Anniversary Card

Hello - out there is Blogger land! I am almost feeling like myself. Just a little cough left but that is pretty much it. I normally do not get sick so having such a bad infection/cold (I suspect that I actually had more then one right after the other) was really hard for me. One of the interesting side-effects of being pregnant, I guess.

On to today's card. My husband and I have an Anniversary tomorrow. This actually isn't our wedding anniversary which is in February, but the anniversary of our first meeting, 14 years ago. We have pretty much been a couple since we met in college so we acknowledge this anniversary. (Really and truly we don't do anything or buy presents but just say Happy Anniversary). I don't normally even make a card but this one was knocking around in my head, since I saw a version of this on Linda aka Oz's blog Wood INK.

I start out with my quarter sheet of cardstock. In this case I am using Neenah Classic Crest Cover in Solar White (80 lbs). This is actually what I have been using for awhile and I have been very happy with it. I can pick it up locally at a paper store and it works out to be about .10 per sheet.

Next, I created two masks using plain printer paper. I used my Fiskars Shape Cutter and the Heart Template also from Fiskars. I was careful not to tear the paper so I would have both a positive and negative heart. I am using the positive image first. I have placed the heart cut out in the center of my cardstock and stamped the French Script background image from Stampin' Up in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink from Ranger.

Once I remove the mask you can see I have a heart shaped void in the center of my card.

Then I used the negative of my mask, so the area around the heart would be protected. I lined up my new mask with my previously created void and stamped Antique Flower Background from Hero Arts in Weathered Wood Distress Ink from Ranger.

Once I stamped the image I wanted to add a little dimension to the heart. I took my Inkssentials Blending Tool with the Weathered Wood Distress Ink and worked that over my heart, keeping the darkest area to the outer edge of the heart. My intention with this is to give the heart more dimension. Once I had the grey as I wanted it I went back over the edges with a very light application of Black Soot Distress Ink.

When using printer paper you have to be very careful not to tear the mask, you can easily do this is you use a bit too much gusto when inking. I use my left had to hold the section where I am working down, so as not to catch the edge of the paper and tear it.

You can see how the Distress Inks give added dimension to the heart. I think that it really pops.

Now I needed to add some color to the script portion of the card. Again I picked up my Inkssentials Blending Tool. I worked in Antique Linen and went all over the script. I did put my mask back over the heart to protect it while I worked close to it. If you like to live dangerously you could probably just risk it, I know that I cannot be trusted. :-)

At this stage I worked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink keeping it to the outer edges, then to Frayed Burlap on the very edge of the card. I really like the contrast between the cool grey heart and the warm paper.

I mounted my card to a piece of Basic Black cardstock and added four brads in a vintage metallic from Making Memories.

My very last step was to add the two birds. I broke out my Silhouette Digital Cutter and cut them in a grey cardstock. These birds are from a dingbat font called Birds of a Feather. Once they were cut out I inked them with Weathered Wood and Black Soot Distress Inks. I mounted them to the card with foam dots. I left this step to the end so I could use my ATG without having to go over bumps. I normally forget that and smoosh the front of my card while trying to lay down adhesive or I end up putting the adhesive on the card base.

Here is the finished card. Thank you, as always for stopping by.