Cacti Hugs!

I need a hug, don’t you?

Recently my creative juices have been flowing more.  I hadn’t created a card to match a cup in a very long time.  As of today, I’ve made three in two days, so I’m going to share the process *I* have when making cards to match other items. 

The hardest part about my job is having the items on hand, (I mean, trying to find a place to put them all).  In looking over my cups on my shelves, I kind of choose the one that jumps out at me.  Either I like the cup and I’ll figure out the design later or I immediately know which stamp set I’ll be using.  Today’s cup reminded me of a stamp set I own so that started things going.

Looking at the cup to really pick apart the design, it’s white cacti on the Distress Ink color -“speckled egg”- and I found the stamp set I wanted, (an amazing feat in my crowded drawers). Then it’s on to the sentiment.  I browsed my spreadsheet of “hug” stamps and found two I liked.  Looking back at the cup, it’s a very plain font and so the more simple stamp will work nicely. (It’s Lawn Fawn- Simply Sentiments).  Once I know which stamps I’ll be using, I try to match colors next.  I throw a few things together to test their color accuracy or if I don’t have exact matches, I go next best thing.

Then, creating the pieces of the card.  Do we use the paper that matches or use brushes to color a white background ‘speckled egg’?  I’m not the best at blending and the colored paper is perfect, so Distress Ink was skipped.  While I had the ink out though, I wondered if the cacti needed to be blended a bit because the cup is glazed and the lines aren’t clear.  However, I checked it and I think just white will be fine.

Next, logistics.  On the cup the cacti are coming out of one point – which I decided would look weird on the card, so I spaced them out.  I stamped the sentiment, and I like Versafine Clair for almost all my stamping (unless I’m coloring an image).  I have two stamping platforms and I store them each ready to stamp specific sets, (either rubber stamps or clear).  Also, while I love the versatility and variety of options in clear stamps, there’s nothing like the crisp print of a rubber stamp.

Finally, I have the finished front, mat it ¼ inch smaller than my second mat (to get the black from the cup somewhere onto the card) and then on a dark grey card base.  (Scrapbooking made me much better at using mats correctly.)  Then I take the picture and it’s done.  On to the next one!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my madness!?!