Hello Lovely

I am jumping on here today with a quick post! This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is Trio-Tastic.  You have to do something (anything) in threes. I've been really busy this week and with it being Thanksgiving, I'm really trying to get a few things accomplished. So far, I'm not having too much luck. I've been so into making Christmas cards that I have been longing to create something in some fresh "sunshine-y" colors.

I watercolored this beautiful image from the Concord & 9th Hello Lovely Stamp Set in Red and Blue the other day, but I really wanted to create one in these beautiful coral tones.  I'm strongly considering changing my favorite color to coral instead of pink.  I love this shade that Papertrey calls Berry Sorbet.  

This entire arrangement has been drawn for you so there is no masking required. Some people really like masking but I'm not one of them. I love heat embossing, but it's very hard to mask and heat emboss.  I've had success a few times, but not much because masks are sticky, so the embossing powder wants to stick where the mask was covering your image before.  It's a lot of hassle to get an embossed image that is clean so when I find one like this that the entire bouquet has been done for me - well, that's a winner in my book!  I don't mind taking time to watercolor, but masking?  Forget it!

Recently, I've been using a few props in my photos to add some interest but I think I am only going to be doing that for some holidays and special occasions in the future rather than trying to do it all the time. It's getting to be more about the props than about the focus of the blog or the photos and it's taking so much time to get the lighting right etc. that it's leaving me less time to create.  Since this isn't a photography blog but rather a paper crafting one, I think I'm going back to basics.  In fact, just knowing that and deciding it, makes me a lot happier.

This is a really simple card.  I stamped the image onto Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper with Versamark and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  To watercolor it, I used a "trio" of colors - Mowed Lawn Distress Marker, with Light Carmine and Pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. The random gold splatters you see there are part of the stamp.  Once I had all the water coloring done and it was dry, I went over each of the blooms with my Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.  The blooms are just luminous in real life. I cut the panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and set it aside while I stamped my sentiment.

The sentiment comes from the Sugar Pea Designs Kindness Matters Stamp Set.  I cut one of the smaller Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles from the same watercolor paper to stamp it on. Again, I used Versamark with the Simon Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Once that was done, I mounted both to a top folding A2 card base made from Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet Cardstock.  A few Gold Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished this Clean & Simple card off.

Thanks for stopping by today and if you'd like to leave a comment, I very much appreciate and enjoy reading them.