You make the world beautiful

I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day! We had fun as a family going to the parade, backyard BBQ and Fireworks! I had an awesome time with my husband over the weekend at my nephew's wedding as well. I was itching to get back to my creative space to work on this week's design for The Challenge which I will be sharing tomorrow as well as a few other ideas that have been floating through my mind. When I was a kid, my sister and I absolutely loved Shrinky Dinks and then I fell in love AGAIN when I would use them at my SU! workshops YEARS ago! I decided it was high time to revisit all of the fun that they have to offer!!!

It's not often that I use multiple sentiments on the front of a card, but with the fabulous You are Loved stamp set and shrinky dinks, it made it possible to use them all together for a cohesive look. I ordered some "Rough and Ready" shrinky dinks from Amazon since I can't find my old stash of SU! sheets. I really like how easy it is to stamp and color on the rough side. I chose three of the sentiments that worked well together in theme: You are Loved, I care about you, and You make the world beautiful! My daughter is a "Hope Squad" member at her school and we have decided to work together to create a set of handmade cards that she can take to school in the fall. These cards will be given to the teacher in charge of the "Hope Squad" and they can be used as needed. The "You are Loved" stamp set is perfect for this. I got it for Mother's Day and am so excited to get it inky.

To begin, I created a pearlescent watercolor background using Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi pearl colors. I used 140 lb. coldpressed watercolor paper to create a wash of gradiant colors included in the set. I just went from one color to the next, omitting the white. Once it was dried, I used the fabulous knitted embossing folder from Richard Garay. 

Before I began the card, I experimented A LOT with different shrinky dink elements: die cuts with stamping, sentiment strips with punched holes, Copic Coloring and more. You can see a little sample of them in the background of this photo. Don't worry, I'll be sharing lots more ideas using shrinky dinks because I just can't stop! LOL!

I was finding that some of the sentiments were coming out warped, which is common and it was really bugging me. After I fussed at trying to get the "perfect" piece, I decided to embrace the imperfection and use these pieces on today's design. The "I care about you" piece was wonky and curvy, which in the end, I really like!

I punched out some daisy-ish looking flowers using an old Martha Stewart punch as well as some yellow centers. I love how the sentiments look glued over the top. I also added some Rainbow Sparkle Gems placing them over the background where they blended the best. I did that in my last card which I just love! I also added three Sparkling Clear sequins as well as three watercolored hearts. 

There is a heart image included in the stamp set, but because of my textured background, it would be impossible to add them and I didn't want the stark outline. Instead, I opted to use the tiny heart die that is included in the Beautiful You die collection. I used it on THIS card but added glossy accents over the top. On today's card, I just watercolored the hearts using the pearl watercolors and stacked 4 on top of each other. I had a lot of fun creating this card and I can't wait to make more for my daughter to take to school. It will be a fun project that we can work on together! Thanks for fluttering by and join me tomorrow for a fun new challenge!