Picket Fence with Ivy

Today's "Ways to Use" challenge on SCS was to create a card that includes a fence. Carla, the challenge hostess, was inspired by Tom Sawyer Days in Hannibal, Missouri, the town where Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) spent his childhood and met people who inspired his characters. As it happens, my hubby and I recently visited Hannibal, so I couldn't pass this challenge up.

I stamped the fence and ivy image from Grienbrier International in Memento tuxedo black ink on whisper white card stock. I used the blendabilities markers from the old olive assortment to color the ivy. I then stamped and cut out a mask of the fence to enable me to sponge in the sky and greenery. (True confession, I only cut out one of the spaces in the center of the fence, and then simply moved the mask as needed. Because the soft sky color was lighter than the already colored ivy, there was no need for more precise masking.) I also used a couple of stamps from the Watercolor Minis set to create more textured greenery at the bottom of the fence.

I mounted my image on a piece of pear pizzazz card tock and stamped the sentiment from the Kind and Caring thoughts set in black. I wanted to add ribbon, but the piece of satin ribbon I had was so wrinkled it looked, as my grandma used to say, "like a dog chewed on it and spit it out". I hate ironing, so that wasn't going to happen, but I still wanted to use the ribbon so I decided to love its flaws. Instead of trying to straightened out the wrinkles, I twisted the ribbon and knotted it before adding it to the card. I think it turned out pretty cool and interesting and no one but us will ever know it wasn't what I intended all along.

The final step was running the soft sky mat through the big shot with the Perfect Details texture plate to give it a little more dimension and interest. Then it was simply a matter of attaching the soft sky layer to the white card base and attaching the pear pizzazz piece tot he mat.

Recipe:

Paper: whisper white, soft sky, pear pizzazz
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, pear pizzazz, soft sky, old olive, Old Olive blendabilities marker assortment
Stamps: Picket Fence and Ivy by Greenbrier International, Kind and Caring Thoughts
Accessories: blue satin ribbon, Perfect Details Texture Plate