Wednesday, August 19, 2009

In the Garden


Lately I've been drawn to Basic Grey papers. I've liked them all along and had picked up pages whenever I liked one. Last Christmas my step-daughter Annie gave me a couple pads of BG collections and that got me to start looking at the collections as wholes. A couple weeks ago I did a search on Basic Grey (I've since forgotten the reason why) and found their challenge page. They had been on hiatus and now are resuming the Basic Grey Challenge on a bi-weekly basis with this first new one being a sketch challenge. The other criteria is to use a Basic Grey product in your project. I wanted to combine a few challenges so I picked a theme challenge next. The Allsorts Challenge Week 14 theme is "In an English Country Garden". The Pink Elephant Challenge #28 is also a theme - "Summer" which is the time that people in my area do the most gardening. It's New Jersey it's an unwritten law that if you have more than 5 square feet of dirt in your your yard you have to plant a tomato, at least one summer of your life. There's nothing like a home grown tomato.
Once I had my theme I needed to pick out a stamp to use. I chose the Stampin' Up Set "Garden Pleasures". Then I needed to pick the colors and papers. So I went to the Color Throwdown to see the choices for this week which were Dusty Durango, Soft Suede and Bermuda Bay. These are from the new in colors from Stampin' Up, which I don't have but my SU demonstrator had given me chips of the new colors and I used them to see if I had a Basic Gray paper collection that had those colors and would go with the rest of the my choices. Luckily the Phoebe collection fits that bill. So I started to work on my card. I stamped the images on white card stock with Stampin' Up Basic gray ink. Then I colored the hat in with copic markers, re-stamped the bird, and colored that one in and cut it out. I brushed the edges of all the papers with Close to My Heart Desert Sand and then distressed the edges. I popped the bird up on a dimensional and put a mini brad in the image where there was a nail to look like the hat was hanging. I mounted the sentiment onto one of the tags that came with the paper collection and hung it from a brad near the watering can. I assembled the layers and when I put the ribbon on I realized there was one more challenge I had looked at that I could combine, the ABC Challenge this week is "B is for Buttons" and I tied a button onto the ribbon.
If you can't make out the sentiment it says "one is never closer to God than in a garden". I think that may be true with the possible exception of my crafting space. I think that's where I get close to God.
Thanks for looking at my card. If you have a minute leave me some feedback and before you go, click on the pink ribbon to help fund mammograms. It won't cost you a penny and it will help someone who needs it. Thanks so much for visiting.

18 comments:

  1. Very pretty card! Great way to combine all those challenges & a love all the layers on your card! :) TFS

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  2. Very pretty card and fabulous buttons.
    Thank you for joining in the ABC challenge this week.
    Cathy xx

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  3. Very nice card!!
    So happy you joined us this week at The Pink Elephant!!

    Lori
    http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com

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  4. Good Morning Chris

    What a lovely card and wornderful take on an English Country Garden.

    Love your story about gorwing something in your 'patch' and the tomato plant. Have to agree there, the flavour is totally different to anything in the supermarket. We are fortunate having a large garden but it does mean we are flowing over with tomatoes as well as other veggies, so lots of soups and sauces.

    Thanks for joining us at Allsorts this week, hope to see you again.

    B x

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  5. Hi,

    Your card is absolutely beautiful. What beautiful creations, really excellent, a treat for the eyes ...

    Kind regards from France

    Lucy(fee)

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  6. What a lovely, delicate card. Just so pretty. Thanks for playing the Color Throwdown Challenge.

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  7. This is really a beautiful card! I love the country theme. The little sun hat is great! The colors look lovely together and the paper is so pretty.

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  8. Chris, I love how you rotated the sketch. The distressed edges are fab. Pretty card :)

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  9. wow! that's alot of challenges, your card turned out great!

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  10. Hi Chris

    A bright and beautiful card - such lovely rich colours.

    A great take on Brenda's challenge. I love it!

    Thank you for playing along with Allsorts this week - I hope you are able to join us again.

    Love Jules xx

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  11. I love the distressed edges on your card and wish I was brave enough to do that myself!

    Great images perfect for this weeks theme

    thanks for playing at Allsorts

    Emma xxx

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  12. oh this is lovely - so different and really stylish.
    Thanks for sharing it with us at the PInk Elephant.
    Ann xxx
    http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/

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  13. Beautiful, Chris! I love all that distressing and the image and sentiment are fantastic! Thanks for playing the Throwdown!

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  14. What a great combination of challenges! Your card is very pretty! Thanks for including the Color Throwdown challenge in the mix!

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  15. Beautiful, beautiful use of papers and love the distressed edges - gorgeous image and colouring.

    thanks for joining us on ABC

    Dawn

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  16. Beautiful card!! Love the images. Thanks for playing with us at TPE this week!!

    Sheri
    http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com

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  17. wow i love this - what are those papers? and the distressing is fantastic
    thank you so much for joining us this week on abc, i look forward to seeing your entry for C next week

    Vicky x

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