Sending Prayers and Sympathy

Hello and Happy Monday!

I'm back today, after a brief absence as unfortunately my body is an "equal opportunity employer" and thus it has "hired" a viral and bacterial infection over the past week...which has left me with laryngitis, fatigue and a bad case of 'blog-o-phobia'. Haha, all is true other than the 'blogophobia' though I think it has quite a ring to it! ;-) But I digress...

Here's a card that was created with inspiration from many different challenges/blogs! The colors were culled from this gorgeous combination from last week's (#298) Colour Q Challenge, which will be open for only a few more hours!

My use of twine, and my color scheme was also heavily influenced by this gorgeous photo provided by the Creative Color Challenge :

(From top to bottom and left to right: 
Row 1, box 5/Row 2 box 3/Row 3, boxes 6 and 7/Row 4, boxes 1 and 2)











I was then inspired by this month's Virginia's View Challenge challenge, which focuses on stamping:

I stamped the butterflies from PTI's You're A Masterpiece Make-It-Market kit on watercolor paper, using Tsukineko's Onyx black ink and by doing a ton of masking.  There is no companion die for the butterfly, so I stamped a few on post-it notes, fussy cut them and used them as masks. After each individual butterfly was stamped, I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. Doing so gave such beautiful texture and really helped "contain" the watercolors. I was especially concerned with that because of the purple and yellow, which are complementary colors. I like to think of complementary colors as friends that get along splendidly...but then if they decide to be roommates and live together...well things get murky. hehe ;-)

I finally pulled out my new "toys", namely my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens and the Akashiya Sais. I purchased the 36 pen set of Zigs and the 20 pen set of Akashiyas and have actually found that there is virtually no overlap in colors, in fact they complement one another! I am into calligraphy and brush lettering and so I purchased both to see which I liked best. I also wanted needed to get my hands on them, as I wanted to know what all the fuss was about! hehe. Well, I'm here to tell you that they are as beautiful, amazing, convenient (etc,. ad infinitum) as you've probably already heard! ;) The butterflies and the coloring was heavily inspired by this beauty by Julia Alterman from Just One More Card. I used the following colors, for your  reference:

• Purple Butterflies: Zig No. 80 (violet) and No. 81 (light violet). I added in color 81 so I could get the pale plum color in the Color Q challenge photo and because it added such a beautiful warmth to the cooler toned violet.
• Yellow Butterflies: Zig No. 50 and Akashiya Sai yellow and brownish-ochre color. Unfortunately, at the moment, I cannot locate my box to see if there is a specific color name and/or number, but I'll do some research and update this list. I actually went tip-to-tip with the brownish-ochre (yep, that's my technical term for it haha) and the Zig No. 50, as I wanted a darker/deeper yellow and didn't have one that was exactly what I was looking for. And then I colored the darkest part of the butterfly, being sure to flick out and going back for darker color as needed. Then, I followed with a fairly "juicy" paint brush and my lightest yellow, blending the darkest color outward until satisfied. 
• Aqua Butterflies: The dark and light aqua colors found in the Akashiya Sai set. 

One of the many things I love about these pens, is that you truly can do wet-on-wet techniques and they are forgiving, as you can go back (even hours later) re-wet and therefore reactivate the color, until you get it just right. Which is wonderful for a perfectionist like me. ;-)

For some interest, I used my white gel pen to add some dots/details and I also liberally lathered the butterflies with my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen...if only you could see the shine and sparkle in real life!

My card layout was inspired by Joni Andaya's gorgeous sketch over at the WPlus9 Design Blog

Once I was done coloring, I die cut my card panel using my favorite Lawn Fawn Large Rectangle stitching die.Then, I pulled out my WPlus 9 black cardstock and PTI's Wet Paint III "sending" die and made numerous cuts, which I then stacked upon one another for dimension. 

I then cut the two double ended banners from yellow and purple carstock using the companion die from PTI's Happy Notes stamp set. It actually has a pointed end, but I simply snipped that and then attached the two together, but slightly offset. At this point I had to get clever, as I struggled to find a sympathy set that was just right for the given situation. Unfortunately, over the course of the past couple of months, we've had multiple deaths within our family and  circle of close friends... so I've had to make quite a few sympathy cards. For me, these are the most difficult to make and thus the sentiment, the message I'm trying to convey has to be just right (in my personal opinion, of course). So, I ended dong quite a bit of masking-- I took the "prayers" from PTI's Meadow Greens set and the "sympathy" from Lawn Fawn's Scripty Borders set, stamping and then embossing like the butterflies. Then, I felt there needed to be a space between the two and a "nesting" place for the "g" in "sending" so I used a small circle die, which is from PTI's Bold Bouquet anniversary set (it's supposed to be a floral center!) and adhered it to the banners. I then adhered all of the pieces onto my card panel and wrapped the twine at a slant and then added an enamel dot for the "i". Once all of this was done, I cut a card base sized 5.75 inches by 4.50 inches, slightly larger than an A2 standard sized card, so that I could have a bit of the aqua color peeking out. 

and....I'm done! Thanks for stopping by and my apologies for the lengthy post!

As always, many hugs and...craft on!

-O