Good, Better, Best/ Color Throwdown #203

 I let my card for the Color Throwdown this week sort of evolve from good, to better, & finally to best by adding a bit of bling each time. I modified the colors just a bit this week and went with Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake, & Marina Mist.  Boy do they ever look like summer to me! I've found a couple of new stampin' obsessions lately.  One is the Lacy Brocade folder from pg 6 of the new Holiday catalog.  It's my new very favorite as you can see from this card. I'm also super into the Vintage Faceted Buttons.  They add fun subtle bling that just makes the card pop.  We'll do the "better" version of this card in class at the end of the month, but you can always upgrade your card to "best" by ordering some of these great buttons.  I'm already almost through my first box!

Blossom Punch Butterfly

I love to look through the Stampin' Up catalogs not only to get a glimpse of all the fun new products coming our way, but also to get inspiration for new projects! When I saw the new Blossom Punch used to create a simple yet elegant butterfly, I couldn't wait to try it myself. I went back to my favorite image from the new Mixed Bunch set & punched it out with the Blossom Punch. Then, I trimmed off a couple of petals & curled the wings a bit to make the butterfly. The body for my little friend came from the left over bits after using my Lattice Die. I've saved them knowing that they would come in handy eventually! To color in my flowers, I took out my Aquapainter and just dabbed ink off the lid of my Elegant Eggplant ink pad. Did you check out the ribbon in my little bow? It's a pre-view of the great things to come in the 2012 Sale-a-Bration promotion! One benefit of being a demonstrator is that Sale-a-Bration started early for us! Jealous? There's no need, just ask me about how to join the team so you can take advantage of great promotions too!

Embossed Mixed Bunch... A Preview

This card is one of my all time favorites! The photo did a pretty good job of capturing it, but it's even better in person. It used to be that I would have ideas for cards bouncing in my head all the time. Lately, that hasn't been the case. So, it was super exciting when this one started to haunt me the other night. It's even more exciting when the idea in my head turns out in real life! I experimented a bit with this one. It was so nice to have the luxury of time to fiddle with it. I ended up going embossing crazy with a little sponging added in too. The stamped images come from the Mixed Bunch set in the brand new Occasions Mini Catalog as does the Blossom Punch. Don't worry, you won't have to wait much longer to get your hands on the great new products. The Occasions Mini Catalog sales period starts Jan 4th! For my Blossom layer, I embossed the image using Versamark & Clear Embossing Powder. Then, I sponged & brayered Early Espresso ink over the top. Finally, I just used a paper towel to take the ink off the embossed image. It turned out great! None of my brads had quite the same shine as the gold embossing powder. So, to get that effect, I took one of my silver brads (I have a TON of those) and coated the top with my Gold Smooch Accent Ink. For good measure, I dry set the Smooch using my embossing tool. It was out already, so I may as well put it to good use! No doubt you'll be seeing this little beauty at my classes this month.