Amazing You for Color Throwdown

As I write this, the snow is coming down like crazy again, and I've been holed up in my Craft Cave all afternoon, ignoring it! Color Throwdown has had a gorgeous challenge this week and I just had to play along, even if it's at the last minute! I love a good neutral card. It has it's own kind of beauty and this combination of black, gray (taupe) and vanilla is particularly appealing:

You should pop on over to Color Throwdown and check on some of the Design Team samples, they are so gorgeous. I know they really inspired me! And so many of the entries are equally awesome! Well worth a visit!  I wanted some kind of layering happening, so I decided on the lovely flower from the Sale-A-Bration set, Amazing You, on which I could create some layers and the level 2 Sale-A-Bration reward, the Celebrate You Thinlits for the sentiments, and the Birds & Blooms thinlits for the saucy bird!

• I chose a Basic Black background for everything to really help it stand out. Everything else was stamped on and/or die cut from Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla.
• The flower from the Amazing You stamp set reminds me a little of California Poppies, which bloom by the hundreds around here in the summer time, but they are a bright orange, not vanilla. Still, by stamping the image in Basic Black Archival ink, and using a Blender Pen and some Sahara Sand ink very sparingly to add some shading, you get a pretty striking flower. I took it a step further and stamped and shaded a second flower and fussy cut just the middle bloom. I shaped it with my bone folder and added it to the first flower with a glue dot, matching up the petal shapes exactly.
• I cut off the foliage that was stamped because it was too intricate to cut around and instead, die cut and punched some foliage using the Eclectic Layers Thinlits and my trusty Martha Stewart leaf punch. I added them to the bloom with glue dots before adding all to the card front with a couple of Stampin' Dimensionals.

• The sentiments are the perfect size for a showy card and they are, once again, die cut using the Celebrate You Thinlits, a Level 2 Sale-A-Bration reward that you can earn free with every $120 you spend on one order (before tax and shipping.)
• The cheeky little bird is die cut using the Birds & Blooms Thinlits from the Annual Catalogue. I like the way the black background shows through and gives him definition.

Here's another cute project from the new Occasions Catalogue, courtesy of Stampin' Up!:

                  

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.


Product List

Amazing You Wood-Mount Stamp Set [147212] $0.00	Amazing You Clear-Mount Stamp Set [147215] $0.00	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [144237] $9.25	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650] $11.25	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $11.25
Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $10.00	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $10.00	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $9.25	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad [126976] $8.50	Blender Pens [102845] $16.00
Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50	Big Shot [143263] $136.00	Big Shot Die Brush - New Configuration [144262] $16.50	Big Shot Magnetic Platform [130658] $49.00	Celebrate You Thinlit Dies [146840] $0.00
Eclectic Layers Thinlits Dies [143774] $40.00	Birds & Blooms Thinlits Dies [141477] $35.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	Glue Dots [103683] $7.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

Martha Stewart Leaf Punch