She Stood for colourQ

Recently I was perusing Verve Stamps newest release and one stamp leapt out at me. It says: "She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails. -Edwards" This quote perfectly describes a dear friend of mine. She has endured several unimaginably difficult things in her life, but she hasn't only endured. She has walked through trials with grace, humor and fortitude. When life hasn't taken her on the expected course she has adjusted her sails, ridden through the storm and carried on without complaint. On top of that, she has been a sort of lighthouse for me when I faced storms of my own. So I had to have the stamp. I knew I wanted to use it with a photograph I recently took of my friend.

The colors at this weeks colourQ challenge were perfect for this photograph. They are: Going Gray, Island Indigo, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky and White. Here is my card:

I have to confess, this is a giant "card". I wanted the photo to be 5 X 7 and so I designed the card around it. It is, in fact, a card which I will write inside of, but it could potentially go into a frame for display. After several attempts to translate the vision in my head to paper, I found some stuff that Stampin' Up sold a few years back. Magic paper, I call it. It is all white with designs embossed onto it and you simply add color as you see fit. (I bought 4 packs of the paper because I knew I would love it, but this is my first time using it! Moving, you know...)

I rubbed Certainly Celery and Soft Sky onto the magic paper. I then decided to overlay the photo with transparency paper and stamp the quote onto it. Wow - was that frustrating! I first tried Island Indigo ink but it doesn't dry on the transparency. Thankfully I have a pigment ink pad in a color called Harbor which is a fairly perfect match. I stamped it over and over and over... I really struggled to keep the stamp from smudging. I finally got it perfect. But then I accidentally touched the ink too soon and smeared it! This final version is slightly smudged but I needed to be done so I am calling it good enough. I don't yet have Going Gray so I substituted with Sahara Sand for the sand dollars. They are fitting because this picture was taken at Cannon Beach where I get as excited as a little girl when I find sand dollars.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La