Love Always

Hi friends!  I made this card for my aunt & uncle's anniversary and to get myself started I thought I'd try my hand at Embellish Magazine's Color Trends Challenge.  Background stamping was also part of the challenge:

I knew I wanted to use that cute little image from Crafty Secrets, and since the image itself is vintage-y, I let that lead the rest of my card.  I used a Glitz background image on some taupe cardstock and stamped the script several times with Versamark ink.  I heat embossed it with clear powder for a tone-on-tone look.  I layered that piece on some blue cardstock (not exactly the shade in the challenge, but it was the closest I could come).  Next up I cut some green cardstock and actual vintage piano music for the next panel.  I roughed up the edges of the paper which started to look worn with hardly any effort!  :)  My image was colored with Copics and cut out with my Nestabilities; I traced the Nestie shape on orange cardstock and cut it out with my scissors.  I'm really loving the matting with this technique.  I've always been using the next size shape to mat my images, but they're too big and not always proportional.  The tracing technique makes me very happy.  :)  

Speaking of, I did the same thing for my sentiment treatment.  I threaded some vintage lace through my ribbon slider and stamped it with a Hero Arts sentiment.  Blue cardstock was added behind the slider to pull the card together and differentiate the slider from the similar tones in the image and sheet music.  To finish off my card, I added some orange buttons by Basic Grey.  I should mention that the layout is courtesy of this week's Sweet Stop Sketch:

This card isn't my usual "cutesy" style, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.  :)  Thanks for stopping by!

-Suzanne :O )