Awash With Challenges

Hi Everyone!

Hope you're all having a great Friday. For today's card I combined a couple of challenges; the Saturday Sketch Challenge from Stamping 411 and the color challenge from Just Add Ink . Sometimes I just need a little inspirational push, so I look to challenges to get me rolling!

Because I tend to be a bit of a paper hoarder, I still have a good amount of Kiwi Kiss in my stash; however I am out of Barely Banana so I switched it for So Saffron. Chocolate Chip is a fav of mine, so that's always on hand! I knew I wanted to play with my Awash With Flowers Sneak Peek set some more, so this was a perfect opportunity.

I started with the largest flower image and stamped it using Chocolate Chip Classic Ink. Now, if you've seen this set, you know that the image is like a side view of a flower, so to get a full flower image I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I love this tool for so many reasons! I stamped the image onto the card stock where I wanted it to be, but not centered so that I could have room to stamp the other half of the flower. I then stamped the image onto the imaging sheet of the Stamp-a-ma-jig, rotated it, and lined it up with the with stamped image, then stamped the image onto the card stock and voila! a full flower. Not bad, eh? I used the filler stamp in More Mustard to "color in" my flower, and again I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

I'm sure you've seen those cute frosted brads. Well I decided to make my own and use it for the center of my flower. I started with one of our Jumbo Brads (5/16") in Chocolate Chip. I stuck it in the top of a near by kleenex box to hold it, then put Crystal Effects on the top of it, sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over it and let it dry. That's all there is to it! You could do this with any of your brads and bring a little bling to your projects!

The greeting I used on the front is from the Sale-a-bration set Whimsical Words. This set is no longer available, so I hope you got yours while they were out. I stamped it in Chocolate Chip ink as well. I wanted to add just a little something more on the image so I found my Color Spritzer Tool and spritzed some Chocolate Chip ink around on the edges. I had forgotten how fun this tool can,be! You simply slide in the brush tip end of your Stampin' Write marker into the holder, secure it and then squeeze the bulb end and quite literally watch the color fly!

To finish the card front, I ran it through the Big Shot using the Finial Press Embossing Folder and then punched the edges using our new Scalloped Trim Corner punch. As you can see from the sketch, I was supposed to add ribbon but I didn't think it would fit, so instead I slipped a simple piece of the Kiwi Kiss under the image front before I mounted it on the Chocolate Chip card stock. On the edge I added a little button in Old Olive from the Playground collection.

And that is today's card creation. I hope you like it. As always, feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Until then...

Happy Stampin'