I'll have the scallops

I love scallops - both the seafood kind and the papercrafting kind! So I'm thrilled to see Papercrafts magazine calling scallops one of the hottest trends. I hope they stick around for a long time!

I worked all morning on this card, pretty much. The first Monday of the month is always a contest on Julee Tillman's blog, using her mojo sketch for the week. And this sketch was really and truly a challenge. But after my morning's efforts I'm really happy with how my card turned out.

My color combo here is old olive, ruby red, basic black and whisper white. I picked this while thumbing through Real Simple and seeing this combo used in one of their article illustrations. Isn't it striking?

This was my first time using the preview set Fresh Cuts. (Contact me to find out how you can own this wonderful set now, before the new catalog comes out in August!) I decided to stamp the large block image and then cut out a circle with my Coluzzle. The top part of the image looked bare, so I took the small flower stamp and added those at the top.

For layering I cut a slightly larger black circle with the Coluzzle and scalloped it with my corner rounder punch. Beate said once that you scallop your circles this way - it was the first time I tried it. And she's right - you can! But here is my Tip of the Day: When you punch, make sure the circular edge is as flat into the punch as you can make it. This is especially important when you move to the next spot to punch. Line it up, and then roll the circle into the punch so you're sure it's flat. I noticed I had a much greater tendency to overlap my punches and ruin the scallops than I do when I punch straight pieces. Also, some experimentation may be required to get the scallops to come out evenly... I speak from experience here!

Moving on, the smaller circle is stamped on olive with basic black. The flower stamp is in ruby red on whisper white, and then I added adhesive half-pearls from Martha Stewart. I edged the circles with the black ink pad and the flowers with a black marker. I used the side of the brush tip and then you can get into those grooves with a very light touch. I mounted the flowers with dimensionals.

For my background I chose the large swirl from Baroque Motifs - there is a little bit of this swirl on the block and flower images from Fresh Cuts. I stamped it in black on ruby red and white cardstock, then cut the smaller blocks to go behind the circles. I also added a swirl to the sentiment panel at the bottom (sentiment is from Hugs & Wishes). Again the outside edges are inked with black.

Finally, the ribbon panel - it's just a strip of black cardstock with some olive satin ribbon from May Arts (available at Stamper's Dream). This ribbon was just the right elegant touch. I added a thin scalloped panel in ruby red cardstock underneath, with the scallops again edged with marker. When I put it all together, the bottom layers and the ribbon panel are flat, and the circles are mounted on foam tape.