Miss You

I fell off the challenge cart a month or so ago, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Today I made a card for a few challenges (some of which may or may not still be open ... you know how that goes), but it was in the spirit of those challenges, anyway.

Here's my card, then I'll explain:

This was inspired by both The Friday Mash-up theme to use Ombre:

and the June Virginia's View challenge to use Ombre or Monochromatic:

My background is (attempted) ombre, but the rest of the card isn't, so I probably don't qualify. Oh, well.

Also influencing my design was the current Paper Players challenge to make a masculine card:

ALSO influencing my design is the current OWH ODBD challenge to make a Missing You card.

Phew. I'll bet you'll be glad when I'm back on track and not piling on so many challenges at once, eh? :)

Oh, an aside: In case you haven't heard, Operation Write Home will cease operation later this year. It's all explained here in their Finish Strong post. This is a good thing! It means so many of our troops will have come home, it's no longer feasible to maintain the non-profit organization (with associated paperwork). All cards sent to OWH must be received by August 1st this year, and no holiday cards!!!! Please see the OWH post for more details, or if you have questions.

So, here's my card story. I thought instead of my usual multi-color ombre backgrounds, I'd go with grey and just vary the intensity of the color. I used my Distress Weathered Wood, which is kind of a smoky grey. Ombre - check.

I messed up the background and had a section with very little ink, so that became the de facto sentiment location. I pulled out my trusty Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments set and stamped the Missing You sentiment - check.

Grey background, simple sentiment. So far this was still masculine. Then I decided to use one of my Crazy Birds. (Did you know the Stampers Anonymous set is actually called Bird Crazy? True.)  I realized the error of my ways when I saw if I stamped it over the grey background, I couldn't color it. Well, I suppose I could have, by adding more water to the background and removing the ink, but that sounded like work. So I stamped it onto a scrap of water color paper instead, colored it, then cut it out.

I stamped the bird onto the background so he'd have legs and hair, then stuck the fussy-cut bird onto it. I think it's still Masculine, so - check.

Oh, and for the record, I finally got my new Distress minis, so I used those to color the bird. Maybe not my best work, but I've now used all four of them, so there's that ...

Thanks for stopping by!

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