Grid Technique

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm looking forward to a yummy Victoria's cut filet mignon steak tonight at Outback with my dear hubby to celebrate. For my gift, he brought me home last night a beautiful bouquet of a dozen red roses that I got to admire while I was working on my next project - soooo pretty and they smell wonderful! He also got me the Nestabilities dies I've been wanting to try. I found the circle and scallop circle set that he got me at Ritz Camera online for a great price (they're giving 20% off scrapbooking supplies during the month of February, so you might want to go check it out at ritzcamera.com). I also want the square and scallop square set along with the Labels One and Labels Two sets, but will ask for that for my birthday later this spring. Right now, Labels One and Two are out of stock at Ritz, but I'm hoping they have them before the end of February so my hubby can order them up while they're still on sale.

Last night I worked on my swap card for our next stamping team technique swap. I chose to do the Grid Technique. I wanted to use Inspired by Nature for my card as I still haven't used it yet, so this is what I came up with. The flowers in this gorgeous set remind me of growing up in rural New York - you'd see Black-Eyed Susans and Queen Anne's Lace sprouting up just about everywhere in the spring. I used my Fiskars trimmer with a scoring blade to score a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch square of Confetti Cream card stock, starting at the center diagonal line and scoring every 1/2 inch to the edge of the paper. I then stamped over the grid with my now retired Canvas background stamp in Creamy Caramel. I used markers to color the flower stamp - Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, and Chocolate Chip. After stamping the flowers onto the grid, I inked up the reeds image with Always Artichoke (marker), stamped off once, and then stamped over my main image. The grid is mounted on Summer Sun and then Chocolate Chip. This is then mounted on a 5 x 5 inch piece of Always Artichoke stamped with Itty Bitty Backgrounds. A piece of 5/8 inch Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon is tied around the bottom of the card. I then added Chocolate Chip triangles (2.5 inches along the edges) behind the Artichoke and mounted it all on a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch card base of Confetti Cream. I think I'll end up using this technique again - it's so easy to do, and gives a different look to your finished project.

Have a great rest of your day, and thanks for taking the time to visit!