A Little Serendipity

This morning, as I was finishing up the last sample for my upcoming hostess club's projects (I know, I know, relatively last minute!  But, I've already got the plan for next month, so hopefully that won't be so last minute!), I realized that one of the pieces I had been struggling to make work on the card I was creating would be perfect for something just a little different.  That's where the serendipity came in!!!

The piece I had was a Marina Mist "flag" that I'd embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder -- I was using it to try to "CASE" or recreate the beautiful "You're Fantastic" card on page 12 of the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog (if you are viewing the Idea Book online, it will actually be page 14 in your viewer), just with a different color scheme and stamp set.  The Marina Mist turned out to be too powerful in the background for the look I wanted.  I ended up changing the color of that piece of the card again, and came up with something that I really like for hostess club -- I'll post that here sometime next week (don't want to completely spoil the surprise for my hostess club friends)! 

Anyway, I was looking at the Marina Mist piece, thinking it was too nice to go too waste, and it looked great with some Beau Chateau Designer Series Paper that also happened to be out on my desk, and then I thought about two challenges that I wanted to try -- this month's So Shelli.com Creative Challenge, which is to create a "thinking of you" type card, and this week's Late Night Stampers challenge #133, which is to create a thinking of you card with some blue in it -- and realized I could use it to make something that would work nicely for both.  Since I had the "You're Fantastic" card layout on my mind, I stuck with that, and came up with this card:

Each side of the Marina Mist embossed piece is lined with a piece of Early Espresso, punched using the Scallop Trim Border Punch.

The medallion with flowers on it is created with a piece of Early Espresso Card Stock, which I embossed using one of the new Designer Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folders (love these!!!)  Seems strange to say because it doesn't look like it was done carefully, but I carefully tore around the oval frame after it was embossed.  I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any of the beautiful dotted frame!  I also love the lighter color that shows where the Early Espresso is torn.  Here's a close up so you can see that better -- and the detail of the flowers:



The flowers were all created from Very Vanilla card stock.  The largest flower was created using several pieces punched from the Five Petal Punch.  The medium flower is two pieces from the Boho Blossoms Punch, and the smallest flowers are punched using the four petal flower from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.  I inserted new Silver Mini Brads in the centers of the flowers.  I love being able to add just a little bit of silvery bling -- so pretty! 

The ribbon is Pear Pizzazz 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon, which I tied in a bow, then spritzed with Stampin' Mist, scrunched up to the shape I wanted, and let dry. 

The greeting flag is a hand cut piece of Very Vanilla, on which I stamped the greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Early Espresso Classic Ink. 

After everything was assembled, I spritzed the flowers and greeting just a little bit with my Marina Mist Stampin' Write® Marker and Spritzer Tool. 

This card just makes me happy to look at -- hope you feel the same!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Michelle VanWiggeren