Thinking of You...and Totoro, too!

Well, Flourishes has a SUPER fun challenge for WCMD...they ask that you find a photo of your favourite animated character and use that as a colour inspiration!


Well, this was sort of a tough decision for me to make but, Totoro is DEFINITELY my number 1!

Here he is:

Isn't he CUTE?!  Hehehe..definitely one of the best animated shows ever!  I LOVE Studio Ghibli (a Japanese animation studio) and recommend that, if you haven't, you should watch My Neighbor Totoro as well as Grave of the Fireflies.  The latter is set during WWII and is a very tragic story based on a semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka.  Roger Ebert considers it to be one of the most powerful war movies ever...My Neighbor Totoro, on the other hand, is MUCH more light-hearted!


Anyway, enough rambling from me...I interpreted Totoro's colouring to be grey, pale yellow, and neutrals (black & white)...however, my yellow didn't turn out to be so pale!

Here is my card:

Well, as most of my cards, it is pretty straight forward but, here goes...I used the GORGEOUS new Blissful 6x6 paper pad by Authentique for all three patterned papers and I did some faux-stitching to add some interest....I actually used a paper piercer to make holes then just drew the stitches from hole to hole for a more realistic look.  As for the black criss-cross stitching, I used my SewEasy to pierce the paper and then hand-stitched it with black embroidery floss.  I stamped the sentiment on white cardstock and cut it out using Spellbinders Nestabilities Ovals and sponged it with SU! Daffodil Delight.  Then I cut a frame out of black cardstock using Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 18.  This FABULOUS sunflower image is from one of my absolute FAVOURITE companies, Flourishes and is called Sunflowers (duh).   I coloured it using Copics (see Supply List below for specifics) and then fancy cut it and popped it up on foam squares.  Next, I added these beautiful rhinestone flourishes  which I cut apart and pieced back together to make it fit the space the way that I wanted.  They are from Recollections and I bought these recently when there was a big 50% off sale on all Recollections embellishments at Michael's.  Last, I added a few black rhinestones from i-rock to the sentiment just to polish it off....I hope you like it!

*UPDATE*
I forgot to mention that I won this Sunflowers set by Flourishes along with a huge prize package including 5 other Flourishes sets, an Impression Obsession stamp, 3 6x6 paper pads, some ribbon and embellishments over on the very sweet and talented Julie Koerber's blog.  THANK YOU so much, Julie, you're VERY generous!

I used Chupa's current Sketchbook Saturday sketch #31:

So, I had been mulling around my Totoro colour scheme for days before I actually put it into play and I noticed that the There She Goes Color Challenge had the same colours...a FABULOUS colour combo that I love and also just happens to coordinate with my newest 6x6 paper pad by Authentique (Blissful)...SWEET! 

 I know that I would've played along at TSG anyway but, since I only own ONE TSG stamp set so far and it's the Poppies set which I couldn't use with this colour combo anyway,  I decided to just make one card for both (neither challenge stated that I couldn't)!  I actually won that BEAUTIFUL TSG Poppies set over on Iwona Palamountain A.K.A. Chupa's blog...THANKS, Chupa!

I have a pretty long Wish List over at TSG now, so, hopefully soon I will be able to start building my collection...I actually just won a Mini stamp set from them during their birthday celebrations and I chose Flying By which was designed by Iwona Palamountain...ummm, can you tell that I'm a BIG fan of hers?  So the collection is already starting to build but, I really love the designs by Torico and Chris Dark...heck, ALL of their designers are great, but, I have A LOT of Torico on my list in particular and I'm hoping to get some sets for Christmas this year!  Fingers crossed!

I also decided to enter this card into the Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful challenge.  This month is "The Beauty of a Technique" and they want you to be inspired by a technique...maybe a new technique you've never tried, or maybe an old favourite.  I used quite a basic technique...it's an oldie but, a goodie! I used stitching...both faux and real.  I never usually think to use this technique but, when I do, I find it adds SO much visual interest to my cards...I REALLY need to use this technique more often!  I saw a tutorial somewhere quite a while ago showing how to do faux-stitching and that's where I learned to pierce the paper first...this makes the stitching look SO real that you have to look VERY closely to see that it's faux!  As stated above, I also pulled out my good old SewEasy (the one that I HAD to have when it first came out and now NEVER use) to pierce the paper for the criss-cross stitching and then hand stitched with embroidery floss.  Forgive me for being redundant.  I REALLY need to invest in a sewing machine...lol, not that I remember how to use one....the last time I sewed was in grad 9 (12 years ago) and I was NEVER a master seamstress!  However, I think I can relearn...especially since I'll only be using it for basic stitching on cards anyway!

Well, that's all I've got right now...sorry for all of the rambling and THANK YOU for bearing with me through all of that, LOL.

Here is a list of all of the challenges that I'm entering this card into and the appropriate links:

- Flourishes Wacky World Card Making Day Challenge (Totoro -grey, yellow, neutrals - black & white)

- Sketchbook Saturday Challenge #31

- TSG124 Color Challenge (yellow, grey, neutral)

- Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful Challenge #15 - The Beauty of a Technique (stitching - faux or real)

- Lily Pad Cards - Simon Says Stamp Presents a Bling Challenge (I realized I had forgotten to enter this card into this one, oops)

Supply List:

Cardstock: Black - Misc.; White - SU! - Whisper White

DP: Authentique - Blissful

Stamps: Flourishes - Sunflowers; SU! - All Year Cheer

Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black (image); Versafine - OnyxBlack (sentiment); SU! - Daffodil Delight

Copics: Y11, Y13, Y15, Y17, E44, E47, E49, R22, R24, R27, Copic Multiliner - Black - 0.3mm

Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities - Ovals SM, Labels 18

Accessories: Bling Flourish - Recollections (Michael's), Rhinestones - i-Rock, Embroidery Floss - Black - We R Memory Keepers - SewEasy; SewEasy - We R Memory Keepers; Tim Holtz Vagabond by Sizzix