Pretty floral card

WooHoo! I won the Baby Photo Challenge on Papercraft Planet!!! I wasn't even going to try it but on the last day I found a few hints and so then I thought, well, I'm a third of the way there I might as well try it. So I opened all of the blogs to see current photos of gals and I spent quite a bit of time comparing. It was a bit of guess work too. Anyway only 8 people had them all correct and I was picked out of that 8. So the prize was a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com and the Mom and Me stamp set from Clean and Simple Stamps.

I was in a floral mood so I created this card the other night. The main stamp set is Soft Summer from the SU Occasions Mini Catalog. Check it out in the side bar ====>>>>> to see lots of great sets and accessories. Plus there is a way cool Matchbox Sizzix Die in there. I haven't tried it yet but I think I'll break it in this weekend. Check out what Lynn did with her Matchbox die here!

The card base is Very Vanilla with a layer of Close to Cocoa. The first step was to ink up En Francais with Close to Cocoa all over then bits of Chocolate Chip here and there. I stamped off on scrap paper before stamping on Very Vanilla. I lightly sponged the edges of that with Chocolate Chip. I used markers to color the large floral stamp in the set - Close to Cocoa, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, So Safron, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst and Bashful Blue then I misted and stamped. I used the leaf outline from Botanical Blooms (SAB set) in Kiwi Kiss in the lower left corner. The stamp in the upper left is from Embrace Life. The main image is from Soft Summer and again I colored with markers, misted then stamped on Whisper White. I used Nestabilities to cut the image and Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip layers. The ribbon is 5/8" Very Vanilla grosgrain. The last thing to do was add a smidge of Dazzling Diamonds here and there on the pretty little blossoms. It's too bad you can't see the glitter because it makes the image pop and look way better then in this photo.

I'm off to bed. I'm reading this book called Infinite Jest that my brother Misha gave me 10 years ago for my birthday. He must have been 18 then. He had included a great retro postcard inside and there was my mom's handwriting for my address. Mom died 7 years ago in a car accident (I still haven't gotten over it) so it was really a surprise to see her distinct scrawl. Anyway, this book is really daunting, about 1000 pages plus 200 pages of footnotes. It is not an easy read and basically it's about how entertainment dominates our lives and how it affects who we are. The main characters are a crazily dysfunctional family. Anyway, I read for an hour before lights out every night.

So goodnight all. Have a crafty good day tomorrow!!!

Desiree