Uptown Girl

UPDATE 5/23/2015: My card did not place in the challenge so I decided to repurpose the card into a birthday card for someone in particular who was my muse in coloring the original card. To cover the original sentiment on the inside, I adhered a slightly smaller piece of smoky slate cardstock stamped with a birthday sentiment. I added a few stamped, colored, fussy cut images of small wrapped gifts, colored to match the gifts on the card front, wrote a personal note and, voila!, it's ready for mailing this coming week to the birthday girl.

I decided to join in The Paper Players Sketch Challenge #245 (PP245) so made the following "Girly Thanks" card. The challenge calls for Clean and Simple. This is my exemplar for Clean and Simple!

 The focal image was stamped on white cardstock and colored with Spectrum Noir markers. Wink of Stella was added to the dress, shoes and hair bow and then it was fussy cut.

The sky was sponged on white cardstock in blue ink using the edge of a cloud die to create clouds. A setting sun was stamped so it would look as if it were sinking behind the buildings. The skyline was created with strips of cardstock adhered to the background piece after the sky and sun were completed. Windows were added with a gel pen.

The lower edge of the scene was trimmed away and a piece of gray cardstock was cut to match the curve leaving a space. A piece of DSP was adhered to a white card base. The background pieces were backed with craft foam to give them dimension and adhered on to the DSP. The stamped image was backed with clear foam to pop it up above the background scene.

The inside was lightly stamped in Smoky Slate ink with gift wrapped boxes. The sentiment, "You are Amazingly Amazing," was stamped in black. There is ample space for a personal note.

Stop by and visit The Paper Players for a dose of creativity and to join the challenge.

Techniques: Stamping, sponging, coloring, fussy cutting
Size: A7 (5" x 7")

Materials are Stampin' Up! unless noted otherwise:
Stamp: Painted Petals (inside sentiment), Kinda Eclectic, Stamping Bella Uptown Girls Series
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Bashful Blue, Daffodil Delight, Smoky Slate, Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, Uniball Signo white gel pen, Wink of Stella (clear)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Basic Gray
DSP: Confetti Celebration
Die: Mama Elephant Creative Cuts (used as cloud stencil)
Misc.: Craft foam, Kool Tac clear foam