Hey friends!! So excited because today I'm guesting with the fabulous gals at one of my favorite challenges Color Throwdown!! You are going to love the yummy color palette that was chosen for you by this week's Color Throwdown hostess, Lisa (and you just might be craving some ice cream, too, lol!)!!! The generic colors are plum, raspberry, peach and white. You can add in some neutrals as well. I combined the color combo with the June Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try. I pulled out my RC Butterfly Dreams stamps and dies to create my card. I used Altenew Coral Berry ink for the largest butterfly and PTI's Plum Pudding for the smaller ones. Thanks to the mini MISTI I was able to get nice deep colors for all the butterflies. The little wreaths were die cut from a peach cardstock (SU!'s Crisp Cantaloupe no long available) using the little wreath from the RC Wreaths Confetti Cuts set. A strip of white cardstock was cut and all the elements were layered on. To break up the white I added a mat of kraft cardstock to the strip and then embossed the front of the card base using a piece of burlap. Finally a liberal brushing of clear Wink of Stella was added to the plum butterflies. I have included a close up shot to show you how much the butterflies sparkle. Make sure you check out all the projects from the Color Throwdown design team! Looking forward to seeing what you make with this week's colors!! 
Hey!! It is a beautiful day here in the Pacific Northwest... might be a little too hot for me, but beautiful nonetheless!! Yesterday was gorgeous too and it looks like we have a full week of lovely weather ahead! Have a card to share today for a couple of challenges: Less is More (color challenge - purple) and My Favorite Things sketch challenge. I always want to play along with the MFT sketch challenge, but never seem to find the time. Finally this past weekend I was able to make a clean and simple card using the MFT layout. I started by die cutting my panel with the largest MFT Inside Out Stitched Rectangle die. I then placed a Spellbinders plain oval die inside the panel and ran it through my Big Shot using the sandwich to emboss the oval (not cut it) into the cardstock. I ended up having to do it twice because I didn't get a deep enough impression the first time. Once that was done I die cut the flowers from the MFT Mini Modern Blooms die set and then using second generation stamping stamped them with the corresponding images using purple ink. The centers of the flowers were stamped with the purple ink at full strength. I used my mini MISTI to stamp the leaves in a pale green ink and then the sentiment. Adhered the flowers to the panel and then the panel to a pale grey cardstock base. 
Hey friends!! Stopping in with a card for a two challenges: Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown. The school year is almost over for my two boys and so I made a thank you card for my little guy's teacher. I used the Reverse Confetti set All Apples as well as the Reverse Confetti set Class Act. The mini MISTI helped me get a nice dark green impression on my apple. I really like that little tool and I'm so glad that I finally broke down and got one! Stamped all the other images and then die cut everything with the matching dies. The patterned paper matches the green ink I used (both Stampin Up!) and it had cream in it making it perfect for the Color Throwdown challenge. Cut a piece, adhered it to my kraft card base and then added the little notebook page, apple and leaves. Super quick, but that is how I like it, lol!! 
Hey friends... popping in with a card for a few challenges. My sweet friend, Greta, is guest designing for City Crafter challenge blog this week and I just had to play along with the challenge... feathers! I used the color combo from the current ColourQ challenge and the layout for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch challenge... haven't participated in their challenge for ages! I used the fun Concord & 9th Grateful stamp set and did some layering of the images. The set comes with two feathers and I used the smaller one stamping it five times, twice with Coastal Cabana ink and three times with Bahama Blue ink. The sentiment was stamped over that using Calypso Coral. I brought in the grey by stamping a little image from the Concord & 9th Painted Thank You set. The piece was die cut and then mounted on a grey cardstock base. I must admit that I had to fiddle around with the colors for a bit to get the layering right. My shoulder is slowly getting better, but sometimes I feel like it has been "one step forward, two steps back" kind of process. I have to keep reminding myself that it has only been 3 weeks since the surgery and that I need to take it easy... so hard to do... sigh!! 
