An Exercise in Neutrals

One of my dear, dear friends is celebrating a birthday in early April, so it was back to the craft room to see what I could come up with. Thankfully, I had a little help from the talent at Stamping Celebration, whose inspiration challenge this week was an exercise in Neutrals.

Now, when I first sat down to create Julie's card, I ended up deviating from my original plan and instead created a card that wasn't really "her".  So, while that card was fun and all (and available here), I really wanted to create something specific to her tastes.

And so, this card was born.

This card was an evolutionary process for me.  I stumbled upon a wonderful tutorial for the background technique from Kathy's blog at stampingstill.blogspot.com.  She used a series of masks to create a mosaic-esque, collagey background that I absolutely fell in love with!  (her tutorial also used stamps that I happened to have on hand, so I was doubley excited to CASE her beautiful idea).

I definitely want to try this technique again using more colors, I really think that makes the technique shine, but for the purposes of this card, I wanted to keep the background neutral.  Why, you ask? Well, because of my color challenge, of course!

I've interpreted the inspiration challenge into a Very Vanilla, Basic Black, and Crumb Cake card that has just a hint of white. (I pulled out my white gel pen again to give the flowers a little pop.  For another card using this technique, see my Cheery Cherry Blossoms).

With Julie's card, I zeroed in on the stamps pretty quickly.  You see, she is nuts about music and married to a musician.  Music is a big part of her life, so I chose to honor that by using the Music Notes stamping wheel.  (Full disclosure here, I've unmounted all of my wheels because I find I can be more spontaneous with them this way.)  I paired Music Notes with the Friendly Words jumbo wheel (also unmounted), and stamps from Friends 24/7 and Perfect Punches.

I find that when I'm designing a card for a specific person (as opposed to for a class or "just because"), I take FOREVA to come up with something that is tailored to them.  These are the cards that I "tinker" with to get just perfect and they also give me the most enjoyment when all is said and done.

Julie is a doll and I know she'd appreciate whatever I send her, but I'm in the business of sending smiles, so might as well go big or go home, ya know? ;-)

DETAILS - Products are available for purchase from me  at Stampin' Up

Stamps: Music Notes Stampin Wheel, Friendly Words Jumbo Wheel, Friends 24/7, Perfect Punches
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black Crumb Cake
Ink: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories: Two Tags bigz die, 2 x 1 3/8 Oval Punch, White Gel Pen

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