…nothing more nor less than a mask

The card I’m sharing today features stamps and dies from Verve Stamps and their Masquerade and Mask sets.

I needed to make a birthday card for a friend and was a bit stumped on what to do until I found inspiration from the current challenge at Creative Friday where the theme is masks.  The Verve stamps and dies were perfect for the theme, about time they got some use too.

Over at Words 2 Craft By they have a quote from Mark Twain as inspiration:

It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.

I had to check out the challenge as it’s also Mardi-Gras in Sydney this weekend and this card is going out to a friend in the US.  I discovered the traditional colours of Mardi-Gras in New Orleans are green, purple and gold so I used them on my card.  I tend to think of Mardi-Gras as a time of costumes and masks, a bit like Venice’s Carnevale, so I think my mask works well for the theme.

For my layout I followed the sketch at Fusion.  I didn’t do a complete fusion though as the inspiration picture was in shades of pink with hearts but I did select my background paper to match the stripes on one of the teacups.  It was a serendipitous moment when I found the paper in my stash and it was the right colours including the patterned hot air balloon on the reverse side, which was another match to a Mardi-Gras theme, especially when combined with some music.

I printed my sentiment (diva) on a piece of old transparency and set with clear embossing powder.  I chose this sentiment as the recipient goes by the nickname of Dark Diva.  For a bit of extra fun I had to make one of the circle elements into a shaker.  To finish off the card I added pearls around the shaker circle and glued down the acetate with some gems for a touch more Mardi-Gras style bling.

Ingredients:

Chalks & Powders etc

Stampendous! Embossing Powder ~ Detail Clear

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies ~ S4-114 Standard Circles Large & S4-116 Standard Circles Small

Verve Stamps Dies ~ vsdc-065 Mask

Embellishments

Close To My Heart Bitty Pearls ~ Pearl (coloured with Posca Metallic Gold Pen)

Flourish with a Bling Pearls ~ Purple

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Selections ~ Viola

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Alcohol Blending Solution, Gold Mixative, Purple Twilight & Wild Plum

Tim Holtz Distress Ink ~ Peeled Paint & Wilted Violet

Tsukineko Encore! Ultimate Metallic Ink ~ Gold

Papers

Acetate Transparency from stash

Bazzill Classic Cardstock ~ Licorice

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Creative Memories Cardstock ~ Green Metallic

FabScraps Victoria’s Collection ~ Balloon

Stamps

Verve Stamps ~ vs-0225 Masquerade

Challenges

Creative Friday #173 ~ Masks

Fusion ~ Pretty in Pink

Words 2 Craft By #38 ~ Celebrations

Thanks for stopping by!