Thank You Collage

I know that I had said that I would leave collage cards to talented crafters like Jacqueline and Susanne, but I could not help myself, they are inspiring me so much on their blogs and in the Flickr gallery that I just had to give it another try, well, several, but I wont post them all today!

I think one of my stumbling blocks was that I was trying to fill an A2 standard size notecard with images, and for me, that was just too big a canvas.  After trying my hand out at scraplings the other day, and loving it, I wondererd why I was so stuck on keeping to the standard, to the rules!  Maybe it's just because I am not typically a rule breaker, I don't mind risk, but for whatever reason, this cardmaking got me stuck in one size mode!

Anyhow, so that's how this card started out, I decided on what my main background image was going to be and then that set the  size for my card, and I felt such relief, all this weight lifted off my shoulders!

Paper: Kraft (PTI); Pink Paislee (Butterfly Garden); K&Co.; Neenah
Ink: Soft Leaf shadow ink (Hero Arts); Tea Dye & Antique Linen DI; Memento Rich Cocoa
Stamps: Impressions (Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden Collection);  Hydrangea (HA K5376); Flower Bird Garden (HA CG270); Tiny Tags (PTI)
Other: Tiny Tags Die (PTI); Pearls (unknown)

I first stamped the Flower Bird Garden in Soft Leaf shadow ink onto some K & Co. patterned paper, it's very subtle, I love it.  Then I stamped the Hydrangea with Tea Dye distress ink.  The dragonfly is stamped with Rich Cocoa onto Neenah cardstock and cut out.  I added  a trail of pearls from the dragonfly to the tag. I finally inked the edges of the stamped panel with some Antique Linen distress ink.

Here is a funny quirky thing you don't know about me, those pearls with the sticky backing drive me crazy!!! It's just me, I love the pearls but I really don't like seeing the sticky strip in between!  So, I painstakingly remove the sticky backing from each pearl individually and then glue each one with a tiny dot of glossy accents!  It's time consuming, but at least I know that they will not fall off in the mail!

I then distressed a piece of patterned paper from my Butterfly Garden stack and used that as the mat behind the stamped piece.

I really like how this turned out, it's subtle, soft and not too busy for me.  I hope you like it too!

Have a wonderful Saturday!  I just went out for a 7 mile run at 6h30 this morning, it was so hot, I was perspiring so much that it looked like rain dripping off my peak cap!  Now we are off to the Children's Museum downtown!