…BiRThDaY TRaiN...

I sat down to play with this week's DeConSTRuCTiNG JeN sketch and saw a SuPeR cute MME pad sitting on my desk…a few weeks ago when I was looking for paper, I pulled out a few untouched pads that I thought were ADoRaBLe …it seemed a shame to have such sweet paper collecting dust, so I set the pads on my desk thinking that they might serve as inspiration instead of just taking up space…

…that is EXaCTLY what happened!!!  When I saw this sketch I was originally thinking ribbon for the  pieces in the bottom corner…but then I flipped through the paper pad sitting there and saw that train and argyle paper…it SCReaMeD at me :)  ..."UsE US…USe US!!!" ...

…so I did…the pad of paper …Out of the Blue..worked out perfectly for the sketch…I added a little bazzill red and some PTi smokey shadows cardstock and a sweet pale aqua gingham that I think is from aMuse…I built the whole base of the card and then went looking for a train stamp for the focal point….ummmmm….oops

How was it possible that I could live in a house with train junkies and NOT have a train stamp?!?!?!  I remembered a SuPeR old set that I'd stuck out in the garage for use with the day care kids when we have a transportation theme month and ran out to get it…it was wood mounted and DOTS…so old it wasn't even Close To My Heart but DOTS…ummm….well…guess we were going with the whole -oldie but a goodie- thing…

First I tried to stamp it and clear emboss it on patterned paper and fussy cut/paper piece it back together…No GoiNG there…EPiC FaiL as my 12 year old would say…then I stamped it in several solid ink colors and tried again to piece it together…better but still a LoSeR…finally I heat embossed it with white filagree powder onto the red textured card stock…and I liked it…I've never embossed a solid image onto textured card stock (I use a LOT of PTI card stock which is perfectly smooth) so the texture showing through was a surprise to me…but it worked…

…of course I wish it was perfectly even everywhere…but…you can't have everything :) 

I really liked the way the image popped and made such a strong focal point…and then it was done…I know I did the whole thing ass-backwards…I ALWaYS do the main image first and then audition 27 papers and 32 ribbons and 67 embellishments from there…I gotta say…I made a LOT less of a mess doing it this way…but I don't know how successful I'd be if I tried to do it regularly…

Here's my envelope…no surprise there :)

Thanks for LooKinG!
Have a GReaT week
jen