Just Because

What better reason to let them know they matter to you than no reason at all? On top of that making something more than a basic card says that you took the extra time to make a special embellishment, use real stamps and hand write a sentiment really shows them that they are special. We all like to feel special! Texts and emails are nice, but something you can hold and look at while it's displayed at home fulfills a basic need in a not so basic way. This card was made for a man friend, but can be for anyone.

Blue skies and sunshine brighten our mood, right? That is why I chose these colors: light blue sky, aqua, cream (made from white and yellow because I did not have a cream that would show up on this cardstock) and some complimentary colors in the spotty paper to draw focus inward. Of course the flower centers are orange because by now you probably know that is my favorite color ;o) I double stamped the flowers with good old rubber stamps - the white went down first and then the yellow on top making a creamy color matching the cream in the patterned paper. The surprise outcome is that the flowers look highlighted which looks cool, lol. Since the card was fairly basic after just paper and ink, I offset the sentiment to add an embellishment. Adding more flowers would have made it to girly so I dug through my cabinet and found my wire tote. My husband is a contractor and I have helped him do wiring many times so wire said manly to me. Silver seemed to be the right choice over colored or coated wires because most men are basic and not frilly, but I did add beads at the end to tie the wire into the card colors. I had to staple the wire crafted embellishment to the card to make sure it was secure enough to mail. So much for basic, hehe.

Since the wire crafted embellishment was an afterthought, the staples showed on the inside :( To cover them, I cut a couple flowers out but had a hard time attaching them over the staple wires, even with pop dots. They will probably need replaced since they look kinda sad right now. Instead of double stamping the flowers this time, I just tried the yellow and white separately. Not the look I was hoping for with the yellow, but too late so that is a lesson learned - practice on scrap! I decided to hand write the sentiment instead of computer generate it just because, lol. Sandi Genovese was on a Scrapbooking show, and she is big on hand written sentiments and journals for that personal touch, so I did it. Please be kind when you comment!!

Many many blessings, Deborah - JoyfullyOrange

P.S. I now have 3 followers! Woohoo!!

Challenges this card is being entered into are:

CR84FN Color Challenge - CR84FN24 lt. blue, aqua, & cream
Craft Your Passion Challenge - You've been spotted (use dots)

Pile It On Challenge - PIO#16 Smells like rubber