Growing In Unity: Day 4 ~ Shaped Card

I cannot believe it is the fourth day of my week as the Growing in Unity Girl already!  Time really does fly when you're having fun!  It has been such a pleasure to share all of my creations with you this week.  Keep leaving those comments for a chance be one of TWO winners that will each receive 25 stamps from Unity Stamp Co.!  If you haven't had a chance to see all of my posts this week, go back and leave comments.  That will give you more chances to win!

I wanted to do something a little different today and show you all a shaped card.  Shaped cards are fun because they are always unique!  And bonus, they are super easy to create!  

To start on this little guy, I made a side folding A2 card base (4.25x5.5) out of 110 lb Neena Solar White cardstock.  I then took out my scalloped circle dies from Sizzix and selected one that both fit on the front of my card base and worked with the stamped image that I had selected.  The trick to making shaped cards is to let the die hang off the card front over the fold as you run it through your die cutting machine.  This allows the folded edge to remain intact so that you can open and close your card but you have the shape of the die that you chose.  If you don't want to see the fold at the top of your shape, you can do like I did for this card and die cut the same shape out of another piece of cardstock and glue it on the front of your card.  It lines up perfectly with the shaped card base and conceals the fold at the top.

Once I had my shaped card base cut out, I started digging through my scrap paper box and found some great patterned papers to use up.  I used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to layer circles in the middle of the card to create a matted look.  The top layer is the same Neena white cardstock I used for my card base but it is dry embossed with some cute little hearts and then distressed with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.

I used the stinkin' cute little skunk from the That Stinks stamp set by Unity.  I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol.  I then fussy cut him out and painted the white edges with a black brush tip marker.  This card is jam packed full of dimension!  The embossed hearts add dimension, the skunky guy is popped up with some foam tape, and the flowers are curled up at the edges to give them a lot of depth.  I created these flowers using the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Garland die on Neena Solar White. I then distressed them with Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Evergreen Bough, and Peeled Paint Distress Inks.  The flowers are pieced together using glue dots of various sizes. 

I finished up my project with some Wink of Stella on the middle of the flowers, the skunk's belly and tail, and I added some black Gelly Roll to his eye to make it stand out against the coloring.  His nose and the heart on his tail got some Glossy Accents.  The middle of the flowers are black rhinestones to coordinate with the skunk.

Thanks so much for stopping by as I wind down my week with Growing In Unity!  Stop back tomorrow for the final project and your last chance to comment to win 25 random stamps from Unity!  Have a great day!