Dragonfly Legend

I made this card for my mother-in-law Carol, for her birthday a few years back. I may have made one for my mom also, but if I did I'm not sure she still has it. She once told me that I did such a great job on the envelopes to my cards that it was a shame to throw them away. Horror struck, I asked her why she was throwing them away and she coolly said, "Well, I can't keep everything". Obviously, I did not inherit my pack rat tendencies from her!!! [grin] Carol, on the other hand keeps her card out on display, and also has a box with all the other cards I have made her (and their envelopes, I might add). A cool tip: A friend of mine (who also got this card for her birthday) has a mammoth sized cork board that she likes to hang her cards on. The envelopes she then mounts in a little homemade book so she can look at them whenever she wants, and they are all kept neatly contained. You probably could make these so that the card could be put back in the envelope if you wanted to take it off of display.

This card is made very much like the Train Delayed card. The basic changes are the colors and the choice of stamps.

The central element is a piece of chipboard which I first covered the raw edge with a blue Marvy Metallics Marker. I then covered the top of the chipboard with Matte Medium. While still wet, I rubbed Pearl Ex Pigment powders in Duo Green-Yellow and Duo Blue-Green and Powdered Pearls powder in Blue unto the surface. When that had dried sufficiently, I painted a second thin coat of matte medium to seal the surface. After the chipboard piece had completely dried (best if you leave these go overnight or dry with a heat gun), I stamped Dragonfly Legend P1-622 by Stampers Anonymous onto the surface using a Midnight Blue Memories ink pad. I then heat set the ink with my heat gun. Next I daubed clear embossing fluid over the entire surface of the piece, immediately dipping it into clear embossing powder and heating with my heat gun. Once the embossing powder melted, I sprinkled on one layer of Holographic Embossing Powder and a few blue and green tiny glass beads around the corners and continued heating and adding clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel onto the surface until I had an even surface. I allowed the surface to cool enough that it would not stick and then I stacked a pile of phone books on top of the piece and set it aside overnight. This step prevents too much warping of the chipboard. The next day, I made a card out of dark blue paper which I dragged the edge of a Seaglass Colorbox stamp pad across the front lightly to add character. I then glued the chipboard to the front with a Tombow blue glue stick and again set it aside under the phonebooks to dry. When finished I took a metallic blue gel Xtreme pen and drew a thin line bordering the central piece. As a final touch, I tied a sheer iridescent ribbon on the spine of the card.