I was thrilled to have my card chosen by the Color Hues Color Challenge as the winner of their 24th challenge with my Coral & Turquoise card. As a result, they have graciously asked me to be the guest designer for challenge #26. Pink and purple are the challenge colors, and they are not just for unicorns and Disney princesses anymore. When I think of these two colors, I think of flowers. My husband loves to grow flowers in our backyard and lilies in our koi pond and they are most often pink and purple. I recently purchased a gorgeous 6x6" background stamp from My Favorite Things called Roses All Over Background. It is stunning, and a big departure from the adorable animal stamps I know them for. It is not new in their catalog; I've simply never seen it until recently. I stamped this on watercolor paper with Versamark (I got the best results from putting the paper down onto the stamp and pressing) and then heat embossing in white. I used only 2 of my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to put the color down. Then I used a water brush to spread it onto the rose pattern, even blending a little here and there. 

To let the beauty of the stamp and the colors shine through (and to not stray from pink and purple), I kept the sentiment short, sweet, and black and white. It needed more than a stamped phrase, but not much more. I don't yet own any script dies (soon, I promise), so I used my Silhouette. I used the Silhouette's offset feature to get the black background. I pop dotted everything off a white background and I was done. The card will fit into a 5.5" square envelope. 

CS: Gina K Pure Luxury Heavy Weight 110lb, Canson XL cold press watercolor paper, Bazzill Licorice Twist

Ink: Versamark 

Die: Silhouette used with font Bigfat Script from Fontspace.com 

Embossing Powder: Taylored Expressions Fine Detail White Embossing Powder

Watercolor: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers in Lilac 080 and Pink 025; Pentel waterbrush with largest tip

I just love the MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses stamps and dies, and when I found a sketch challenge from MFT and a color challenge on Color Throwdown, I had my plan. Putting the star together was a challenge. I used my Silhouette to cut the star. I used Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide to ink the sky, with a few well placed water droplets for stars. Next I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders dies to cut the hills. If I had thought it through, I simply would have used precut stars with the hillside borders, so everything would stack neatly. Instead I just used some scrap cardstock and glued it down, then trimmed the edges to fit the star shape base. That was not easy. I used light blue cardstock sprayed with pearl glimmer mist for the ice. I did precut this in a star shape, so that made fitting the lower half onto the star very easy. The sweet doggy and penguin are colored with alcohol ink markers. The sentiment is printed from my laser printer and backed with a slip of SU's Night of Navy. 

Ingredients:

CS: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb, Gina K Pure Luxury 110lb, Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Night of Navy (under sentiment), Seaside Spray (ice)

Stamps: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses 

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Stampin' Up! Smoky Slate (ice patch)

Dies: MFT Warm Hugs & Frosty Kisses, Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders

Alcohol Ink markers: Copic B41, B45, Dick Blick cool grays

Glimmer effects: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl, Clear Wink of Stella on trees

Embellishments: Stampin' Up! Elegant Faceted Gems

Challenges: MFT Sketch Challenge 557, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Kat Scrappiness September Challenge, Clever Dexter Challenge 21, Color Throwdown 658