First SSS Challenge

I needed to make a sympathy card for a friend who's father passed away last week. While doing my morning blog reading this morning, I came across Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge on her blog, The Sweetest Thing. I decided to play along.

I think this is only the third challenge I have ever tried and the first sketch challenge. I always find it a little challenging to come up with the dimensions of the the sketches. As it turns out, what I thought I was doing with my measurements ended up to be wrong. I wanted my layers to be the same as Karen's card, but I figured the card base was 1/4" from the Soft Sky layer which was 1/4" from the DSP layers. They must be 1/8". Oh well, I like how my card turned out. My measurements are at the end of this post.

I'm guessing that it is okay that I used three brads on each side instead of two because Karen did on her card. I hope that it is okay that my focal image is smaller than in the sketch. Can you tell that I'm new at this? Can you tell that I am a rule follower?

I inked my image with Certainly Celery ink and then used my Old Olive marker to colour in the leaves. I "huffed" the stamp before stamping. This technique is called "Dirty Stamping", but I had a hard time finding any information about it. I learned about it from Dawn's card.

I used my Crop-A-Dile for the hole for my Stay Put Bow, which I think is a great way to make a knot exactly where you want it. I also use a lighter on the end of my ribbon to keep it from fraying. I used my Mat Pack to create the holes for my brads so they would be lined up and evenly spaced.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Certainly Celery; Baja Breeze Textured; Old Olive, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - Green Tea from Fall-Winter 2008
SU Ink - Certainly Celery; Old Olive, VersaMark
Stamps - "All I Have Seen" - from SU (Retired); Mixed Messages from Papertrey Ink
Accessories - SU Marker - Old Olive; Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon; Certainly Celery Brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts; Distressing Tool; Mat Pack, Crafter's Tool Kit; Crop-A-Dile

Measurements
Certainly Celery Base - 5 1/2" by 4 1/4
Baja Breeze layer - 4 3/4 " by 3 1/2
DSP Rectangles - 1 5/8" by 2 1/4
Old Olive - 1 3/4" by 2"