Missing You ...

My sweet daughter is away at University this year, studying Creative Arts for Theatre and Film. She has an aptitude for anything artistic and is really enjoying her course but, although she has made lots of new friends there, she confessed to feeling a little homesick the other week.

To cheer her up I sent her a parcel containing lots of nice fabrics for her Costume Designs and some of her favourite biscuits and chocolate. I also enclosed a hand made card, to let her know that we are missing her too. Now that she has received everything I can show you the card that I made for her.

I started with an A5 card blank and added a layer of "Springtime" patterned paper from Graphic 45's Secret Garden collection. I thought that a sewing theme would be appropriate so I opted to use the Grandma's Attic background stamp from JustRite Stampers http://justritepapercraft.com/search?type=product&q=grandma%27s+attic which I stamped onto cream card using Memento Rich Cocoa ink. I used coloured pencils to add colour to the dressmaker's dummy, cotton reel labels and buttons then I distressed the edges and used a foam blending tool to add a little Antique Linen distress ink around the edges.  The stamping and colouring was repeated twice, before fussy cutting out all the coloured elements and layering them up on foam pads to give a more dimensional look. You can see what a difference the extra layers made in the photo below.

A strip of brown floral washi tape from We R Memory Keepers was added across the bottom of the card, together with some "Wild Saffron" adhesive paper ribbon from K&Company. Then I added a row of "Sugar and Spice"  pink pearls from the Hobby House, alternating between the 3mm and 5mm sizes, to highlight the "lace".  I tied some button twine through a pink button from my stash and added it to the bottom right corner of the stamped image.

I needed to add a sentiment and wanted to balance the layout, so I decided to die cut a label from cream card using one of the smaller dies from the lovely Spellbinders Labels Six set http://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/s4-230-spellbinders-nestabilities-labels-six---6-dies-3647-p.asp . Leaving the die in place I sponged Antique Linen distress ink over the label, leaving it paler in the middle. When the die was removed it left a lovely crisp cream border which looked really effective. I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink again to stamp the "Miss You" sentiment and two small flourishes (which reminded me a little of flowers) from the JustRite Stampers Large Fancy Sentiments stamp set http://justritepapercraft.com/products/large-fancy-sentiments-cr-03815 . I added a couple of 3mm pink pearls to the centre of the flourishes, stuck the label to the card using foam pads - and Voila! 

I am really pleased with the finished card and I'm very happy that my daughter loved it too!