International Women’s Day Hop

Welcome to the 3rd International Women’s Day Hop! If you’ve never hopped along, you are in for a real treat. Each year, on Women’s Day, we share encouraging cards that celebrate friendship, and the beauty that lives within ourselves. I love to make cards that spread cheer between holidays and birthdays. Unexpected cards are always the best; don’t you think?

Today, I’m sharing a pair of mini-slimline cards that are both uplifting and beautiful. They feature stamps illustrated by my talented niece, Summer, so they are extra special to me. You’ll find the images in the Flamingo Botanical, Turtle Botanical, and Pretty in Peony stamp sets from The Rabbit Hole Designs. If the flamingo card looks familiar, that’s because I originally made it into a full size slimline card. (You can see it here, where I go into detail on how to color the beach scene.) I loved the coloring on that card, but I wasn’t happy with the placement of the images. There was just way too much sky above. So I peeled it apart, and cut the panel down to a mini-slimline size, using the same scalloped rectangle die and partial die cutting trick. A new sentiment stamped at the top filled in the extra space nicely.

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To compliment the flamingo card, I decided to stamp a coordinating turtle card. With my favorite black ink, I stamped the leaves at the bottom of the panel, then masked them off and stamped my turtle behind them. Using Copic markers, I colored the scene. A good rule of thumb when coloring is to start with images in the back first, and work your way up to the top, or closest images. So here, I colored the sky, then the ocean, the sand, the turtle, and lastly the leaves. The order makes a difference because if your lines overlap, the items on top (or in front) will have the dominant lines. Overall, your images will just pop better. Once I was happy with my Copic coloring, I added more shading with colored pencils, then some highlights with a white gel pen, and some shimmer with a sparkle pen. My scalloped rectangle die is too short, so just like with the other card, I partially die cut the panel, shifted the die to extend the length, and die cut the other half. Before mounting the panel, I stamped the sentiment in the upper right corner. Both card panels are popped up onto 3 1/8″ x 6 1/4″ mini-slimline card bases with foam tape. Iridescent gems and stars add a little more shine to them. They fit into #7 coin envelopes.

Aren’t they beautiful? Part of me wants to hoard them and keep them forever, but I know I will send them out and spread the joy. I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below. And I hope I’ve inspired you to do a little bit of coloring to create encouragement cards of your own.

Remember I said this was a hop? You know what that mean, right? In addition to the gift certificate from us to the Pear Blossom Press Shop, take a look at all of the awesome sponsors offering prizes. Just for hopping along and participating, you could win big! Head on over to women.beyoutifully.you for all of the details. You’ll find links to all the stops in the hop, as well as a Linky Party button, so you can upload pictures of your encouragement cards too! Good luck, and I can’t wait to see what you create.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I’ll be back soon with more fun cards to share.

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