a white strip wide enough for the greeting from the Simon Says Stamp Congratulations Stamp Set.  I stamped that using Versamark and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Gold Embossing Powder. I wanted the little bit brighter gold to match the stripes on the patterned paper. Once I had that stamped and heat set, I went around the edge of that piece with my Versamark Cube and then put the same gold embossing powder on it and heat set it to have the gold all the way around.

I made a mat for the sentiment by using my die creatively with a small scrap of the navy & gold paper.

I used some Navy grosgrain ribbon to tie a Sailor's Knot around the panel with the compass on it. To get it to lay flat I had to cut it in half at the back and tape the ends down.  The knot on the front was positioned and then adhered with Ranger Multi-Medium Matte for a good strong hold. I set a few acrylic blocks on top of that for about 5 minutes so it wouldn't budge. I assembled the card onto a top folding A2 Night of Navy Cardstock Base. I adhered a white die cut panel on the inside of the card for a place to write a sentiment.

So now y'all see how my mind wanders when I am creating a card, but it definitely works for me most of them time.

Color Q Challenge #344

As always, there is a new challenge up over at Color Q this week.  I really enjoy their challenges as they make me think outside the box and pair up colors I might not normally use. This was one such challenge. In fact, I interpreted Basic Gray as Silver for my card and heat embossed the greeting.

I have always loved the summer inspired colors of Bright Blue and Coral but with the twist of Coastal Cabana thrown in there, and a color palette of 5 colors, it was somewhat of a challenge for me although I managed. That's the whole point after all.  

I started with the Tag Sale: Quilted Die from Papertrey Ink cut from Stamper's Select White. I used my Stitched Square Stax from My Favorite Things in the 3rd and 4th largest sizes for the interior squares of Coastal Cabana and Brilliant Blue (actually Papertrey Ink Tropical Teal and Simon Says Stamp Blue Violet) with SU! Calypso Coral for my card base.  I also used a My Favorite Things Stitched Scallops die to create the scalloped edge. The ones I have are no longer available but are similar to this set from Lawn Fawn.  The Heart of Roses Die is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive die and the greeting is from the Simon Says Stamp Congratulations Stamp Set.

Whenever I create a card using a tag, I like to adhere that tag using temporary adhesive so the recipient can keep just that part if they like which is why I also run some ribbon through it.  You can simply rub the adhesive off the back of the tag with your thumb or finger. It makes for a smaller keepsake than a card and it's also small enough to put into a wedding album or scrapbook.  I made a card with a heart tag for my best friend for her birthday last year and she still carries it around with her.  That is her all time favorite card. I'm the sappy, sentimental sort, so I like the whole idea of being able to keep a piece of something with me. I was trying to think of something I could do that she could have with her all the time and this was my solution.  It's hard when your family and friends don't live near you. In this case, I'm the one who isn't nearby.  She and my daughter live much closer to each other.  

Be sure to stop over at Color Q to see all the entries from the Design Team and the projects that have been linked up by those of us participating in the challenge.