A Thing of Beauty – and a Wave of Inspiration when the DSP retires!

When I think of “museum cards”, the image in my mind is a very stark, white card that features a work of art.  It is very elegant, and the focal image is always striking, if not inspiring.  I just looked the term up to find that my image is purely in my head…but maybe I should offer a Wikipedia post on the topic, and it will soon be everyone’s image!

But for now, here is my museum card that features the beautiful wave die from the Stampin’ Up! Waves of Inspiration bundle.  It is featured on a Thick Basic White cardstock base.  The Basic White frame is mounted in the center.  The wave itself is placed on a background of the Waves of Inspiration Designer Series Paper.

The interest of this card is its dimensional aspect, as I have used Stampin’ Up! Foam Adhesive Strips to elevate the white frame and the wave to create a shadow box effect.

However, by the time I had this ready to post, I realized that the DSP is no longer available.  Oh no, what to do?  (And how often do you find designs online for which you have NONE or few of the stamps, inks, or dies needed?  Substitution is the true mother of invention!)

I created my own DSP and proceeded:

Here are the card cuts:

Here are the steps that I followed:

Using the Stampin’ Up! Stitched Rectangle Dies, I created a frame by using die #3 and #5 and taped them on the cardstock as follows:

Cut the ocean wave die cut out using the Silver Foil Specialty cardstock and attach it directly to the back of the stitched rectangle frame. 

Then using the Foam Adhesive strips on the back of the framed wave, adhere the frame to the center of the 4-1/2” x 6-1/2” mat.  Then add it to the card base.

I used Stampin’ Up! Vellum cardstock to heat emboss the sentiment in silver.  To adhere the strip so that the glue will not look like a greasy blob (a technical term of art), I placed Stampin’ Up! Rhinestone Basic Jewels at each end and carefully glued the vellum strip to the card under the gems.

Because the Basic White Thick cardstock does not need a liner for the inside message, I carefully heat embossed the sentiment inside the card.

Do you know why I mentioned “carefully”?  Because it is soooo easy to emboss the sentiment on the wrong inside flap of the card.  And you all know how I know this…so just do not…

I love this card style and I love all things that relate to the ocean or the shoreline…so this is a favorite for me.  I made this one as a card to a friend.  But with the right sentiments, it would be a wonderful wedding card, or a retirement card, or even a sympathy card.  It has a rich presence.

Here are the supplies that I used for this card.  Thank you so much for stopping in to look at today’s creation.  I hope that you will love it enough to CAS it!!