Simply Soft Christmas?!

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I love the ColourQ challenges - there's something about those colour swatches and inspiration pictures that fires me up! I must admit it took a while to figure something out for this week's though...

... but I wouldn't be beaten! Here's my interpretation:

I went for an emboss/resist background using the wonderful script image from the French Foliage stamp set. Once it was embossed I sponged Coral Calypso and Bravo Burgundy inks over it. The plants are from the wonderful Simply Soft hostess set. (Hostess sets are exclusive sets, available to buy with orders of £150 or more, but members of my Stampers 6 group can also order them during their hostess month - there's only one place left for my group starting in May, so do let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to join.)

Do you like the sentiment? I was rather pleased with it! I cut a half circle out of my main panel with a 1 1/4" circle punch then, using a 1" punch and a spare scrap of card stock, cut another circle to nest inside the space. This one was given the emboss/resist treatment. The 'thanks' sentiment has been cut out with my sharp paper snips and popped up with dimensionals.

Simply Soft is a two step stamping set - you can stamp the plant image and then add the colour to the flowers by lining up a second image and stamping over the top of the first. It gives a lovely soft look but I wanted a more defined look for this image so I just coloured the flowers in with a Pumpkin Pie marker. I liked the bubbles in the inspiration picture, so I added the surprise pop of Pool Party using the splodge image from French Foliage.

While I had everything out, it occurred to me that this design would work for a Christmas card too! Come and have a look:

I used markers for this one: Bravo Burgundy to colour the just plant stems before stamping and adding Pumpkin Pie berries. The Pool Party splodges have been swapped for Pool Party snowflakes some of which have been decorated with rhinestones for a bit of festive bling.

The sentiment has been done in the same way as before but this time I've chosen an easy-to-cut-out image from Contempo Christmas. This card is for the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge, where the challenge is to use snowflakes on a card, and also Rudolph Day, the lovely Sandra's Christmas challenge.

I would normally add a supply list here so that you can see what you'd need to recreate these cards but this has been a long post and I don't want to completely bore you (apologies if I already have!) So if you have any queries about what I've used, do let me know won't you and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. And if you'd like to place an order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. TODAY'S THE LAST DAY  for adding a free pack of designer paper if your order is £45 or more (offer limited to one pack per qualifying order - click here for details).

I'm off to one of Stampin' Up's fabulous regional training sessions tomorrow to learn heaps of new things and meet up with lots of other lovely demonstrators. I'll be back on Monday with a sneak peek of something brand new and gorgeous so don't miss that!

Have a wonderful weekend,