Goddess

A friend requested a special birthday card for her fiance. She described his many interests to me so that I could create a card especially for him. A couple of items that stood out was that he is a writer and he also admires the art of Alfonse Mucha. At the time, I was not familiar with Mucha, but quick assistance from Google gave me a wealth of images and information about this wonderful artist. It appears that Mucha is credited with being the father of the Art Nouveau movement in the late 1800's. He created numerous paintings, advertisements and book illustrations, and his images were very familiar to me, though I did not know the name of the man behind this beautiful artwork. His subjects seem to be mostly women clothed in diaphanous flowing robes and painted in soft feminine colors. The works also feature beautiful floral accents, and to me, the overall feeling is very ethereal or goddess-like.

In the very recesses of my mind, I recalled having a rubber stamp image that reminded me of Alfonse Mucha's style. Digging through my vast collection of rubber stamps, I found this image by Stamp Oasis called Spirit of Summer and knew this is what I would use as the focus of the card. I began by stamping the image on white cover stock in black Momento ink. I colored the image with Copic markers and was not able to achieve the soft colors that Mucha was known for, but did try to maintain a softness by not using too many color families. I used mainly shades of orange, blue,and green. I accented the flowers and parts of the border by covering them with Versamarker and embossing with clear powder several times. This gave certain areas of the image a shiny raised effect.

I also used a Nestability die cut to create the tiny open book. I used parchment colored paper, distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then stamped a handwritten script image on top. A tiny cream ribbon and some small soft green gems create the bookmark. The addition of some lovely patterned papers by Basic Grey and a few flowers and gems finish the card. I enjoyed making this card, but I mostly enjoyed researching the inspirational works of Alfonse Mucha, which really proves that the act of creating something with your hands can expand your knowledge on so many levels :)