Love Much

Today begins a five-card series showing my entries in the New Jersey State Fair, held annually during the first week of August.  Happily, I’ve done well with my entries during the previous three years and have lots of lovely ribbons to show for my efforts, though I have no idea what to do with them!  However, as I got paid for a few of my cards that got published last year, I now have to exhibit as a Professional – which means that the competition is stiffer.  Still and all, out of six cards entered, I came away with four Firsts and one Third . . . Yay ME! 

 

This one was a Blue Ribbon winner: 

 

 

Although there are seven stamps used on this card, I also had fun with punches:  eight to be exact!  Moreover, I’ve taken to heart the numerous encouragements I’ve been reading lately about getting the most use out of my supplies as possible.  Tricks like using parts of images appealed to me, so on this card, I did that in three ways:

1. The cake topper is just the very top part of an image that actually inspired this layout:  it was a three-layer cake and I loved it, but I needed a larger cake in order to make more of an impact.  So I used just the topper.

2. The middle layer is just a third of the actual image.  I was easily able to ink just a part of the stamp because I used a marker.

3. The bow on the gift is actually the wings snipped off a punch-out of a cherub.   Sounds a bit grim, but happily, no real cherub was injured in the making of this card!

 Cardstock:                      Bazzill Dark Tangerine, Beckett Iceberg

Stamps:                           Stampendous Sweet Montage, Stamp Out Cute Music,
                                              Impress Flourish, Outlines Star from Bits & Pieces set,
                                              Memory Box Bird Huddle, Fred Mullett Waves,
                                              Unknown “Live well . . .”
Inks:                                PaperTrey Ink Fresh Snow, ColorBox Frost White, Gold 
                                             Marvy Wet Looks Marker #43,   Kaleidoscope Creole (lightest
                                             color)               
Emb Powder:                Judikins Opaque White, Ranger Gold, Transcendence Clear
Dies/Punches:              Scalloped rectangular punches (3 sizes), postage stamp punch,
                                              tiny leaves, flowers, Fiskars Scalloped Border, Marvy Cherub
                                          (wings only)
Doo Dads:                     Deckle-edged scissors