Ombre card

Busy, busy day ... I have both my kids home for dinner tonight and it's really warm today.  So I thought I'd make Chili early this morning so that I didn't have to have the stove on in the heat of the day.  I'll place it in the slow cooker later this afternoon to heat up - love the slow cooker on those hot days!  I also had promised Evan that I would make Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie today, so I've already baked the crust and it's ready to be filled with sweet deliciousness!  I also picked up a pound of organic basil from an Herb Farm on Westham Island yesterday.  Today my plan is to make several batches of Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto that I will freeze to use throughout the year.

I had an idea for a card for this week's Free For All Challenge at SCS (F4A129 - Ombre, mon amie!) - shades of color ... or gradation of color.  I made it a priority to spend time on the card before I head back to the kitchen.

I decided to pull out my brayer which I haven't used in some time.  I brayered several shades of green ink onto Whisper White cardstock to create a background for my negative die-cut card front.  Love the look!  Hope you like this clean and simple card.

"Just for You"

Stamp:  Just Believe (SU!)
Paper:  White cardstock (Neenah); Whisper White cardstock (SU!)
Ink:  Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  brayer, Big Shot, Meadow Leaf die (Poppy Stamps), Stamp-a-ma-jig, adhesives, glue and dimensionals

I brayered the green inks onto Whisper White cardstock, starting with the lightest and ending with the darkest.

I cut out two leaf images from my white card front using the Meadow Leaf die, staggering them slightly.  I lined up my brayered background behind the cut-out until I was happy with the shades of color (I have the lightest green at the top and the darkest at the base of the leaves), and then trimmed my brayered cardstock to size (I kept the trimmed pieces).

I mounted the brayered background onto my cardbase, and added the front panel on top, popping it up with dimensionals.

I used one of the trimmed brayered pieces to die-cut another Meadow leaf, which I glued to the bottom right-hand corner of my inside panel.

Quick and easy card.

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I am determined to be more organized in my art studio (it's probably something to do with being a secretary for over 30 years - it's built in!).  So I was trying to think of what I call "time wasters" ... and it was going through my packaging to find the correct names for my dies.  Now that I have my dies all mounted on magnetic sheets (which are extremely handy, I might add), the packaging is thrown into a "barely used" cupboard ... but I want to make sure that I list the correct names of materials I use when I post my cards, and my memory isn't what it used to be :)

I decided I would take a cue from one of the scrapbooking stores in my area, and created sheets with labeled die-cuts.  I thought this would be a great time saver.  So I spent some time yesterday, making my first sheet (many, many more sheets to be done).  This is all my Poppy Stamps dies, with an example of each and the correct name listed.  My plan is to post these on a bulletin board above my computer for easy reference.  I think it will work really well!  The side benefit (once they are all done), is I will have a visual of all my dies that I can look at to be inspired - bonus!!