As The Deer

As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after Thee..., and so continues the song.

When I first saw this image a couple of months ago from Our Daily Bread Designs, I knew I just had to have it in my collection sometime. Once I showed it to my husband, he said I needed it now!! However, it's taken me a couple of months to get the set inked up. I knew when I inked it up for the first time, I wanted to do so with the music in the background but have not been able to find the song anywhere. I even went through my mother-in-law's old hymnals from her piano bench. Fortunately, my pastor had the music and was kind enough to scan it and email it to me.

This particular music has been special to me for a long time for several reasons. One, when my mother was alive she would sing this song while playing the organ and she had a beautiful voice. Two, my late brother in law used to sing this song as well as a special while in church from time to time. Gary also had a magnificent voice. Three, it's soothing to me and reminds me of the 23rd Psalm when life is rough and seems like it's just more than I can handle sometimes; like now after the bombshell that was dropped on me last night by my son which I won't go into for his privacy.

I stamped, and made the card, yesterday while having a raging migraine and on vicodin for the migraine since I was out of my other migraine meds. With this in mind, I'm extremely pleased with the way it's turned out especially since it's one of the few times I've gone "shabby chic" on the entire card.

I started by printing the music out on vanilla cardstock, scaled back by 65% so it would fit on the 6x6 card. Then I tore the edges off around the music before stippling Tim Holtz old paper distress ink all over the music to give it a "vintage" look. Once I was done with that I then stippled a second ink, Tim Holtz walnut stain distress ink around the torn edges before layering on Stampin Up! chocolate chip cardstock and tearing those edges, stippling again, and curling the stippled edges up to give more of an older, more vintage, look.

After that, I stamped the stream and deer on vanilla cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored everything with Prismacolor pencils and used a Prismacolor blender marker to smooth the colors out instead of gamsol or mineral spirits due to my asthma and the smell the other two leave. Once my coloring was done, I then stippled Stampin Up! soft sky dye ink to fill in the sky and edges, green galore around the grassy edges, and bashful blue around the water's edge. This way the stippling gave the image more definition before layering on the card as shown below.

Now it was time to assemble the card and put all of my layers together. First, I stamped my background in Stampin Up! green galore by using the saying included in the set from Psalm 23:2 "He Leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul!" Then I added my song layers, some Basic Grey Mellow fibers I found I still had in my stash (can't believe that!), then my main image layers popped up on All Night Media pop dots with vintage brads already on it. I had decided at the last minute to "rough up" the sides of the image, so I pulled out my Stampin Up! distressing tool, but could only get to part of the chocolate chip cardstock because of the pop dots. No problem! Isn't that what fingernails are for? So I ran my thumbnail along the sides that hadn't been roughed up yet to match the song layers. Perfect!!

However, something was still missing. Aha! Primas!! Can't have a stream or a card in the woods without primas or flowers of some kind, can we? So I pulled out every red looking flower bottle, tin, etc I could find in my stash and started matching up primas to the red in the Basic Grey fibers already tied onto the card. Once I found some that matched, the only problem I then had was what to put into the middle. Once again, problem solved. Since my deer had vintage brads in the corners, why couldn't my primas have vintage brads? Well, since I had already put the card together, that now meant putting holes in a finished card, but oh well, life happens sometimes. As for the prima on the deer layer, since there was already a brad next to it, I pulled out some gem stickers from Michael's and found a gem that matched the fibers and brads to put into the middle.

Now since, the front of my card looked so good, I decided to make the inside be finished off as well this time; which is normally not something I usually do. So I once again stamped the verse from Psalm 23:2 in Stampin Up! garden green dye ink, then sponged an embossed leaf die cut I had received from my secret sister in Round 1 with Stampin Up! garden green dye ink as well to give it a finished look as well before adding the prima with a gem sticker. (see below)

So what do you think? Like I've said earlier in the post, I'm really happy with the way my card has turned out especially since I was on migraine meds. Since I've got another rebound migraine today, it still looks good to me. I have found though, I'm falling in love with Our Daily Bread Designs stamp sets very easily. They could become addictive.

Another thing I've found out this weekend, is that we should make God addictive in our lives as well. Is He in yours?

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Quiet Waters
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Soft Sky, Green Galore, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Walnut Stain & Old Paper
Accessories: Stipple Brushes, Sponge, All Night Media Pop Dots, Zots Glue Dots, Basic Grey Mellow Fibers, Prismacolor Pencils & Blender Marker, Vintage Brads, Computer, Die Cuts, Gem Stickers, Prima Flowers