Fussy, fussy, fussy

I have such a literal mind. I am a real rule-follower - drives me nuts when people don't use turn signals or try to go straight from the turn lane. So I should have known that when I decided to undertake this card project, it would take me all evening to finish.

This is another case of being inspired by Sarah's wardrobe. She wore this dress to church this morning (please excuse the not-so-great photo):

I looked at the colors and thought, that would make a pretty card. Then I remembered this card that I fell in love with on SCS this morning and thought of combining some of the features of the card with the patterns in the dress.

This is where my rule-following got me into trouble. I wasn't satisfied until I found cardstock and coordinating ink or markers in the exact color of the dress, and I really tried to replicate the patterns in the fabric, and I even had to use grosgrain ribbon. Tell me, who would ever know except me? And the few people who regularly read my blog? But I couldn't let it go. I do think it turned out really sweet, though. I had thought this would be another Rachel card, but it really seemed to be a birthday card to me, so I used this cute Inky Antics sentiment stamp. The brown dot paper is by Scenic Route. The cardstock is Bazzill, with stamping on the aqua from Stampin' Up's Polka Dots and Paisley (dots, stamped in Color Box celadon ink) and Delight in Life (tiny flowers). Those itty-bitty flowers were done by coloring in the flower with Tombow markers, and the flower is actually part of a much larger stamp, but I really wanted to try to emulate the aqua print in the dress. There's one really fussy part. The main stamp is from SU's What Could Be Better? and is also done with markers, and to get the aqua I had to blend two colors together (more fussiness). The purple and white panels are inked with Color Box wisteria, and the brown is sanded, which came from the SCS card. It's a nice distressing technique that's so easy to do. The ribbon is by Making Memories.

Sarah seemed to be better today - she didn't really fall down, anyway. We're still keeping a close eye on her. The cool front moved through, although all the rain completely missed us. But the temperature was much better and we were able to play outside, which the kids always love. Hard to believe that fall is just around the corner - the cool weather from last week made the leaves on our trees think that it's time to start changing colors, so our back yard will soon be full of color. It's a lovely time of year to live in New England. Until the winter comes, that is...