Just Under the Wire

It's almost the end of the month, so I got to work finishing up April's Viva la Verve sketch challenges before the Thursday deadline. I got some new stamps from Verve the other day and inked up one of the sets for week 3’s sketch.

I took the Chicks Rule set’s bird theme and ran with it, using a piece of paper with a fun bird pattern on it for the large panel on the ink cardfront. It’s edged with another pattern from the same paper collection. A piece of rose ribbon is wrapped around the paper panel and dressed up with a matching bow. I tucked a piece of lace underneath the paper’s edge. I’m not a big lace user, but I got a roll of it recently to use on another project so I figure I should find other places to work it in to.

I stamped the set’s “to one of my favorite peeps” sentiments in rose ink on a light pink oval, then layered it on an aqua panel. I colored one of the little chick images with Copic markers and cut it out, then slipped it underneath the edge of the oval panel. I think this chick’s named Chloe, which is kind of fitting for me, since I often call my Chloe the cutie puppy “little chick,” even though at her full-grown (at least I hope it’s full-grown!) weight of 60 pounds, there’s nothing little about her. I started calling her that when she was a tiny puppy—all 13 pounds of her—and it just kind of stuck.

Materials Used:
Chicks Rule stamp set (Verve Stamps); white cardstock (Taylored Expressions); Memento Tuxedo Black ink (Tsukineko); markers (Copic); Regal Rose Classic ink, Pink Pirouette cardstock, Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); Aqua Mist cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink 6 x 6 paper pad (My Mind’s Eye); oval die (Spellbinders); lace (Michaels); Bow Easy

When I first saw this sketch, I wasn't sure about it. The cluster of diagonal patterns made me a little nervous! I decided to start with a pad of patterned paper so that I'd have a cohesive color palette to work from and once I chose my patterns, the card came together much more easily than I thought it would. I picked three patterns, cut them into long, skinny triangles, and inked their edges with distress inks before attaching them to the cardfront.

I used coordinating colors for the remaining panels on the cardfront, including a light green to fill in the area to the left of the patterned paper strips and a light blue strip for along the bottom of the card. To visually divide the patterned section from the solid one, I used an orange border punched strip, lined along the top with a narrow piece of blue grosgrain ribbon.

For the sentiment, I used Verve's Vintage Oval Die to cut a panel from cream cardstock, then stamped the matching frame image in orange ink. I stamped a thank you sentiment from the Celebration of Thanks set inside the die before setting it on the cardfront.

Materials Used
Vintage Oval Frame and Celebration of Thanks stamp sets, Vintage Oval Die (Verve Stamps); Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie Classic inks, Pear Pizazz, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, and Very Vanilla cardstock, blue grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Tea Dye distress ink (Ranger); Mediterranean Cafe matstack (DCWV); Apron Lace border punch (Fiskars); orange seam binding (Martha Stewart)