A special baby card

Here's a special card for a special mother-to-be. I was at a shower today for a stamping friend of mine so the pressure was on to make a lovely card. We don't know if it's a boy or girl, so the colours are neutral. (I asked DH if the card was too boyish and he said "It's just boyish enough." Nrnrnrnrn - wrong answer! Must remember not to ask him for feedback.)

I started with making the background, which I wanted to look like a quilt, since my friend likes sewing and I think she's even done quilts. I punched out a bunch of squares with a 3/4" square punch and PTI patterned paper. I stuck with paper from the same line so it would coordinate and make my life easier. I glued down the squares with a glue stick (you can wiggle them a bit after they're stuck - handy for lining them up) onto a square of Whisper White, but any cardstock will do. Once all was stuck down and trimmed neatly, I pierced holes using my piercing guide (SU) and embroidered the little x's with embroidery floss. I thought it needed a bit more oomph, so I did the edge too. That was a bit of a minor undertaking because once you've started, you can't really stop. Still, when it was finished, it really was worth it, and pre-piercing meant it didn't take that long to do. And quilts do need a binding, don't they. At this point the trick was to find something that wouldn't totally cover up all the x's, so I went with a small focal point, image and sentiment. The image is a Sunshine Designs stamp, coloured with Tombows and blended, accented with stickles. The sentiment is Stampin' Up, inked with markers to get the two different colours. This is easy - just use the brush tip of a marker and colour the portions of the rubber in the colour you want. Huff on it before you stamp to reactivate the ink. I felt this card needed a ribbon, so I added a nice taffeta bow (Stampin' Up), as well as some stick-on half-back pearls (Hero Arts). The card base is the light green from PTI, and the mat for the sentiment is Baja Breeze. I see that the scanner didn't catch the bottom of the card. This is actually a 5 1/4" square card.

The shower, by the way, was lovely. The hostess made us all feel so welcomed and taken care of. There were really fun games, including baby present bingo and "what's in your purse" (You got points for having things on the list in your purse. Clearly the list was not developed with my purse in mind, as I tend to have peculiar things in my purse. I have had on occasion, though not all at the same time, and as recently as today: a plate, a can of evaporated milk, rubber stamps (obviously), diapers, a multitude of crayons, a stainless steel water bottle, and an underwire wire. Right now my purse weighs a ton since I found about $8.75 in change in my desk, mostly nickels, packing for the move. I defy any mugger to make off with my purse without needing to file a workers' comp claim for back injury. I feel like I should be McGyver's wife - I could help him escape from any sticky situation with only the contents of my purse.) There were lots of stampers at the shower, so the baby cards were incredible. So creative and lovely. And the food - the table groaned with the feast. (There was a brunch with the shower.) Our hostess is an incredible cook, and everything from scratch, beautifully presented, with flowers from her garden artfully arranged here and there. Amazing in every way.