A very special Get Well - Because I Care

Hot on the heels of Elements of Style comes this Get Well card for a special friend and mentor.  It also uses the easy watercolouring technique of watercolor wonder crayon with blender pen.  First, about the card itself, then a bit about it's recipient...

There is a slightly amusing tale behind this card,  it's what I call a 'rescue project'  One of my lovely customers, Barbara, does beautiful watercolouring, and was busy using her new crayons with the blender pen.  Her gorgeous hydrangea blossom from the Level 1 Hostess set was beautifully coloured, trimmed into a panel for the card she was working on, then laid aside.  However, Barb was in driven production mode this Stampin' Crop day, trying to complete some projects before needing to leave earlier than usual.  A few steps later, she grabs a scrap of Very Vanilla to stamp a greeting on, and duly punches it out with the Scallop Oval.  Oops...  The punch monster had left lovely teeth marks in the coloured flower image on the other side of the 'scrap'...  Into the rubbish tub it was tossed, and Barb got on with making a replacement.  No!! you can't throw that away, I'm sure you can do something with that!!  So, it was handed over to me as a challenge of sorts.  And here is the result!  I stamped a second flower on a piece of Naturals Ivory card, and coloured with the same colours Barb used.  I trimmed around the damaged section, following the outlines of the hydrangea bracts, to create a new, slightly smaller layer to create dimension with.  The change in cardstock colour from Vanilla to Naturals Ivory adds to the shading and depth.  Bet you can't tell where the oval scallop bite is now!  I also rescued one of the leaves and overlaid it on my stamped image, and made one for the other side for balance. 

The card sat like this for a few days, with the matching greeting from the Hostess set, but then the ideal opportunity came up to complete it.  I added a Soft Suede background stamped with Wonderfully Worn background in matching ink, then layers of Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride.  Blushing Bride twill ribbon was wrapped around the base, and I had an idea to try the ribbon ruffle technique.  I wasn't sure how the diagonal weave would go, but thought it was worth a try.  Instead of creating a nice straight piece of gathered ribbon, the ribbon naturally curled and twisted, and I could quickly envision a ribbon flower.  A few stitches of thread later to secure the ends, and my twill hydrangea accent was done!  A few adhesive half back pearls from the Jewels Basic Pearl pack to the main image and the centre of the ribbon flower complete the card.

A special card, for a special person - my upline and mentor Jayne Mercer.  Jayne is currently recuperating from surgeries for gallbladder removal after a nasty attack last week.  Get well soon Jayne, now it's our turn to return some of the kindness and care you offer all your team members.  Pop on over to Jayne's blog if you'd like to leave a message for her, I'm sure it would make her day

Now, what's this - two longish posts in under a week,  how could that be?  A dose of procrastination perhaps?  Hmm, that would be true - an assignment on the Skemp theory of relational vs instrumental mathematical instruction awaits, as well as a critical analyis of some educational psychology papers.  But the ideas have been percolating while I warm up my typing fingers, and I'll finish them before I return to more pleasurable writing tasks, pinky promise!!