Taheerah Atchia

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday! So so close to the weekend now – I can’t wait!!

I am *super* excited to share today’s card!! Let me explain why.

I saw the post on the Damask Love blog about the ‘Spread The Love’ Campaign. In short, the idea is to highlight someone out there in Blogland who inspires you, reveal your ‘crush’ and create a little something inspired by that love!

So, who, out of all of Blogland, did I choose as my ‘Blog Crush’?

[drumroll]… 

Now, if you’re no stranger to Julie’s work, you will know exactly why I have chosen her as my crush.

For those of you who don’t know this genius’ work, let me show you some photos that speak a thousand words… 

See?! Genius!! Modern Vintage?! Simple designs that pack a complete punch?! Someone that makes you want to buy all her supplies just on the off-chance that you might find them to be sprinkled with the crafting fairy dust that touches all of her projects and help you create like her?! Check! To every single one of those!!

Julie is one of the true ‘greats’ of the industry. She is inspiring, innovative, has more talent in her little finger than I do in all of my 4’10” frame, and to couple with all of this she is an amazing teacher, tutor, totally down-to-earth and not at all crushing on herself, lol!

I first came across Julie when I was taking the Clean And Simple Card Making 2 class, of which she was one of the primary teachers (although I later realised that it was her in all the Ellen Hutson newsletters that I’d been getting for years too!). I was struck by her style, her ease and grace at explaining her process, and making it *fun* – and boy does she have an infectious, cheeky giggle too!!

I {heart} her. She may well have no idea whatsoever who I even am (although, three of my cards were highlighted in the Clean And Simple Card Making 2 Class, so maybe, just maybe, she might have been one of the ones who saw – and, gasp – liked them?!) but anyway, even she doesn’t know me – I still {heart} her anyway.

So, anyway. Back to the post!

For the ‘campaign’ there were a few different colour combos we could use to create something inspired by our Crush. I chose this one:

I loved the elegant colour combo – though of course I had to modify it a bit, knowing me!

Here’s what I ended up with:

Can I just say, before I dive into the ‘how’ of this, that this is possibly one of my most favourite cards of mine of all time?!! I just {heart} it so so much!!

I was clearly inspired by Julie’s use of bold stripes, simple yet striking design, and sequins, lol!

I started with a Kraft card base. I then adhered strips of Vintage Cream and Kraft cardstock on my base in that bold stripes format. I decided to create a graduation of widths as I progressed up the card, for some added interest – didn’t want to ‘copy’ Julie exactly!!

See the top-most stripe?! That’s a *very* thin strip of Graphite POW! Glitter paper from American Crafts! I *love* this little detail so much!! My way of introducing some additional sparkle without being ostentatious. And it substitutes nicely for the ‘You’re Such A Gray-Cious Host’ colour!

I then created the sentiment banner. This is actually a piece of Sterling Silver cardstock. I pressed my Versamark inkpad all over it then heat embossed with Detail Gold embossing powder to make a proper shiny smooth gold base. I then stamped the letters, from Mama Elephant’s Midnight Letters set, with Versamark and heat embossed with Detail Silver embossing powder. You lose a little of the crispness of the letters due to embossing powder melting onto embossing powder, but not too much so you still get the right level of detail! Inspired by the use of solid and outline letters on Julie’s chocolate card, clearly! I trimmed the panel into a banner, curved with my fingers and adhered to the base with Pinflair Glue Gel.

As a finishing touch I added a scattering of Copper Penny sequins from Neat & Tangled. I thought these were a pretty good match for the ‘Brown Leather Satchel’ without having to resort to cardstock or ink! And that was me done!

I {heart} this card!!!! I really hope Julie sees it, and I hope even more that she loves it even a teensy amount as much as I do!!!

So, I would *love* to know what you think of this card! Please do let me know!! I want to thank you so much for stopping by – I do hope to welcome you back here again soon!

Supplies:

Vintage Cream Cardstock (Papertrey Ink)	Kraft Cardstock (Papertrey Ink)	Sterling Silver Cardstock	Charcoal POW! Glitter Paper	Scor-Tape (1 1/2″)	Midnight Letters Stamp Set (Mama Elephant)	Versamark Ink
Detail Gold Embossing Powder	Detail Silver Embossing Powder	Copper Penny Sequins	Pinflair Glue Gel	Glossy Accents