Language of friendship...

Greetings!

WARNING:  Long but worthwhile post!

Have you ever spoken to someone and thought "this is my sistah from another mutha?"  Well, recently I had that exact experience.  A few months ago I received an email from a sweet lady name Kim (Scrapsoffaith) who wanted to ask me questions regarding working with digi stamps.  I often get emails like this, because of the tut I created for CDAC.  I love to help people out when I am able.  I answered her questions and she was able to accomplish her task.  Fast forward to about couple weeks ago and I received another message from Kim.  We exchanged some emails and again she was able to solve her problem.  Well, during our email exchanges I expressed to Kim that I would like to design for a store.  I have set personal goals for myself and one of them was as I continued to improve on my cardmaking skills, I wanted to eventually become part of a Design Team for a store that sold more than digi stamps.  I hadn't told anyone else this goal of mine, but there it was.  Kim immediately told me about the FAB Design Team that she was apart of over at Whimsy Stamps and well now I am the Guest DT for April (a step towards my goal).

This conversation with my "sistah from another mutha" continued with a 5 hour telephone call later on.  We talked and talked about all things crafty.  I honestly felt (and feel) like she is my long lost sister. lol  Anyway, I write all this to say that at some point in our conversation we discussed using flowers on our cards.  I have always thought that using flowers and flourishes on my cards was not my style.  I would occassionally stick a flower on a card as a second thought, but never planned on doing so.  I admired ladies like Kim and others who adorn their cards with so many embellishes it looked like the cards should be displayed in a musuem, but never thought of doing it myself.  Well, Kim encouraged (she's another great enabler) me to purchase a few flowers from Wild Orchids Crafts and  try it out.  I did so and I must say I was not only hooked, but surprised.  I came to realize that the reason I never used a lot of embellishments is because I didn't want to take away from the image. I wanted my coloring to really draw you in to the image.  However, I discovered that I can have my cake and eat it too!  I can create a card with embellishments and have the image still be prominent. 

I ended up making three cards using some of my stash from WOC.  One of those cards I will share with you today and it's dedicated to KIM!  You never know in life who you will meet and what role they will play in your life.  I am glad to have met her, while not in person, and to share my passion for God, crafting and all things good with her.

Here's my creation...

I used a lot of different products from a lot of different companies to create this card.  First of all, I started out with a 6 x 6 card base using SU cardstock.  I added papers from MME "Howdy doody" 6x6 paper pack and layered more cardstock from SU.  I used a MS punch on the yellow background cardstock.  I then stitched the three dp and cardstock together and layered it on top of the green cardstock.  The flowers and crystal stems are from Wild Orchid Company, the flourish is from Cheery Lynn Designs "Fanciful Flourish," and the other two are diecuts from Spellbinder's  Metal tags.  I cut the ornate diecut out using a silver cardstock I found in my scraps.  Lastly, the sentiment is from SU.

I love how the card turned out.  I had a blast taking baby steps with my flowers and flourishes.  I will definitely be using more of them on my creations.  However, I will find a happy medium as to appease my Gemini twin who likes the simple look. :-)

Challenge(s):
Prairie Fairy Fridays:  Use Flowers
Wild Orchids Crafts Challenge:  Spring
Thank you for looking and commenting!

Now get to creating...

Remember:  There are no mistakes in cardmaking, only opportunities for creativity!