Paper Players Challenge # 4 – Easel Heart

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday night.

Tonight's card is the card I created for the 4th Paper Players challenge.  Tonight's challenge was to create an easel card.  It isn't a style that I use nearly enough!   As it is also the last night that our guest designer Jeannie plays with us, Lesley asked us to pay homage to Jeannie.

Jeannie leaves very soon for Bella Italia.  She will be stationed in the home of my MIL's birth – Vicenza.  Italia is also the place that Lou and I got married.  We married just outside of Verona – just 27 miles from Verona.  (Many of you may remember that Verona is the home of Romeo and Juliet!)  Consequently, I decided to pay homage to Jeannie's upcoming move and make it about love.

You can see the other design team cards by clicking on the following links:

LeAnne's Three Little Words

Corie's Thank You

Lesley's Congratulations

Jeannie's

To play along, all you need to do is create an easel card and link it here by 5pm PST on Friday. We'd really love to see your creations using your favorite supplies!

This card was particularly difficult to photograph, so I apologize for that up front.

I cut a heart shape freehand and then ran it through my Big Shot and the square lattice embossing folder.  I wanted this card to be something that was masculine, and decided on the Basic Black, Real Red and Whisper White color scheme.

The great thing about an easel card is that it is a great way to showcase the sentiment from the inside of the card at the same time as you see the outside.  So, you see the card as a whole.

I love this sentiment "Love beings in a moment, grows over time, and lasts an eternity.  How perfect for the story of Romeo and Juliet.  A story that has endured from the creative mind of Shakespeare for more than 500 years.  Getting married in the city of love was something quite special!

I added a little gold smooch spritz to the card – and backed the heart with the En Francaise background stamp.  However, I didn't press down hard in all areas, to give some relief to the background and make it feel more aged.  Certainly Verona is aged – there are ruins of Roman roads and gutters in Verona – so something with a vintage feel felt appropriate.

Here's the easel card closed:

I like the fact that the background is aged – with the Cherry Cobbler and the Whisper White that looks almost sepia and then wrapped in the Whisper White ribbon which looks almost bridal.  I made the inside white match the ribbon.  Here's a view that shows the side view, too.

A brad from the Spring mini keeps the easel upright when the card is open.  These are really easy cards to make and can be used to showcase some of your favorite stamp sets. The very talented Beate on splitcoaststampers has a great tutorial for this technique.

Jeannie, thank you so much for being our guest designer in June.  We wish you all the best and a very happy stay in Italia.  Home of love, Dante, amazing designers, wine – and food that is magnifico!

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
• Stamps:  En Francaise (background), Tiny Tags, Occasional Quotes (2010/2011 IB&C)
• Accessories:  Whisper White taffeta ribbon, gold smooch spritz, Square Lattice embossing folder, Tiny Tags punch, heart brad (retired)

Tips:

• When creating an easel card you can use just about any embellishment to catch the easel.  A button, a brad, ribbon, etc.  If using a brad or a button, try to place it in the middle of the card on the horizontal
• I have found that the best finished sizes for me when creating easel cards are either 4" or 4 1/4" square

Now, all you need to do is create your own easel card and link it to the challenge page.  We would really love to see what you have created.

On a personal note:  more wild weather again last night.  An area close to us that was hit last week by tornadoes was hit again last night.  We were lucky – lots of lightening, thunder and rain, but no damage.  It's hard to believe that it has rained just about every day for the last three weeks.  This leads to really muggy humid weather and we have been advised that the mosquito problem will be worse than normal this year.  Mmmmm…. not sure how I feel about that 🙂

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday filled with love, laughter and lots of time to do the things you love – with those you love.  Continued prayers for Trish, Germaine, T, Pri, Arthur, Missy's family and Rach.

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the blogosphere.  Your visits, your support – and your comments – are much appreciated.

Hugs to you all and remember, smile at a stranger – it may change their life.

Hugs

Jaydee