a prima parisian birthday card

I like The Eiffel Tower because it looks like steel and lace
― Natalie Lloyd

I created this birthday card for one of my colleagues. I wanted something elegant and yet not too girly.  Aren't the Prima Doll stamps really nice to work with?  They're like a great little blouse that you can dress up to wear out to that very chic restaurant or dress down to wear to Starbucks for your skinny vanilla latte fix.  The Swing Dress Prima Doll stamp offers the same versatility.  For today's card she is wearing an original Recollections: Tattered and Worn cardstock dress on a Prima tag set against a Recollections: Tattered and Worn cardstock background.  Work it little Ms. Swing Dress.

The tag was sprayed (dirty martini, calypso teal), distressed (tea dye, dusty concord) and collaged before I stamped on Tim Holtz's Eiffel Tower, decorative border and argyle images.  For Ms. Swing Dress' hair I used vintage photo distressing ink as a watercolour and for her shoes I used worn lipstick.  I'm not a huge pink fan, although I do admit it definitely has its place, but I couldn't resist buying worn lipstick for the name alone.  Many years ago, one of my Montréal friends had pointed out the sometimes fantastic names of nail polish and lip gloss and I was hooked.  I will at times indulge in a lip gloss if I think the name is uber adorable or if I'm debating between two colours the name will become the deciding factor.  Seriously.  Worn Lipstick.  Adorable.  Inspirational.

 

I layered the dress on top of Ms. Swing Dress' first newspaper print paper layer and then doodled the edges and frill with my distress marker picket fence.  I absolutely love the way the stamp is made.  Without any additional materials the dress appears as it should on top of the doll's body giving the illusion of a doll wearing a dress.  No pop-ups, no fussing.  I love working with these stamps.

I thought the banner added dimension and a touch of sweetness and colour to the top of the tag.  I had hand-drawn the banner attachments (do you see the tiny "x"s?) and the ribbon or string tying them together.  I also added some hint of washi tape for a bit of layering and fun.

 

I really like using more than one ribbon and for this piece I varied the colour and the texture of the ribbon although both are elegant and pretty simplistic.

I'm entering my Ms. Swing Dress birthday card in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Celebrate.  Congratulations on three successful years and the new location move.

ETA: I've edited this post so that it may be eligible in the Moxie Fab World Challenge.
Ms. Swing Dress is now entered to participate in the Birthday Card Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. It would be wonderful if she was the belle of the ball.

Happy birthday dear colleague.  I wish you many years of laughter, joy and love.

And thank you everythingshetouches-blogsters for viewing my work over 1000 times!  I  love when you stop in, relax, have a coffee and drop me a line or two!