I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of entering challenges – over the holidays most challenge sites took a break and so I got out of the routine. But they are not only fun but sometimes push you to create better cards than usual. I’ve definitely found that it’s extremely helpful to be on a Design Team because you HAVE to make a card. There’s no deciding that the sketch or colours aren’t quite your thing. I’ve been really pleased with the two cards I’ve produced for the CAS Colours & Sketches challenges so far this year. You have been there to check out the challenges haven’t you? Today’s card is for the Pals Paper Arts challenge, a fun colour combo selected by Brian King.

The banner which inspired this challenge is

and Brian pulled it from the It’s My Party DSP stack so it made sense to flip through that stack to see if anything would work with my planned flower from Grateful Bunch. I embossed the partial stem in black on watercolour paper and, using my aquapainter, coloured the leaves in mint macaron. On a piece of scrap watercolour paper, I embossed the flower which I gave a pale melon mambo wash, again with the aquapainter and then punched it out with the blossom bunch punch. I have to say that punching out watercolour paper needs serious hand strength – or just put the punch on the table and press down with your hand and arm and whole body weight. Much easier! By the way, you can get the stamp set and punch as a bundle and save 15% which is definitely the way to go.

I really liked this mint macaron print from the It’s My Party DSP stack and decided on a nice wide border around the watercolour paper before gluing that to the melon mambo card base. Definitely a fun card. I’m going to give it to Komal at work. I gave a birthday card to her buddy last week and Komal instant messaged me to let me know that her birthday is in May. I don’t think that she needs to wait until May, a Happy Friday card seems like a good idea, yes? Komal is one of the happiest people that I know, she’s very positive and always smiling. This happy card seems to really fit. I hope that she likes it.

I finished it off by lining the envelope with the same DSP so that it coordinates. I really love this DSP stack, it’s 48 sheets of happy 12 ” by 12″ designs. It’s not cheap (and in fact I split it with my sister) but it’s a lot of fun paper.

See you tomorrow,

Liz