MAGICAL MONDAY CHALLENGE CARD - Ribbon & Bow, Eldon with Flower

Eldon with Flower


Below is what it looks like when you shake the beads around.

This week I needed to make a card for a special young man. So I made this challenge card for There's Magic in the Air. The image is totally free and totally adorable! The challenge calls for the use of Eldon with Flower and use some ribbon and a bow. I followed Curt's lead and gave him a bow tie and attached the ribbon to the planter. I've been wanting to make another shaker card ever since I saw Curt's shaker cards. So I copied the image on to a piece of clear acetate and colored it with Dixon overhead projection markers (that I found at the dollar store) I used Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities
to cut a window into card stock from DCWV THE SWEET STACK . I used the dimensional foam to separate the acetate from the card stock , added a piece of torn green vellum from Paper and More and placed two colors of green seed beads into the card for the shaker element. This was fun to make and I hope my special young man will like it, I know I do. Thanks for looking. ~Diane

STEPPING OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE

I entered this card in 2 challenges Theres Magic In The Air and Digital TuesdayChallenge.

The only way to grow is to learn new things. And with the internet and all of your wonderful blogs there is no shortage of things to learn! I know it's hard to sometimes step outside of our comfort zone, but we have to if we want to keep our designs fresh. I have been doing a lot of that lately. So this week I am really taking a leap! I am going to actually "enter" a challenge, first time, don't laugh. I've done contests, but never challenges. I have to say I admire all of you who do this on a daily basis. I visit your blogs and see that you make such beautiful cards and sometimes enter them into 3, 4, or 5 challenges!
Now if that's not scary enough, I am also going to do my very first digital image! Actually it's not that scary, thanks to Nina at There's Magic in the Air. She is offering some free digital images, but she has also offered a wonderful tutorial "What is a digital image and how do I use it". Thank you Nina, I've read tutorials on other sites and just reading them left me feeling confused and believing I needed some fancy programs to print one. She explains it so clearly you just have to try it!
This challenge on her beautiful Deco Flower image calls for you to heat or dry emboss something on the card along with her free image. This is a 5 x 7 card, I used my Spellbinders Labels 8 Nestabilities, to cut and dry emboss. I colored the flower with Marvy Embossing markers, and used Stampin Up Glassy glaze embossing powder. Since I took Nina's suggestion to make a few images on the same page, I cut part of the flower out after I heat embossed it, and laid it over the original image. I also heat embossed the flower on the original image, on the opposite petals, so the colors look shaded but they aren't. I used the new Souffle 3D opaque ink for the leaves, along with a green marker. The beads were stitched together but I had to cut them up and place them on the stem 1 by 1. I added the ribbon and hid the rough ends by making slits and tucking it to the inside of the card. Thank you Nina for offering the instructions and the free image, I don't think I would have tried this if I had to buy one, but now that I see how easy it is, I will probably buy some in the future. One thing I did discover, is that I need some better coloring tools! Well, thanks for looking. ~Diane