Persistence Badge Earned

Today I have a few cards to share with you. Today's projects feature Gina K Designs products. All products will be linked below where possible.

My first card today went pretty well and close to what I imagined it to be. I masked a 3/4" border right onto the base of my card (Ivory heavy weight). Then I blended Medium Lilac, Powder Blue, and Applemint inks using GKD blending brushes until I got a nice smooth blend. Using Flowing Florals Stamp set, I stamped the image in the bottom right corner of the blended area in Black Onyx. Using Stormy Sky, I stamped the Hello Friend sentiment from the same stamp set in the top left corner. 

Just for fun, I used a Copic multi-liner pen to add a hand-drawn whimsical border around the edges. Added some GKD Disco sequins in the regular and mini sizes and called it complete. 

My second project earned me a persistence badge. It was one of those projects where anything that could go wrong went wrong. I had intended to stamp an image from the Flowing Florals set in wreath-like pattern, but the image was too large and with the solid line beneath it, it just wasn't going to work the way I had envisioned it. That will be a project for another time. 

So instead, I decided to go with a mini-slimline card. Using Storm Sky, I stamped the image once, flipped my paper 180 degrees and stamped again.

Using the GKD Master Layouts 7, I cut down to slimline size. I couldn't decide what color to use for the sentiment, so I called in my daughter for reinforcements. We stamped and cut about a dozen different versions of the Thanks from Doodled Autumn stamp set before settling on Prickly Pear. (I put the extras aside for use another time.)

This is when the project started going south. I thought it would look better if I had ink blended the edges of the sentiment and background panel. It did not. 😞

So I tossed that to the side and started again. Only this time, instead of stamping the background image in Stormy Sky, I grabbed my Medium Spruce pad by mistake. Arg! Attempt #3, I made sure to grab the Stormy Sky ink pad. I realized that the spruce card wasn't bad and played with some of the extra sentiment labels and decided I could still muster a 2-for-1 deal out of this disaster. 

I cut Stormy Sky and Honey Mustard for the mat layers. Popped up the labels with some AltENew foam tape and proceeded to cut GKD Ivory heavy weight for my mini-slimline bases. I cut a set of bases to the wrong dimensions and then realized it should have been a simple 6x6 (scored at 3" for the fold). Sigh. Cut again, only to cut 6"x5.5". Ugh. I was not going to give up on this project. I've pushed through too many times to give up now. I cut two more bases. This time to the right size and mounted it all together. 

In the end, I'm pleased with it. Could it have been spiced up a bit with embossing or gems? Absolutely. Was I going to risk having to start over yet again? No way. Sometimes simple cards are enough. And for as simple as this looks, they were not going to cooperate. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Beth

Products used in today's cards:

STAMPS- Flowing Florals – Gina K Designs, LLC

STAMPS- Doodled Autumn – Gina K Designs, LLC

Ink Colors (Gina K Designs):

    Stormy Sky (GKD),

    Prickly Pear (My Craftique) (GKD), 

    Medium Spruce (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Honey Mustard (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Applemint (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Powder Blue (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Medium Lilac (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Black Onyx (My Craftique) (GKD)

Cardstock (Gina K Designs): 

    Ivory heavy weight (My Craftique) (GKD), 

    Ivory layering weight (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Stormy Sky (My Craftique) (GKD),

    Honey Mustard (My Craftique) (GKD)

Disco Sequins (My Craftique - Reg) (My Craftique - Micro) (GKD - Reg) (GKD - Micro)

Master Layouts 7 (My Craftique) (GKD)

Blending Brushes (My Craftique) (GKD)

MISTI Stamp Positioner

Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine.

AltENew Foam Tape