Sending Congratulations!!!

With a graduating Senior, the graduation announcements have been flooding in! I'm up on the SugarPea Designs Blog sharing another unexpected graduation card! I used a couple more of my favorites from the latest release! I really thought this little croissant floating away with the balloons paired with the "sending congratulations" sentiment was perfect for a graduate!

To begin this design, I cut a larger than normal card front to begin doing some distress oxide blending. I cut the piece larger than normal, because I knew I would be using a series of die cuts and didn't want any areas where the blending wasn't perfect. I used Tattered Rose, Antique Linen, and Fossilized Amber. I LOVE this combination together! Once the blending was done, I die cut the piece using the Eyelet Coverplate. It is one of my favorites, but you probably already knew that because I use it so often. I did want to change things up a bit and added the extra detail by die cutting it again using the scallop portion from the Card Front Element Builder Sugarcut. I just love how it turned out! I think I will be trying this out again soon! I spritzed it with water using my distress spray bottle and added a generous amount of Shimmer Spray.

I also added some pink Nuvo drops in the center of each of the "flower" shapes that the eyelet die creates. Most of them ended up by getting covered up, but I still really like the effect. While the Nuvo drops were drying, I got to work on the rest of the elements of the card. I used two different sized rectangles from the Zig Zag stitched rectangles die collection to create a frame. 

I heat embossed the "congratulations" portion of the sentiment directly onto the frame using gold powder. The "sending" portion was heat set onto a strip of vellum and secured to the back of the frame using Tombow Mono Adhesive.  These super cute and versatile sentiments are from the Sending Sentiments, which I love and have used often! The croissant, which is from the Ooh La La stamp set,  is stamped in black ink and colored using Copic markers. After it was colored, I die cut it using the coordinating Ooh La La Sugarcut. The balloons have a coating of crystal glaze and some chunky iridescent glitter sprinkled over the top. This is one of my favorite details to add to balloons.

Once the Nuvo drops and the balloons were dried, I was able to start assembling my card. I added a white piece of cardstock that had been die cut using another piece from the Card Front Element Builder SugarCuts.  I adhered that to an A2 card base and then added the blended panel over that using foam squares. The frame is added to that with some additional foam squares for a lot of dimension.

The croissant is adhered at a jaunty angle to give the illusion that he is floating away using foam squares as well. I also added a few rhinestone gemstones for some extra sparkle. By the time you read this, I am certain this card will have arrived at its destination! I hope the recipient likes it! Thanks for fluttering by!