"Sweet Pea x 2!!

Good morning! Today, I'm sharing card that I've made for a dear friend that is a fellow "Dork Sister" on SCS (Splitcoast Stampers Community). Her name is Leona Carver and she is expecting twin baby girls VERY shortly. And! Leona, if you're peeking at this, shame on you!! The stamp set that I used to make this card did not have anything remotely useful for twins...so, I improvised! After stamping "Sweet Pea", I added "x 2" in handwritten black gel pen ink. I envisioned a pea vine all around the card, and not having a stamp for that, either, I took on the task of drawing by hand the vine, trills and berries (not that pea vines have berries, but I kind of liked the way that it looked, and kept it! LOL) In the second photo, you can see a close-up of the vine drawing. The beauty of stamping world, is that everything is okay! ; ) Okay the deets:

Stamps Used: Fiskars Baby Stamp Set
Cardstock: Colormates Medium Glorious Green, Pink & White Striped Scrapbook Paper, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Stazon Black Ink, Stampin' Up! Garden Green, Pretty in Pink, Rose Romance Inks
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers - RV11 Pink, RV29 Crimson, G21 Lime Green, YG67 Moss, Signo White Gel Pen, Sakura Micron 01 Black Felt Tip Pen
Tools: Cuttlebug, Regular & Scalloped Square Nestabilities Dies, Regular & Scalloped Oval Nestabilities Dies, Tsukineko Sponge Daubers, Prismacolor Pencils, American Crafts Dimensionals, Adhesive, Zots, Sewing Machine, Thread
Embellishments: Offray Satin Ribbon, Spare Parts Buttons & Sequins, Green Twine
Technique: Basic Stamping, Sponging, Freehand Drawing, Machine Stitching

INSTRUCTIONS:
A white card base out of Paper Trey Cardstock was cut to 5"x10" and set aside. The card front was cut from Paper Trey White Cardstock to 5"x5". A scalloped mat was cut using Nestabilities Scalloped Square Die with Colormates Medium Glorious Green Cardstock. A square mat was cut out of the Pink & White Striped Scrapbook Paper with Nestabilities Regular Square Die. The two square die cut mats were glued together. Using a Signo White Gel Pen, I dash-doodled around the scallop points of the green mat. and set aside.

The main image was stamped onto Paper Trey White Cardstock using Stampin' Up! Garden Green and Pretty in Pink. Using Prismacolor Pencils, I colored the "Sweet Pea" bodies to make the color more intense. Using Stazon Black Ink, I stamped the sentiment and added "x2" next to "Sweet Pea" by hand using a Sakura Micron 01 pen. After sketching with pencil the sweet pea vine along the bottom of the main image oval bottom, I retraced where the pencil sketch marks were, and then using a gum eraser, erased the pencil sketching. Using Copic Sketch Markers, I colored in the leaves with two coordinating greens and then adding vine trills by hand with the Sakura Micron 01 pen. Using two different shades of pink, I colored in by hand the pink berries along the sweet pea vine. I then cut out the image using the Cuttlebug and Regular Oval Nestabilities Die. Using a Tsukineko Sponge Dauber I sponged along the edge of the cut out stamped oval using Stampin' Up! Pretty in Pink Ink. (Here's a tip when you want to draw or stamp along a die shape before cutting. Take your die, as I did the oval and trace around the edge with a pencil where the outside die edge is. Then you'll see what area you have to work with as you stamp, as as you add other stamping elements, such as a sentiment or a hand drawn element.) I die cut a green mat for the stamped, cut out image using the Cuttlebug and the Scalloped Oval Nestabilties Dies. I glued the stamped, cut out image to the green scalloped mat, and then using a Signo White Gel Pen, dot doodled along each scallop point on the green mat.

Using the same method as I used to draw the sweet pea vine on the stamped image, I drew the sweet pea vine and berries along the four sides of the card front, and then after adding vine trills as before, I colored in the leaves, and added the pink berries. The two square mats that were glued together were then glued to the center of the white cardstock front, and using my Janome Hello Kitty Sewing Machine, I stitched around all 4 sides of the pink & white striped square mat. The matted, stamped oval was then popped up on American Crafts Dimensionals over the two sewn down square mats. To embellish, I added a strip of Offray Satin Ribbon horizontally across the upper part of the card base, and then securing a matching bow to the center, I added a double button secured with green twine to the center of the bow. Using medium size sequins from Spare Parts Assorted Embellishment Packs, I glued two sequins to each "sweet pea" body. The finished card front was then glued to the 5"x10" white cardstock base.