Love for Eastern Blooms {CCMC157}

Welcome to the Thursday Challenge at Create with Connie & Mary!  It's a sketch challenge this week and my card went in a completely different direction than what I had in mind...but I like the end result, I think!  Here is our sketch:

It's a great one for featuring horizontal stamps and I just had to use one of my favorite retiring SU sets:

I sure am going to miss Eastern Blooms with its lovely stylized cherry blossom branch.  I had an anniversary card in mind with these colors and thought that a gold embossed branch would be lovely:

First, I stamped a piece of Baja Breeze in the same color ink with the En Francais background stamp.  The cherry blossom branch was stamped in Versamark ink, sprinkled with gold stampin' emboss powder and heat set.  Of course it needed a boatload of..ahem....just a few pearls.  :-)

I added some scrunchy Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon to the bottom edge with some sticky strip tape.  The Tiny Tag was stamped in Baja Breeze and Soft Suede and pinned to the ribbon with a tiny Vintage Trinket safety pin.  You can also see that I did a little bit of background stamping with some Soft Suede cherry blossoms directly onto the Elegant Soiree designer paper. 

You can probably see the background stamping better here behind the trio of sweet little flowers.  The flowers were punched from Brushed Gold cardstock with the Itty Bitty Punch Pack and topped with a big fat pearl on each!

With a dark card base, of course the inside needs to be finished.  Cherry blossoms were inked in Baja Breeze and stamped off once before stamping onto Very Vanilla cardstock.  A scrap piece of Elegant Soiree designer paper and a Soft Suede sentiment from A Word for You were the finishing touch!  In case you are wondering, the Very Vanilla insert measures: 3 3/4" x 4 3/4". 

I hope you've enjoyed my card today...I'd love to hear what you think or answer any questions you might have.  Be sure to pop on over to Create with Connie & Mary to see what the rest of the design team has in store for you!

supplies:

stamps: eastern blooms, a word for you, en francais, tiny tags

ink: baja breeze, soft suede

paper: soft suede, very vanilla, baja breeze CS; elegant soiree DSP

xtras: basic pearls; gold stampin' emboss powder; itty bitty punch pack; very vanilla seam binding ribbon; vintage trinkets; jewelry punch

Flower Cascade: CQC{65} & CPS{96}

Whew!  I am glad to have some time to recuperate after the holidays before heading back to work next week.  Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, I hope it was a wonderful one!  This week I've finally had time to play along with some of my favorite challenges.  When I saw this gorgeous scarf and color combo at the Colour Q, I just had to play along:

Stunning, right?!  And this sketch at Card Patterns was just perfect for what I had in mind:

 and here is what I created:

I had so much fun making this one!  I started with a Basic Black base and added some of my favorite retired DSP, Walk in the Park.  I cut a Whisper White circle with my Netsabilities and stamped a sentiment from Hope Happens in Jet Black Stazon--my favorite ink for a crisp black image.  The real fun came from creating the flowers!  I used the Floral Fusion sizzlit--a SU exclusive die--to cut these tri-layered flowers from Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake cardstock.  Before assembling the Crumb Cake flowers, I stamped all the layers with the En Francais background stamp in Crumb Cake ink.

I discovered that the flower punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack is a perfect match to the Floral Fusion sizzlit!  A little black cardstock and a basic rhinestone brad made the flower centers sparkle!

 With so much beautiful felt in the inspiration piece, I had to use some on this card.  I dug into my stash of retired Sweet Pea felt flowers and came up with some Old Olive felt leaves--so stinkin' cute!

I am in need of a belated birthday card and I think this sentiment from On Your Birthday coordinates well with the one on the outside.  To incorporate all the colors I inked up the stamp with my Basic Black and Old Olive Stampin' Write markers and added a few Crumb Cake flowers from Eastern Blooms.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your week...cheers!

supplies:

stamps: hope happens, on your birthday, en francais, eastern blooms

ink: jet black stazon, crumb cake

paper: basic black, whisper white, walk in the park dsp

xtras: stampin' write markers;  basic grey taffeta ribbon; floral fusion sizzlit; rhinestone brads; itty bitty punch pack; sweet pea felt leaves; nestabilities

Dream Garden for The Color Dare {84}

Hello Color Dare fans!  It's time for another color challenge and here's what Riley has for us:

Color Dare 83

Soft Suede

Pear Pizzazz

Night of Navy

And here is what I've created for you:

The stamp-a-ma-jig made easy work of the center panel.  I started with a piece of Naturals Ivory cardstock (it's okay to add a neutral) and stamped the beautiful panel from Dream Garden in all 3 challenge colors.  I left a little bit of ivory cardstock at the bottom so I could wrap it with the scrunchy ribbon technique in Night of Navy taffeta ribbon.  

I made a flower embellishment from Night of Navy cardstock and layered two flowers from the Flower Fusion sizzlit.  The card base looked too plain to me so I chose another Asian-themed stamp set, Eastern Blossoms,  and stamped the cherry blossoms in Soft Suede as a frame.    

When I was finished, I realized that I wasn't finished--there was no sentiment!  I stamped it on the side to see what it would look like and I really like the effect.  What do you think?

And I couldn't ignore the inside....so the crane was inked up again in Pear Pizzazz and a sentiment from Sincere Salutations stamped in Night of Navy.

Sorry to make this a quick post tonight...please let me know if you have any questions or comments--love to hear from you.  Please be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team.  I'm sure you will find some fabulous inspiration on their blogs:

• Riley - our leader
• Glenda - Papers, Scissors & Rocks
• Heather - Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan - JJ Creations
• Marisa - Rosemary Reflections
• Melissa - My Paper Obsession

Color Dare Design Team Debut {CD76}

Woo hoo!  I am delighted to share this card with you as my first contribution on the Color Dare design team! Riley Fitzgerald runs the Color Dare challenge with a new batch of fresh color combinations each Wednesday and I have joined their team for the next six months. We would love for you to play along...come check it out! This week's combination is Rose Red, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy & Elegant Eggplant and here is what I did with it:

I knew that I wanted to feature a fan fold flower--been seeing them all over blogland--and with a strong focal piece like that I needed to keep the rest of the card pretty simple.  This week's sketch over at Taylored Expressions was just perfect!  I love sketches and layouts that allow me to feature our beautiful designer paper.  Here I've used a combination of retired designer papers except for the Elegant Eggplant.  I didn't have any designer paper in EE so I stamped the cherry blossoms from Eastern Blooms in EE on my EE cardstock for instant patterned paper!

Here's a close-up of the fan fold flower with an Antique Brad center.  These brads sure are gorgeous!  I'm usually a clean and modern kind of girl but these brads have me humming a vintage tune!  I backed it with a circle of Not Quite Navy.  If you would like to see how I made the flower, check back tomorrow for a pictorial.  You'll want to try it right away, it's that easy!

Finally, a little peek at the inside for you.  I carried over a narrow strip of the same papers and repeated the Eastern Blooms cherry blossoms in Versamark behind the sentiment.  The sentiment is such a great one from the level 2 hostess set Occasional Quotes.

So that's it from me today...will you take the Color Dare?  Hop on over and take a look at the inspiration from the rest of the design team and then go get crafty...we would love to see what you come up with! 

supplies:
stamps: sincere salutations; occasional quotes; eastern blooms
ink: elegant eggplant; versamark
paper: crumb cake, very vanilla, old olive CS; urban garden, haiku, thoroughly modern DSPs (retired)
xtras: corner rounder, 2 3/8" scallop circle, 3/4" circle punches; old olive satin ribbon; antique brad

Curtain Call {Act 29}

I just love the colors and inspiration photos Stacey uses in the Curtain Call Color Challenge and this week is no exception. Take a look:

Look at that flower and those vases! I've never used Bordering Blue before, gasp(!), and now I am going to miss it when it retires in June. It's such a pretty blue-ish gray and it looks fantastic with summer sun (also retiring) and tangerine tango (coming back)! So, here is my take on these fabulous colors:

What do you think? I had a vague idea where I wanted to go, well at least I knew I wanted to use the Eastern Blooms set. I don't use that one nearly enough--it's so pretty! I stamped the middle cherry blossom branch in Versamark and then heat embossed with white stampin' emboss powder. It looked kinda lonely by itself so I stamped some more branches with the Versamark ink. Two retired DSP patterns--good morning sunshine and haiku--provided the summer sun and tangerine tango pops of color. So glad to get tangerine tango back in July!


The flower was stamped in summer sun on whisper white and hand-cut. Some yellow adhesive rhinestones from my embellie stash add some sparkle to the flower. The cool textured background is the new square lattice impressions folder now available in the summer mini catalog--isn't it great?! Can't forget the whisper white ribbon...I love this new-to-me technique of ruffling the ribbon...it's sooo easy and makes for simple mailing with no knots or bows.

I also try to complete the inside of each card and I love carrying over a stamp from the front, on the inside. Makes the design complete, don'tcha think? I do so appreciate your visit to my blog and love reading your comments! Hint, hint ;-)

(For more information about retiring and new colors click on the color wheels to the right of this post.)

supplies: stamps: eastern blooms; garden greetings (retired); heard from the heart (inside sentiment)
ink: summer sun; basic gray (sentiments); versamark
paper: whisper white, bordering blue cardstock; haiku & good morning sunshine DSP
xtras: whisper white organza ribbon; square lattice impressions folder; stampin' emboss powder; scallop trim punch; XL bird punch (leaves); top note die