Graciellie Designs...Our Most Favorites Blog Hop

Hello there inky friends!  Today I'm joining my fellow Graciellie Designs Ambassadors as we hop along and share projects made with our most favorite Graciellie Designs digi sets.  If you arrived here from  Esther's blog, you're on the right track! If not, please hop on over to Graciellie Designs to begin the hop! I spent quite a long time going back and forth with my favorites but finally settled on two gorgeous sets:  Elegant Greetings and Wonderful Winter.

Remember, Gracie is offering 40% off her digi sets right now so make sure to hop over and toss a few sets in your cart.  One lucky commenter will win their favorite set:  

For a chance to win a gift card to the shop:
1. Follow / subscribe to each of the blogs on the hop, starting with Graciellie Design.
2. Click on the designers names below and comment on each blog hop post.
3. Follow Graciellie Design on Facebook, for an extra chance to win!

Gracie's Florals are out of this world gorgeous and one of my most favorite flowers is the pretty snowball hydrangea. I just love the lavender/blue/green/pinks in them the most.  Even when they dry up, they're gorgeous. SOOO...I set out to create a pretty and elegant card for my parents (They celebrated their 51st anniversary on September 7).  

The realistic design of the flower is what got me. SO gorgeous, SO fabulous. I was able to take the digital image and blur it up in MS Word a bit to create a fun background and simply colored another printed flower with a mix of Copics.  I rubbed some shimmery gold Pan Pastel over the background panel to give it some slight shimmer and added a few pearls here and there. Adding some ribbon to the stem of the flower just finished it off.  

 When blurring the image for the background, I chose a plum color ink that would coordinate nicely with the color of the focal flower.  The sentiment was printed and cut in a banner style and popped up onto the card.

My second favorite set was chosen because I LOVE WINTER and I love the "teapot" that the flowers are arranged in.  I printed the image pretty large so that it would be able to take center stage on this card.  Coloring with Copics, I wanted the pot to have a worn oxidized copper color.  I also gave the flowers a slight kiss of pink, peach and gray and let the red berries dance freely on the card.  

I added a bit of stippling around the colored image to help bring Winter to my card and added some sparkle to the flowers.  After coloring the image, I used my sewing machine to stitch around the edge.  I always love the look of machine stitching with Gracie's images!

To finish off my card, I attached some silver pearls for shine and added the sentiment with a touch of ribbon.  Ready for winter?  Yes, indeed!

Thanks for hopping over to check out my projects.  Please head over to Helen's blog for some additional inspiration!