diamonds *ARE* a girl's best friend

especially on greeting cards, am i right???!!? ok, yeah, i suppose some might argue that diamond jewelry is even better, but it's hard to see how that would add up to an awesome and inspiring challenge for shopping our stash. so instead let's think about the kind of bling that looks good on a card or scrapbook page or... well, whatever papercrafting project you feel like making this week, k?! i made a card. quelle surprise, eh?

vintage dictionary page; stencils: folk art and deco art, both from the decor section at michaels; stamps: crafter's companion, psx, tim holtz/ranger, glitz design, hero arts; florals: recollections, prima, petaloo; black rhinestone flourish: want to scrap; giant rhinestone with a lady's face on it: glitz design; inks: ranger, colorbox, stewart superior; gesso: liquitex; white fine point paint pen: sharpie; black glossy cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, gluedots, sewing machine

ok, so, i know my flourishes kind of look like black pearls, rather than black bling, but they are gems, honestly. by the way, it wasn't until i was writing this up that i noticed i have a second set of "diamonds" on this card, having used a fabulous harlequin patterned stencil from the decor section of my favorite big box craft store. i'm kind of pleased with the serendipity of that! :)

for the colors and vibe of my card i've used my lovely blogging friend becca cruger's birthday bash mood board, which is fairly awesome. you should definitely jump over to her gorgeous blog and check out the details of this challenge because she's made some amazing cards for this. oh yeah and did i mention there are some pretty ♥FAB♥ prizes up for grabs?! ;)

you can see that i've used the colors of that cool pillow, the chippy-peely-distressed looking goodness of the painted wood, and the typography of of the sign... ok, in my case the last part is rather subtle in that it's expressed as text paper which is waaaaaaaay in the back under all the layers of ink and gesso and stamping and stitching, but it's there, i promise. here's a totally gratuitous closeup pic, just because for once, i actually took time to create a background from the ground up and i'm inordinately (some might say obnoxiously, lol) proud of that fact. and before you ask, yes, i machine stitched around each individual segment of the oversized quatrefoil stencil pattern; and YES, i am insane... thank you for noticing! :)

and now why not hop over to SOS, where my design team sisters-- who are diamonds, themselves, actually! --have made some utterly awesome bling-encrusted projects for your delight! ♥