flowers and hearts...

Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards for a few challenges.  Currently MFT has their Card Design Superstar contest going on.  I don't consider myself a card design superstar, but it is good to challenge yourself to take on something that can help you improve your skills and to that end my first card is for their coloring virtuoso challenge.  I'm not a coloring virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks to videos by the very talented Kristina Werner I have substantially improved by coloring skills to the point where I have more confidence to try things like no line watercoloring.   I inked up the MFT Flowers in Bloom stamp set with Antique Linen distress ink and stamped it on the smoother side of the Ken Oliver watercolor paper.  I then colored all the flowers with the Coral Crush color from the Ken Oliver/MFT Fresh Flowers Color Burst Trio.   I colored the stems with the Jellybean Green.  Once the image was dry I then added in some additional shadows with coral and brown Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils.  The image was then die cut with the matching die.  I decided to use the current MFT sketch for my layout so I will also be posting the card there.  The banners were die cut with a fishtail flag stax die and the sentiment (from the Stacy Yacula Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes set) was stamped in black ink. I did all my die cutting with my Gemini Jr.  I'm pretty pleased with how my coloring turned out and really enjoyed using the Color Burst medium.  Think I may need to get some additional colors!  (Compensated affiliate links used where possible.)

My next card is also for the Card Design Superstar contest.  This one in the clean and simple category.  I used the current FMS layout for my card, as well as the Paper Players challenge to use metallics on a clean and simple design.  I looked through my MFT dies and settled on a birthday theme using the Celebrate die, as well as a cute little heart shaped balloon die and the banner die from the Stacy Yacula Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes die set.  I die cut the balloons from a dark pink and orangy-pink metallic cardstock from Stampin Up!  Boy was it a bear trying to photograph those balloons!  The banner was die cut from silver.  I die cut the word celebrate three times from MFT smooth white cardstock and adhered them together with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive.   The balloons were then arranged on a panel of MFT Smooth white cardstock and adhered with the Deluxe Adhesive.  I then adhered the banner and the word celebrate also with deluxe adhesive.  All my die cutting was done with my Gemini Jr.  I finished by stamping the sentiment (also from Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes) on vellum with VersaMark watermark ink and embossing with silver embossing powder.   In retrospect I should have used black embossing powder as it is hard to see the sentiment, but over all I'm also pleased with how this card turned out.  (Compensated affiliate links used where possible.)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!