fresh & fun

Today’s inspiration challenge was great for me. I love the colors in the image.

I just started participating in the inspiration challenges last week. Here is what I do. I write down the colors that are in it, and images that I have and could use. For this one I wrote down: So Saffron, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Really Rust, More Mustard, Always Artchoke and Chocolate, for images leaves or Poppies.

I went through my stamps and decided to use the Level 1 hostess set: Oh So Lovely. It has a beautiful poppy image in it.

I inked up the background stamp in More Mustard, stamped it off once before stamping it on Shimmery White cardstock. I repeated this two more times and lined them up next to each other. No, didn’t use the Stamp-A-Majic. I am usually too lazy for that and just eyeball.

Next I stamped the Poppy image in Brown Stazon over the background and colored it in with Classic ink pads (Ruby Red, More Mustard, Mellow Moss and Always Aritchoke) and Aqua Painter.  I cut the image into a 3 /4 circle with my Coluzzle and sponged the edges with More Mustard, Really Rust and stippled just a touch of chocolate chip on the edges. Then I layered it on Chocolate chip with the long retired Coluzzle Companion set. I cut out the next big circle out of Shimmery white and made it into a scallop circle with my corner rounder.

After I made my main image, I pulled out my cardstock to decide on the rest of the card.

I finally settled on a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Always Artichoke as my card base (another square card, who would have known. LOL).

I stamped the front with Linen in Always Artichoke and sponged the edges in the same color for more depth.

I stamped a 2 1/4″ wide strip of Ruby Red first with Linen, then with the swirl from Baroque Motifs in Ruby Red and sponged the edges as well. On the top part, I added a small strip of chocolate chip cardstock and added my Faux Stitching with All in a Row.

Once I had the basic elements done for my card it was time to PUNCH IT UP A NOTCH:

The main image still looked too blah. I seem to need some kind of border on my main panels lately. Since All in a Row Stitching would be a little tough on the circle, I settled for paper piercing. then I added a piece of Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware with Fairy Tale Ribbon Original to add a splash of yellow and three antique brass brads next to that.

Underneath the Ruby Red strip, I paper pierced a row to tie in the paper piercing in the circle.

I pulled out my unmounted So many Sayings and decided to make this my Anniversary card for Rick. Our anniversary isn’t until October, but hey…this will be the first time I don’t have to stamp the card the night before! SWEET!

I stamped absolute bliss over the flower stem, since it still needed something and another piece of ribbon just didn’t look right. Then I punched out a small oval with our small oval punch, stamped the background stamp from Oh, so Lovely in More Mustard in second generation over it, sponged the edges and added You and Me in chocolate chip over it.

I taped it to the ruby red cardstock and topped it with a small oval frame from the Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware.