Hugs from an Elephant

Hello, Friends!

Can you believe I've been able to post a card 4 weeks in a row?

I can barely believe it myself!

This one was close, though.  After I finished the watercolor flower last week, my back was really bothering me.  I had to spend 2 full days in bed waiting for the pain to ease up and then still had to take it easy.  Knowing I had an eye doctor's appointment on Monday and that I would be too tired to stamp after it, when I felt a little better on Saturday, I took advantage of it and made this card.  It was a good thing, because by Sunday morning, my back was causing me a lot of pain, again!  I have a doctor's appointment coming up and if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer that he can give me some advice to keep this from happening over and over, I would really appreciate it!  It's quite frustrating to make a little progress and then see it slip away over and over.

Now to happier things!  Anna Kossakovskaya's Randomizer Stage 4 Challenge is on her blog here.  This week, the theme was to make a card with a random stamp plus friendship.  I used Evernote to pick my random stamp and got My Favorite Things BB Adorable Elephants.  If you haven't seen this set, you must check it out here.  It is a cutie and I was thrilled to use it for my card!

Since it was a My Favorite Things stamp, I checked out their sketch challenge here and it was perfect to use with one of the elephants to create my card!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my blog post done in time to enter their challenge.  See why I need my back to be better all the time!  :)

  

I used almost all My Favorite Things products to make this card.  First, using the MISTI, I stamped my elephant, colored him with Copics and then used the matching die to cut him out.  I picked this elephant because I thought he kind of looked like he was waving to the recipient of the card.  

I used Gravel Gray Cardstock to form my base and to die cut two Pierced Rectangle Frames.  I used MFT's Tiny Check Paper Pack for my yellow checked paper (adorable!!) which I cut just a bit smaller than one of the frames.  This way it fit perfectly behind the frame for my background.  Instead of having the paper go all the way across the card like in the sketch, I used my frame die to cut another piece of Gravel Gray cardstock to fit inside the frame.  I used a set of dies called "Words For Friends" which had the "Hugs" die in it to cut the letters out of that same Gravel Gray strip.  I popped the "hugs" letters out of the gray cardstock so I had negative space or holes where they had been.  Then, I cut the word "hugs" out of Pineapple Prestige Cardstock and used the inlaid die technique to put them in the negative space in the gray strip.  This allowed the whole piece of gray cardstock with the yellow letters to lay flat across the back of the card.  However, before I adhered the hugs strip down, I stamped, "So happy for you" from the stamp set "Pure Innocence Happy Banner" on a small piece of Pineapple Cardstock.  I arranged the gray strip, the yellow strip, and my elephant exactly where I wanted them to go before I started to glue anything down.  When I had them where I wanted, I adhered the "hugs" strip and the "so happy for you" strip in place.

Just to add some interest to the card, I adhered the 2nd Pierced Rectangle Frame right on top of the first with foam tape.  I used foam tape on the half of my elephant that wasn't on the frame and regular flat adhesive on the side the was on the frame so he would be able to lay flat.  This made my elephant stand up from the background while creating a shadow box feel where the words were placed.  After this step, my card was complete!

While Anna has a bonus week coming up for her challenge, I would be thrilled to be able to post a card a week on my blog again!  Although it's easy to be discouraged by my health situation, I have to remember that last year it was not possible for me to make a card at all.  Making one a week for a month is a big improvement!  I've definitely made more cards this year than I was able to all of last year and it's only May!  If you remember to say a prayer for my doctor to be able to help me, please remember to say "thank you" for how far I've come, also.

Happy Stamping!

I used the following products by My Favorite Things, 

unless otherwise noted, to make my card:

Birdie Brown Adorable Elephants and Pure Innocence Happy Banner Stamp Sets

Memento Black Ink by Tsukineko

Copic Markers

Solar White Cardstock by Neenah

Pineapple and Gravel Gray Prestige Card Stock

Tiny Check Paper Pack 

Birdie Brown Adorable Elephants, Pierced Rectangle Frames and Words for Friends Die-namics

Scotch Double Sided Foam Mounting Tape by 3M