Natural Beauty... Be You!

This is perhaps the most complex card I have done to date ... but I loved every minute of it.  :)  It's also relatively simple compared to some other handmade cards I've seen, but I don't care.  lol  It's been on the more complex side compared to what I normally do.  :)  I actually spent just a little over an hour making this one card, though that included getting everything together and getting up and down as I needed something or had to do something before continuing to make progress on the card.  :)  So all that being said ... here it is!

I started with a plain white folding card again, so no photo of that.  ;)

I used this "beauty" definition stamp with my desert sand ink pad and stamped it repeatedly to create the background for the front of the card.

I went ahead and did the back of the card early on, while I still had the "beauty" stamp out. I decided to incorporate it on the back, as well, to be sure the recipient could read the entire thing. For the back of the card, I stamped it in black ink, then used a Q-tip on my desert sand ink pad to do the "brushed" edge / border around that. Of course, the rest of it I just wrote out.  :)

Closeup to show the definition ... I just adore this.  :)

Back to working on the front ... this angle shows some detail of the "background."

I stamped this sentiment in black ink on one piece of lightweight papery-cardstock and cut it out with some fancy-edge scissors. I then flat-adhered it to a piece of purple cardstock and used the same scissors to cut out the purple cardstock around it to create this layered effect.

The recipient loves and sorta' collects turtles, so of course I just had to include this little guy.  :)

(Sidenote: Funny thing is, I had this card idea in mind for quite some time, after seeing the stamp set a few months ago, but had to wait till I could get it to actually sit down and make the card I had envisioned. I think that added to my excitement of seeing it finally come together.  lol)

While I waited for the turtle to dry on his piece of white cardstock, I stamped this leafy branch image directly inside the card, at the top right corner.  :)

I stamped this little guy on white cardstock and carefully cut him out.

Getting an idea of placement before continuing...

I stamped this sentiment for the inside of the card on a separate textured piece of purple cardstock, while I waited for the bird and branch to dry.

After I colored in the leaf edges and flat-adhered the bird to the branch.  :)

No matter how I tried, I ended up with an "oops" in the bottom left-hand corner anyway. BUT, I decided to stick to the "natural" thing and just go with it in the hopes that it'd add character.  :) So this is the corner border I stamped and affixed to the inside of the card.

Front of the card after I used 3D pop-dots on the sentiment and placed it.

Inside of the card after it came together.  :)  I affixed the inside sentiment with 3D pop-dots, as well, and fixed it so that the branch would be leading down toward the sentiment, with the leaves peeking out from behind it.

After I thought enough time had passed for the ink to dry well, and after I had done everything else, I went back to color in the turtle.  :)  Isn't he just too cute?

I wanted to make him nice and colorful -- bright and cheery.  :)  This is him after he had been colored in and cut out.

And here he is! This is him affixed with a 3D dot to the bottom right-hand corner of the front of the card.  :)  Had a lot of 3D elements going on with this card, which added to the fun of it! Love the different layers.  :)

The finished card:  Front!

The finished card:  Back!

(Front again; showing a different angle... hehe)

The finished card:  Inside!

And that should be MORE than enough photos for anyone.  :)  But what can I say ... I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I for one was very happy with the outcome.  :)  Stay tuned for more crafty goodness coming soon!