Leslie's Birthday - My First H2H (Sketch 16) Challenge

A few weeks ago I decided that I'd better get my birth date list in order.  I am afraid that I am going to skip someone now that I've started sending out cards again and with this blog, I'm bound to get in to trouble (you know, it's going to happen...)  So, I started a list on the back of the nearest envelope (an old bill, or something).  I began with everyone I could think of and then filled in birthdays, then hunted up birthdays, then research birthdays, then asked for birthdays through emails (Ha, some of you got those!!)

Leslie made it on this list.  I met her at the very first CTMH Card Club that I attended at Carolyn's house.  She's now a real-life consultant, so I don't get to see her as often, but that's OK because she is doing really well!!

Leslie is a real sweetheart and I wanted to make her a nice card so she would know that I was thinking about her on her birthday and wishing her well.  I have a feeling this year is going to be a really great one!!

As I was starting to design Leslie's card, I knew that I wasn't ready to stop playing with my La Belle Vie (I'm going to refer to it as: LBV, since you can't here my French accent anyway) paper yet.  These are my colors!!  I was looking for some inspiration and I happened on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog.  I was really thinking about trying this in August, but the days got away from me (The Days Are Changing!!)  The first September Challenge is a sketch challenge, and the sketch looks like this.

Cool, I can get inspired by that.  This is my first ever card challenge, so I stuck to the sketch completely!!

For the sash, I tried the stripes going straight across, but it looked really funky (and by that, I mean BAD), so I changed it to what you see on the card.  It was really easy since I already had a pattern!! (the funky one)

I made another of that same picture frame from my last two projects. (They may not be posted yet, so ignore that!!)  This is from the Jardin (French for garden) D1528 stamp set.  Stamped it on the LBV Pink, cut it out as nicely as I could.  This time I noticed that there were two little triangles that I could cut out with my Xacto knife.  ; ) Adhered it to the LBV Mauve, and then cut it out as best as I could!!  I just can't get it out of my system.  I love this double frame!!  This is the third time I have used this frame on a project.  Added Opaque Pearls and Bitty Pearls. It's slowly evolving.  Next I will be building up the leaves around the frame (and then gilding them, no doubt!!)

For the sentiment I was going for a Queen Elizabeth II, "Keep Calm and Carry On" look (I know, she's English and La Belle Vie is French, but Royalty is Royalty!!  Truly, they are all related!!)

Now for my favorite part, the flower!!  I will be doing this again and again, even though it was time consuming and detailed - I loved it!!  I stamped the medium sized flower from Card Word Puzzle C1494 on both the LBV Pink and LBV Mauve papers.  I cut the Pink one out completely, but I only cut little slivers from the flower pattern out of the LBV Mauve.  I glued these on to the base flower as I cut them.  When this was finished, each petal was shadowed on the edges.  To highlight the centers, I brushed on pearl paint.   It was already so pretty that I was afraid to take the next step, but what was re-cutting everything when the potential was there, so I plowed ahead, and covered the entire thing with good ol' Liquid Glass.  I was channeling Victoria Fage. She's a consultant in our unit who has taught at Extravaganza at the National Convention, I know not how many times.  She is amazing!!

At our last unit meeting, Victoria and Sara Batkin, showed us their Extravaganza displays and did demonstrations for those of us that missed it.  I learned a lot of things to do with liquid glass from Victoria and have been experimenting.  She said just put it right on - over the wet pearl paint, so I held my breath, and did it - and it worked!!

Ignore the rose, this is just where I dry liquid glass thingies.

Click to enlarge.  Can you see the pearl paint?

A bit of the glue seeped through from the back.  I wrote over it to obscure it   ; )

"may this be your grandest year yet!" sentiment is from Hooray Bouquet D1491 - This is a great stamp set for Cricut owner,s as all of the flowers match the Art Philosophy Collection by CTMH.  Great sentiments too.

I stamped the small flowers from the Card Word Puzzle C1494 stamp set on the back and also on a piece of LBV Pink, then cut out little bits for applique!!

Obviously, I used more of the Jardin stamps on the envelope, so that Leslie would know there was something better than a bill inside!!

Happy Birthday Leslie!!  Hope it's a great one - with many, many more to come!! 

Love, Karen