A Trio of Challenges

I am entering today's card into a few challenges this week; Stampin' Royalty #332 "Flowers" Challenge, CAS June 2016 Mix Up Challenge for Stamping, Diecuts and my choice which in this case is Heat Embossing and Sponging, and Inspired By All The Little Things where I was inspired by the color scheme in the inspiration photo.  

I often make cards from the extra pieces I have laying around and this is one of those cards.  I used Altenew Beautiful Day and Altenew Peony Bouquet Stamps with the coordinating dies for my flowers on this card. The Stamper's Select Vellum was sponged with Lovely Lady and Amethyst Allure Inks, then stamped and die cut.  The leaves were stamped on vellum and diecut without added color. 

For my card base, I used Lavender Moon Cardstock from Papertrey Ink (which is really more pink than purple) and my background panel is Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I cut a frame using Spellbinders Labels 42 and Labels 42 Decorative Elements. The Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Scripted" Dies.   

I really love pink and purple but I actually work at not using it for everything. Because of this I think I enjoy it a lot more when I do get to create using those colors.  This card is pretty straight forward stamping and heat embossing without any special techniques.  One of the things I love about it is how easy it would be to duplicate.  I think you can truly spend as much or as little time as you want when creating a card.  I never go into it having a specific design in mind, I only play around with the various elements until I get a look that I like. Sometimes that happens right away and at other times it doesn't.  I guess that's what makes it an art form.  

I hope you enjoyed my card today.  I have a few projects to work on and I will be back with a new project soon.  Enjoy your weekend! 

CAS On Sunday #84 - Sparkle

I found a new challenge to participate in this week so I thought I'd give it a shot. It is called CAS (Clean & Simple) on Sunday.  To be considered CAS, it must be minimal layers, one focal image, and fast and easy to recreate.  While I enjoy the challenge of more technique driven cards, at other times I just want something that is fast and easily mailable.  I actually make a lot of cards that would fit into this category although not all of them.  Today's card definitely fits into this category.  The style for this challenge is CAS with Sparkle.  Y'all know how I love my sparkle.

I started by stamping the largest image from the SU! Flowering Flourishes Stamp Set with Versamark onto a piece of Creative Memories Sea Glass Card Stock.  I don't know if that set is a current product or not.  Once I had it stamped, I heat set it with WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder.  That completed my main focal image. I used the "You've been on my mind" greeting from the Papertrey Ink Friendly Flowers Stamp Set and die cut the butterfly from some Papertrey Ink #44 Vellum.  The butterfly is from Impression Obsession.

I spritzed the Sea Glass panel and the butterfly with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz and set it aside to dry for a few minutes.  Once it was dry, I cut the panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle  After that I attached the Sea Glass Panel to a top folding A2 Card Base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock using my ATG.  The butterfly was attached using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  Three small pearls were attached to the three little flowers on the stamped image and this card was complete.  It's a super fast card that still looks great!  You can't really see the sparkle of the paper in the photograph, but it is there. The sparkle of the embossing powder also helps to bring that out.  

I hope you enjoyed today's card and that you'll come back soon.  There will be lots more projects this week.  I'll also be entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for their Anything Goes theme. Have a great rest of the Memorial Day weekend!