Card for a Challenge!

 First and foremost, I want to send a lot of good thoughts to all my friends on the far east coast. Where ever you are, I hope that you are in a safe place, or at least have somewhere safe to go! Be careful out there!

In a new Yahoo! Group I'm in, the members that chose to participate were sent a stamped image from the group owner. We had to create something with it, what, it didn't matter, as long as the image was the "star" of the card. My card came out AWEEEEESOME if I do say so myself!
 

I made a "thinking of you" window card. Since the image had to be the star, I figured it would be smart to "frame" it (the image).

(CLICK ALL PICS FOR BIGGER, DETAILED VIEW)

I already know who I'm giving this card to! One of my friends, Sarah, is blind. This card is PERFECT for her because it has so many layers and different textures to it and I even gave it a spray with something that smells wonderful! It will be easy for her to use her other senses to feel and smell the beauty of the card since she can't see it.

I used my cricut and the lacy labels cartridge to cut the purple frame of the card. Since I didn't want just a plain oval inside the card, I cut a 2nd frame (same size) and put it over the oval inside the card, too. that gives it a clean look throughout the card. 

Once I cut the frame, I opened the card up, laid the frame backwards and upside down, traced the "inside" of the frame, and then cut it out with my craft knife. this created the "window" but still left the outside of the area for the frame to perfectly fit around the window. the inside frame is a little "off" on it's perfect line up with the oval image,which was actually done accident. It didn't line up perfectly with the outside frame, so I figured even though it wasn't perfect on the inside, I at least wanted the outside to look proper. Even though Sarah won't be "seeing" this card, others will be able to admire it's beauty and explain the sights of the card that she can't feel and smell.

the deco paper is DCVW (I believe). The purple frames are made from textured cardstock.

For the image, since I had 3 of them, I colored 2. I used zig brushable markers, copics, crayola markers (for the green leaves) and a highlighter (for the blue flowers). after coloring I cut just the tiny flower (next to the jar) and the big bunch of flowers, out of one image and then stacked a bunch of zots (glue dots) on top of each other and adhered them to the back of the 2 flower pieces and attached them to the other colored image. this made them 3d pop off the page. I used glossy accents over the jar on the image so that it would shine like a real glass jar full of water. I waited for the glossy accents to dry and then did another layer, so it pops off the image a little bit too.

For the sentiment I used a thinking of you sentiment from one of my studio g mini stamp sets. I use my big and embossy glue pad and stamped the image on purple textured cardstock, then I used zing black, opaque finish embossing powder and my heat gun to heat emboss the image. it has a really nice feel when you run your fingers over it. Sarah will be able to actually "read" the image with her fingers. While she does read braille, she is also able to read actual letters if they have a texture to them.

The big purple flower was glittered generously with diamond dust and then the stringed flat back pearls were adhered with hot glue to the flower and then the flower was adhered to the front of the card.

the little white flowers were pulled off their stems (just a set of small flowers from the floral department for fake floral arrangements) and then glued together with glossy accents (for that amazingly strong bond!) and then adhered to the small flowers that were cut out onto the frame when it was cut with the cricut.

Next to the bottom white flower is a cute little butterfly. to give her more depth, I did a long line of hot glue along her body, length wise. I gave the glue a moment to dry and then did another line of hot glue and adhered her to the paper. her wings are pulled up, as are her antenna. she can be folded completely flat for mailing purposes (though with all the other 3d stuff I don't think this card will be mailed in a regular envie. LOL)

To finish the card off, I gave it a nice spray mist of lavender. this will help Sarah get another sense of the cards beauty.

Well, that is it! wish me luck in the challenge! If I win, I will receive a small stack of these images (the flower image used in this card) and my card will be featured on the groups homepage for a month! :)

Hope y'all have a great weekend.
As I always say, Keep on scrappin' and please, be kind to one another.
~Melisa Marie