The Making of a Swap

Sometimes creating a card takes time. I saw this adorable new stamp set and just had to have it. I pictured adorable cards but when I tried to create one, I hit a wall.

The first thing I did was stamp it and color it in using the Stampin' Blends.  I went with the traditional colors for most everything and then only had to decide on the T-Shirt. There aren't that many available colors for the Stampin' Blends and I don't have the new ones yet so that made things a bit easier. I chose orange because I wanted the card to be bright and cheerful. I also trimmed it down. That is where I limited myself. I cut it down too soon. This meant that I couldn't use any of the cute framelits to cut it out. I got this far and then my one un-matted sample sat for at least a week. I sampled mats, layouts and card bases but wasn't satisfied. Too plain.

Last week (because I forgot to finish this post) it all came together. I matted the image on Soft Suede to match the otter's body. Thank you Kris for identifying him. An Otter didn't even cross my mind.

I chose the orange card base and then skipped ahead to the inside which is lined with Whisper White. I stamped it and committed to a horizontal card. Still nothing for the front.

Then I decided to look for layout ideas again. Freshly Made Sketches to the rescue. I picked FMS 230 (horizontal version) cut out the white pieces and stamped them immediately. It was still missing something. The card base was too plain so I checkout out my few stamps again and grabbed Woodgrain and the Versamark. Done.

I am so glad I waited for this to come together the way it did and I hope my fellow swappers do too. See, this is my May/June swap and it is July already. Time to work on my July/Aug swaps before they're late too.