Another practical card.

I've decided that I need more practical cards ... I have too many "friendship-py" cards and not enough birthday and thank you cards. Next, I should decide to SEND out these cards rather than just post them on my blogs. But hey ... what would y'all have to look at if I did that???

Sentiment by A Muse, Bird Border stamp by Magenta, Paisley background by Stampin' Up!
Let's see ... this card follows the Sarah "more is more, don't stop now" Bertolino mantra of card making. I stamped the paisley bg in versamark and clear embossed it. The sentiment is traced over lightly with a li'l bit o' color (via blender pen) ... hope you can tell. Then I pressed it face down into some versamark and embossed with IIEP. Spark-a-licious! I accented the birds wings and tails and the brown (Amer. Crafts) brad in the center of the primas with the ubiquitous stardust stickles. (I really need blogger to add the word "stickles" to their spell checker ... so annoying that it gets flagged every time.) The whisper white and chocolate chip paper is by SU! The patterned paper is by My Mind's Eye/Bohemia (Barefoot "Play") -- this pattern appeals to my inner boho hippie side ... reminds me of some dress my mom had when I was growing up. I used the front side (the paisley pattern) for the bottom half and the back side of the same piece (the green) for the top half.

Stay tuned ... the FIFTH A*Muse*A*Palooza Challenge should be up tomorrow. I love these challenges. I wonder if the next one will be something like a single-layer card. That's a very A Muse style ... and definitely NOT mine BUT it wouldn't be called a challenge then would it now?

Heidi asked recently in the comments of one of my cards what marker I use to do shadows. I have been using a Prismacolor 30% Cool Gray Marker I got at Hobby Lobby. I didn't do it on this bird card here but I did on this one (the oval was done with SU!'s going gray) and this one. In the past I've just used my blender pen and going gray or sahara sand ink. Hope this helps.