Guest Designer Sunday with Annette Witherspoon

Hello crafty friends. I'm Annette Witherspoon and I'm thrilled to be guest designing for Butterfly Reflections, Ink. this month. Before sharing my card, I thought I'd introduce myself. I’ve been married to my husband John for nearly 12 years and I am a mommy to two a son, Jack age nine, and a daughter, Elise age six, who keep me on my toes. Before joining mommy world, I was a public relations professional for 10 years.

I am primarily a card maker who occasionally makes other paper crafting projects.  I started dabbling in paper crafts a several years ago - shortly after receiving a handmade wedding card. I fell in love with the idea of creating one-of-a-kind cards made straight from the heart. Four-and-a-half years ago, I ramped up my crafting endeavors when I started my blog, www.aspoonfullofsugarcrafts.blogspot.com, which is a play on my real name. A is the first letter of my first name, and Spoon is the last half of my last name. I design for Paper Sweeties stamps and Eyelet Outlet, which sells eyelets, brads, ribbon, washi tape and other accessories. Prior design experience includes Sweet Stamp Shop, Pink by Design Stamps, Frosted Designs challenge blog, Joy’s Life Stamps, and Stampendous. My work has been published in Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking, and ScrapStreet magazines. I also wrote for ScrapStreet Magazine, an online scrapbooking and paper crafting magazine. 

That's enough about me. Now let's get down to the good stuff - the crafting! Today, I'm sharing a love-themed card I created. After all, Valentine's Day is next Saturday.

To make this card, I first took a piece of patterned paper from the Serendipity collection from Dear Lizzy. I adhered it to the card base at a tilt and cut off the excess. Then I stamped the brush stroke image from My Favorite Things Jumbo Abstract Art set in purple. 

See the word "you?" It's actually the word "you're!" It's from the In Every Way set by Waffleflower Crafts. I didn't have the word "you" handy, so I inked up only the first three letters with my Versamark Pen, stamped it and heat embossed it in white. Yes, you can do that. If you ever need only part of an image or sentiment on a stamp, just ink up only the part you need. Markers are much easier to use than an ink pad. It works like a charm. 

Before I adhered the "you," I stuck on a banner strip from the same Serendipity collection. The collection also includes these awesome gold foil thickers that complement the paper perfectly. They include words like happy, hooray, best, cute and the word love, which is what I used on the card.

Now, come in close because I have a secret to share. See the gold twine at the top? It was not part of my original plan. When I trimmed off the excess patterned paper from the card base, it turned out a little crooked. I couldn't get it straight without cutting off the top of the card at the fold, so I hid it with twine. I think it looks better that way. Talk about serendipity!

I finished off my card with a few scattered sequins and a heart sticker that also came with the Serendipity foil sticker set.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you in a couple weeks.