Waterfall Card with a Special Purpose

Happy Monday, friends! I hope your week is bursting with sunshine and smiles. :o)

I'm including this card in "Made It Myself Mondays," which is a new (and fantastic!) link-up party hosted by Alex at You Had Me At Craft. Join in the fun! There's inspiration galore and great blogs to discover. :o)





This weekend I made my first waterfall card! I consider it a waterfall of love and blessings. :o) I am relatively new to cardmaking (I've only had my Cricut Expression since last month), but have been intrigued by this sweet concept since I first saw it. This card has a very special destination, which made this creative process even more delightful. It is going to a fellow papercrafter (Krafty Katsy) who is battling some serious health issues. The good news is that our Lord and Savior is far bigger than any obstacle... so along with all of our prayers, a large collection of cards is being sent to her. It's inspiring to encounter so many beautiful hearts throughout the crafty blogosphere.
Edit: Julie posted about Katsy tonight, so if you would also like to send a card, please visit Julie's blog for details.

One more thing before I share a few pictures... this creation reminded me that all art forms are forever a learning process. Isn't that exciting? The learning never stops, whether it's a new technique altogether, new twists, or simply more effective ways to do things. While my perfectionist self can get frustrated during the learning curve, particularly when the result has an extra special mission, I've re-learned a valuable lesson. The love behind every card, cupcake, and choreography more than makes up for any technical flaws. I've jam-packed as much love and faith as possible into this tiny blessing, which is the most important aspect of creativity. :o)

I don't have any picture stamps, so instead of using this card type's typical route, I relied upon my faithful Cricut friend. The Storybook cartridge is full of lovely nature and butterfly images, so I used four to create a cascading waterfall of pure beauty. I was tempted to add more pearls to the top butterfly instead of just along the body... which still may happen before this hops in the mail. Some of those tiny dots are begging for a morsel of pearlescent or sparkly delight. ;) (The DCWV glitter stack was perfect for the lily and daisy.) I love the simple beauty.

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut Storybook cartridge
 * Autumn Leaves (flourishes on the scallop backgrounds) and Inkadinkado (sentiment) stamps
 * Recollections pearls (a snippet of a flourish)
 * Making Memories jumbo pebble brad
 * SEI, DCWV, Papertrey Ink, and misc. paper
 * Ribbon from Target dollar bin collection (jackpot!)

In fact, this was such fun that I'm fluttering off to make a waterfall card for my sweetheart. :o) Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a gorgeous day!