Under the Lilac Tree

Hello Again!  Happy Tuesday.  I wanted to share with you a card I made over the weekend.  I took some inspiration from Pinterest, from a card that was similar in some ways, but I wanted mine to have a more vintage look.  I am calling this one, Under the Lilac Tree, from a book I read by Louisa May Alcott, when I was just a young girl.  I am using the "Sitting Here" stamp set again, and this time pairing it up with "Sheltering Tree".  I wanted to give the impression of lilacs overhead by using a little Wisteria Wonder ink, and mixing it in with Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz Inks.  I find that I get a lot of satisfaction from creating cards that are a little more artistic than just simple inking on paper, although, that definitely has its place too.

A fun trick I learned at On Stage, that you can do with photopolymer stamps, is if a verse needs to take a different direction than straight across, you can flex the stamp on the acrylic block, as in this case, a curve above the back of the swing.  Pretty clever, wouldn't you say?

A little secret I will share on the goof ups a person can experience while card making.  I had carefully colored the images in with inks and blender pens to accomplish the coloring I did, set both aside, and then bit into a ripe red cherry.  Cherry juice squirted all over my nice, clean and colored image.  Yikes!  I had spent quite some time making that second card, so you will notice the pot of flowers is attached to the inside of the card....strategically covering that mishap.  It's not so bad!

I used so many different colors of inks to do my coloring, that I am not even sure I can remember them all to list them below.  However, the wooden swing and basket were colored in Crumb Cake and then shaded more with Early Espresso inks.  I find that adding a little dab to an acrylic block, makes a nice palette I can dip my blender pen in.  Works like a charm.

Another effect, that unfortunately, didn't come through in the photograph is, I cut out the pillow images and laid them face down on a foam mat.  I then burnished the back of the image with my stylus, and it broke down the fibers in the paper and rounded them out so they looked a bit like a puffy pillow.  Pretty cool technique, and then there is so much more dimension and texture to the card.

I'd like your opinions on my cards.  Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!