One of a Kind Card for a One of a Kind Person by Linda Hess

Along life's path you will encounter many people: some good, some "challenging"...all weave the cloth that is our journey on Earth.  One of the special people in my journey is a girl named Annie.  I have known her since she was small, watched her grow from an adorable redhead with spunk and musical talent into a beautiful woman.  Now I watch as she enters her next chapter in life as a Catholic nun!  To say I feel blessed to have watched her grow and develop would be an understatement. 

Tomorrow I will go to a shower for her as she prepares to enter the convent.  Her wishes and needs are simple: yarn, instruction booklets, oboe & piano music...I lucked into a couple of crochet books from "Annie's Crochet" (I thought that so appropriate!).  I want to create a special card for her to go with the gift and you get to be a part of the design process.

For the base of my card I start with a white "linen" piece of 12"x12" from Recollections®.  I cut it to 9"x12", folded it in half, and used a corner punch to curve the corners.  The edges were rubbed along a black stamp pad to add an extra touch (NOTE: Be carefully when rubbing...less is more in this case).

For Annie's love of music I chose another Recollections® paper "Music Notes".  I cut it down to 6"x6" and then carefully tore the edges. It is glued in place on top of the white...perfect so far.

I found vellum paper strips on my table from a previous project.  I wove them together ("Our lives are forever woven together")...nice.

But when I placed the woven pieces on top of the music it basically disappeared :-(  Bummer

Not to be deterred, I went to my stash of paints and pulled out a few Twinkling H2Os (Pretty Peridot, African Jade, Sapphire on Ice, & Boysenberry) from ColourArte (http://www.colourarte.com/).  I quickly learned that Vellum doesn't like water and curls,

but I was able to lightly paint the back of each strip. As the strips dried, they magically opened back up. 

A few minutes under a book flattened them enough to re-weave for the card front.

Time to pull out the Creative Paperclay®.  I worked a bit in my hands, then rolled it through my pasta machine to flatten it (NOTE: clay can also be flattened with a rolling pin or acrylic roller).  I like rough edges rather than clean cut straight edges, so I tore the edges (towards me).  I am not patient enough to wait for the clay to air dry, so into the oven it goes (275* for 15-20 min.) with a piece of glass on top to keep it flat.

Once cooled, the piece is stamped with a beautiful scrolled cross (Rubber Stampede© #0403)

and then painted using Twinkling H2Os. 

Pearl dots complete the cross details. 

It is glued in place with The Ultimate! glue from Crafter's Pick™ (http://crafterspick.com/)

It needs a little something else.  I found this saying in my stamp box.  PERFECT for the occasion!   Stamped on a piece of the leftover white cardstock, edges torn, and rubbed over the ink pad.  Glued in place...exactly what it needed! 

One final touch.  A shimmery ribbon and a couple of appropriate charms (Bead Landing™)