Today is day two of “drowning my eyes” four times a day.  Having someone say, “use the eye drops,” is a lot different than putting about 10 drops in each eye all at once.  First, it’s hard to keep your eyes open after the first several drops.  And after a while, there’s a saturation point, so a lot of the drops just run down your face.  And, of course, it makes your nose run.  (Well, my stupid nose, anyway.)  It plays serious havoc with eye makeup, too.   It does feel really good, though.  It would just be nice if it were less messy!  Ah, well…one can’t have everything, right?

I watched some videos from the Stampin’ Up!® training department, showing how to use new products from the Occasions mini catalog.  Of course, I don’t have the products yet, but I did play with one of the ideas last night, using watercolor paper with ink refills and water.  And there was a nice sketch challenge on the Stampin’ Up!® forum, so I combined the technique and the sketch ideas and made this anniversary card for Mike (our 29th is coming up!).

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Stamps:  Artistic Etchings, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Ink:  Soft Suede, Blushing Bride, Perfect Plum classic; Perfect Plum stampin’ write marker; Paper:  Soft Suede, Perfect Plum, Blushing Bride card stock; Beau Chateau designer series paper; watercolor paper; Other:  crimper, trinket keys, scallop trim border punch, full heart punch, vintage trinkets, white baker’s twine, Blushing Bride stitched-poly ribbon, Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, stampin’ dimensionals, aqua painter

I wasn’t a huge fan of Blushing Bride when it first came out.  I liked the dusty pinkness, but it was a little too dusty.  And then I saw it with Soft Suede, and fell in love.  It’s so soft and pretty, and I’m really, really going to miss it when it “retires” this summer.  Soft Suede will be quite lonely.  I can’t wait to see the five new colors they’ll be bringing out, though!

Here are some deets on the card.  First I punched two hearts from watercolor paper, and then washed the paper with Blushing Bride and Perfect Plum.  You can just squeeze the ink pad together to get some ink in the lid and pick that up with the aqua painter, or, for a deeper color, squirt a drop or two of ink refill in the lid and pick that up.  The more water you use, the lighter the color and the more it will blend.  While it dries, you can work on some other aspects of the card.  I used a heat tool to speed up the drying time.  And remember, the ink will be a little lighter when it dries.

The scallops around the hearts are designer series paper (Beau Chateau).  I cut a 12″ strip about 2″ wide, then punched both sides, cut it in half and crimped each strip.  Put lots of glue over the back of your heart, and just pleat the strip around the back.  I probably should have punched another heart to put on the back to hold the designer paper securely against the watercolored heart., but I forgot it my excitement of making a card for Mike.  The dimensionals should hold it pretty well, though.

The rest of the card is very simple and straightforward.  I embossed the Soft Suede/Perfect Plum diamond with the Vintage Wallpaper folder.  And I tied the key to the pin with baker’s twine, then pinned through the ribbon.  The key kind of covers up the sentiment; I’ll plan better next time!  I also filled in some of the “Amour” letters with Perfect Plum.  If I used this idea again, I’d stamp some very faint images on the Blushing Bride layer for a little more depth. 

That’s it for now.  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.