Unusual ...

I'm really on a roll here. "Different" on Saturday. "Unusual" today.

OK. While making a connection will probably be a stretch of the imagination, my card was inspired by this beautiful card by Barb that she posted on her The Buzz blog. I fell in love with the background, which was created with a single background stamp (from Stampin' Up, I think). While it was Barb's first experience with a large background image, some of us "old-timers" are familiar with them (and I, for one, miss 'em!).

Anyway, what I attempted to do was imitate the look with a stamp from Close To My Heart's Adorable Backgrounds set. After I stamped the black words, I stamped over it, using the scrolly (not a word) in the set and Crystal Blue ink. Then, I used round sponges to add Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf inks. I think I managed to create a look similar to the background of Barb's card.

I used my background piece to make a card based on this week's Mojo Monday sketch. Had I planned a little better, the butterfly that you can see on my second piece of "homemade" background paper would have been right side up. For that design, I stamped the butterflies and then used a direct-to-paper technique with my Sweet Leaf ink pad. When it came to the band, I didn't know quite what to do. I cut a piece of black, which was too much. I think the white (embossed using the Swiss Dots embossing folder) is right but might look better were it a quarter inch or so narrower. I also fully intended to use a butterfly as my accent, but the big one was too big, and the small one was too small, so I resorted to a couple of paper flowers. As for the ribbon, I think I made the right choice. I believe keeping the black matting narrow was a good idea, too. Thick black edges would have been overpowering. The use of the word "unusual"as my title (like "different") is indicative of the fact that I'm not quite sure about this card ... er, experimental card-making endeavor. LOL.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy, and Black cardstock; Black, Crystal Blue, and Sweet Leaf ink pads; Close to My Heart Adorable Backgrounds and Butterfly Kiss stamp sets; Verve Stamps Beautiful stamp set; Ribbon from Wal-Mart; Paper flowers from CTMH and Hero Arts; Acrylic disk from Michael's; Cuttlebug w/Swiss Dots embossing folder; Round sponges.

A Mojo Monday sketch done on a Monday. How 'bout that? I had a crazy busy day. The whole week is going to be that way. Today, I learned I have a "company profile" due for a German publication due on Wednesday. I can pump out a profile in a couple of hours so it would be no big deal were it not for the fact that translation takes a week. OK. I thought about my situation. I had four years of high school German (like 40 years ago). I can, however, still read enough to get the gist of what's being discussed. Thus, I've decided that I can take last year's profile and update it with this year's information and rewrite it in German. When I pull this one off, I'll declare myself multi-lingual and demand a raise. LOL. That will go over big. Never a dull moment. Speaking of, the little guys will be spending Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights with us this week. Parade. Fair. Fun. Hooray!

Enough jabber. I'm off to my corner to clean up and just maybe start something new. I hope your week got off to a good start! Later...