Marathon #15 (and Last!)

Next weekend is my last show of the year, and this card is a new version of one of my best-sellers at last year's show. Last year it was done in blues, but boat ... sea ... blue...b-o-r-i-n-g! So I rifled through my vast collection of under-used DS papers and selected this sheet from the SU Parisian Summer pack. The coordinating colors for this set of papers include So Saffron, Sahara Sand, Pirouette Pink and Bravo Burgundy. For this piece, the "purple-ish" flowers look like washed-out Burgundy, but I opted instead to use the Pink for the layers. Looking back on it now, it looks a little blah - not enough contrast... oh, well.

My experience with 'pretty' irreverent cards has been that people are drawn to the 'pretty', then they read it. Most of the time they laugh and put it back (not gonna work for Grandma, ya know?), but it might still sell. My fingers are crossed. ;-)

The fluffy stuff to the left of the sentiment is made from grosgrain ribbon - pink and burgundy. You carefully cut off one selvage edge, then you fray the fibers and lay them all down together. I kinda roll them together, then I wrap a piece of double-sided tape around it to bind it together. (Could I say 'together' one more time?) I trimmed just below the tape, then I 'gave it a haircut' to make it the length I wanted. It's a fun way to make a fuzzy embellishment, and it's a blending of colors, kind of like taking one strand of each of two different colors of DMC floss when you do cross-stitch. This is a maddeningly detailed way to transition or shade between two colors, and it works with ribbon, too. The burgundy ribbon, by itself, was too dark, so it just had to be done! I thought about adding a layer of burgundy under the pink on the layers, but .. eh, I think I'll leave it alone.

Okay - THAT IS IT. I am done, done, done for this looooong weekend of fun and games. I have one more show on Saturday, and I'll probably over-do it this week in anticipation of actually selling something. But that's okay, cuz on Sunday, after I unload the car at my storage unit (the third-bedroom extension of my teeny tiny condo), and I can reclaim my vehicle to haul, I dunno - groceries, then I'll post what I have left on my store site and that will be the end of the season.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, and I'll be back later this week. Have a good one!