Cindy's blues blew me away.

 

Last night, I was surfing the net looking for nothing in particular, but, as always, hoping for some inspiration, when I came upon this drop-dead-gorgeous card over at the Flourishes website. I was immediately taken with the gorgeous blues she used in her stunning design. So, I CASEd it. Unabashedly and unashamedly. And my card still doesn't even come close to the exquisiteness of Cindy's card. But, I wanted to make this a smaller card so I could include it in the set of notecards I'm making for my SIL, and space was limited. I tried adding a few more embellishments, but every time I did it went over the top. So, while I couldn't get any closer to Cindy's card, I thought I'd stop while I was ahead. 

Aw, who am I kidding? I don't think I could ever make a card as stunning as Cindy's. It really is that amazing.

I did add a new technique to this card--stitching--and was, FINALLY, satisfied with it. I've tried to stitch on cards before, always by hand because I don't have a sewing machine, and I've never been happy with them. A few times I've just thrown the thing across the room! 

I explain how I was able to get the stitching right at the bottom of this post. It's a fairly long paragraph, so I wanted to make it possible for you to skip it if you chose. But, the fact that the card is still on this side of the room ought to tell you I figured out something! :)

Recipe:

The Paper Company papers from Joann, in blues. (I don't recall the actual name of the collection.)

Striped paper I designed

Digital flower stamp 

Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval and scalloped Oval

Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder

Sizzix branch with leaves die

McGills Petite Petals punch

EK Success border punch

Copics

Seam binding ribbon died in a sage green and crumpled up.

Stick pins I made. (I just noticed one of them had fallen off! Yikes!)

Challenges:

Freshly Brewed Challenges--three of anything

Simon Says Stamp--anything goes

Creative Craft Challenges--pretty blossoms

Flourishes--embossing (I'm embarrassed to enter this since I so unashamedly copied Cindy's card, but what the hell!)

Jac-Inks Papercraft Challenges--die cut and texture

How I did the stitching: First, I cut an oval from my Nestabilities, traced it, then scanned the image into my computer. I then traced the scanned oval in my Digital Scrapbook Artist program using the drawing pen. Next, I changed the line to dashes, changed the line's color to a very light gray, and then printed it out. I cut the oval from my die, then poked a hole in each dash, stitched it up, and voila! It actually doesn't look half bad. It took me almost all day to get the oval just right, as I had to tweak its height and width many times, and even then, it's not perfect. But it is very close.