The challenge at Pals Paper Arts this week is a color challenge.  I must admit that one of the colors, Sahara Sand albeit a pretty plain neutral color is one of my favorites and Blackberry Bliss is definitely high on my list of favorite colors, too.   This being said I still did not have any great ideas for this challenge.

Usually when presented with a challenge that has me stumped, I try to choose some products that I have not used recently or at all.  That’s what I did with this card.  I pulled out the new Hearth & Home Framelits along with the Blooming Borders stamp set, which I have had for a pretty long time without using it once.

The card base is Sahara Sand and the second layer is also Sahara Sand, which I ran through the Big Shot with the Brick Wall embossing folder.  After it was embossed, I sponged the bricks with Soft Suede ink to give them a little dimension.  I really liked the way they turned out.

 I cut the window with the Hearth & Home framelits in Soft Suede cardstock for some contrast to the bricks.  Because the window is on the outside looking in, I wasn’t sure how to create a scene through the window. So I added a piece of Sahara Sand DSP to look like wallpaper and a small piece of a Tea Lace paper doilie to the top to look like a valance.  It probably would have stood out more if the DSP was a brighter color but I wanted to stick with the challenge colors as much as I could.

Then to create the window box of flowers, I stamped the leaves with Always Artichoke using one of the stamps from the Bordering Blooms stamp set.  The border is quite long so I cut it in half and used half to go across the box.  Then I cut the other half in three sections and adhered them to each end and one in the middle to give a cascading look.  I punched the  flowers with the small flower from Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and adhered a pearl to each center.

I like to stamp and embellish the inside of the card almost as much as I do the outside. The inside sentiment is from Acorny Thank You stamp set which is in the holiday catalog.  I used a small strip of Blackberry Bliss DSP from the Farmers Market collection and created the scallops with the largest die in the Squares Collection Framelits  then just layered a piece of Always Artichoke and Blackberry Bliss cardstock to create the border.

The envelope is prettied up with the border stamp on the front and the Farmers Market DSP  on the inside liner.

Here are the two main products that were sitting patiently on my shelf.  These are two really great items with endless possibilities.  Once the creative juices starting flowing, I could think of countless projects using both of these.

Thanks so much for looking in on my project.  I welcome your comments or am happy to answer any questions.

Sincerely,

Rosanne