CC2 - #4 - Graduation Time

I've missed the past couple challenges that Linda Ledbetter has sent out into blog land for the Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge, but not this week!! For new folks, this is all about Tim Holtz and his amazing teaching book, Compendium of Curiosities #2 which you can purchase here. This week it was about faded layers which he describes on page 43.

After seeing Linda's piece, a big ole' light bulb went off in my head about using die cuts with mask material. So I set out to make a very sweet girl a graduation card.

I started with a piece of manilla paper cover stock and applied Evergreen Bough, Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint distress inks to the bottom portion of the paper. On the top I used the new Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Stormy Sky, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass distress inks....very lightly. Next I used the tall grass embossing folder on the bottom of the piece. I laid down my new mask of the branch tree and mostly used the same colors on top of the mask to get a nice blend and a faded picture of the tree. I was careful to avoid the bottom of the tree and used a little sponge finger dauber to color the top of the grass. Next I put some picket fences on one Tim's stamps from the Floral Tattoo collection for a bit of extra interest on the background.

Then came the fun part!!

I used the Tattered Floral Garland die cut and cut out a bunch of the smallest leaves and flowers. I'm really into beads lately, so with my trusty Scotch adhesive in hand, I glued down beads for the flower centers.

I used one of Tim's new kilt pins to attach a heart, a muse token which says Knowledge, and a Dream charm. They seemed like a good combination for someone headed off to Arizona next year for college.

Finally I used one of Wendy Vecchi's stamps for the sentiment. Now I all I have to do is write the inside and slip her a few bucks!! Tis the season.