April Showers

How to make something seemly simple take for EVER!

Now to look at this card, you might think it was the work of a few minutes. Stamp out the umbrellas, add a bit more stamping using the colours and the sentiment, grab a band of ribbon and Robert is your father’s brother. Hell, no.

For a start, the umbrella comes in separate bits. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is a feature of the stamp set that I really like, because there is room to play. So, I started my repeat pattern with the central umbrella, to make sure it was where I would want it. Handle first, then the canopy outline.

So far, so good. Now, each canopy, either spotted or striped, comes in 3 pieces. Again, I was happy with this because I wanted to mix it up a little, both with colour and pattern. I wasn’t confident I could stamp exactly in the right place 20 times and not fudge up though, so I decided to stamp then on scrap card and cut them out individually. Nobody say anything, OK?

Cutting curves accurately is not in my skill set. I had to re-do a few, but, eventually, I had a full cast of canopies, spotty and stripy, at my disposal. Hurrah! Assembly time!

Casual abandon is not in my skill set. Whatever arrangement I came up with, something offended me visually. Two blues too close together, yellow stripes too far apart… I decided that maybe it was because I didn’t have enough sections. Perhaps there was a basic maths principle I should use, to work out my pattern requirements?

Maths is not in my skill set. Pretty much the only thing I remember about maths is the Fibonnaci sequence and how to quickly tell if a number is divisible by 3. How often do either of those come in handy?! Unless I am trying to make small talk with two Italians whilst splitting our restaurant bill, not so much. I gave up on the maths idea. Back to winging it.

Winging it is not in my skill set. Rational thinking occasionally shows its face though. I gave up on the idea of mixing the colours and patterns and went for uniformity. So, a card which could have been relatively quick ended up taking ages. Just peachy…

Supplies: Clearly Besotted April Showers stamp set; Brilliance Pearlescent inks in Rocket Red, Sky blue and Sunflower Yellow; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; ribbon from The Ribbon Room