Heading off to school

German Phrase of the Day: Schule ist ganz spass! - School is very fun! I hope this is a phrase Julia will repeat many times once she gets started at elementary school when we move back.

And speaking of school, here is Sophia with her little brother Cooper heading off to school together. Aren't they just TOOO cute? And did you know, you can now get Gift Certificates in the Paper Pretties Boutique? Now you can let your friends choose which Sophia (or other stamps) they love best!

I stamped Cooper first, then masked him with my eclipse masking tape before stamping Sophia on top so she would appear in the back. After stamping them with my brilliance black ink pad, I let the ink dry and then started coloring them with my prismacolor pencils. I used the colors from Kristina Werner's color inspiration challenge this week, and I really like them. Unfortunately, the Not Quite Navy looks VERY navy in the photo...but the colors from the pencils turned out looking great!

The CS colors used are Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Old Olive (prints dsp), Not Quite Navy, and stamper's select white. I stamped the circular greeting from Circle of Friendship twice, once with Old Olive, once with Not Quite Navy, then punched the center out to pop it up on a pop dot. There are actually 5 layers to that greeting...can you believe it? So not me! I rounded the one corner of my Sophia/Cooper layer to balance out the large circular element. These 2 actually remind me of a wonderful book Julia has called Simon and Adele, a story about a girl and her little brother walking home from school in Paris where he leaves, loses, and forgets things all over the city on their way home. It's a wonderful book, especially if you'll be taking a child to Paris because it covers so much of the city.

Supplies: (all supplies from SU! unless noted)
Stamps: Look out World and Back to School Sophia by Paper Pretties
CS: Stamper's Select White, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Old Olive prints dsp, Not Quite Navy
Ink: Brilliance black, Old Olive , Not Quite Navy
Acc: circle punches, scalloped punch, corner rounder punch, prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps

TFL!

Color Challenged Stem Sillhouettes

German Phrase of the Day: Du hast immer Probleme. = You always have problems. I definitely always HAD problems with Groovy Guava...but it's starting to grow on me!

For last month's Diva Sister Swap, the color challenge was Vanilla, chocolate chip, and groovy guava. I HATE groovy guava. I mean...how do you use this color?? I hemmed and hawed, and then remembered the beautiful sample using Stem Silhouettes in the catalog and thought I could try that stamp but have the blossoms guava. So, I inked it up with guava, colored over the stems and leaves with old olive and stamped. Hmmm...not too bad. I sponged the edges with creamy caramel first, then lightly with chocolate chip, and mounted it on some chocolate chip, and again onto some guava (all layers sponged...of course!)

Now, for the main part of the card. I decided to go with three layers again, starting with a chocolate chip base, then guava, and then more vanilla (stamped with linen background using creamy caramel) To finish off the card, I used some wide chocolate grosgrain under the main image, and added 2 antique brads to the lower right corner of the main image. They seemed to ground it a little more for me. Finally, I needed a greeting to balance out the brads, so I stamped From The Heart at the top in Chocolate Chip ink. Ta-da! I think Groovy Guava is starting to grow on me! Perhaps next time I should add a tiny bit of sparkle to the flowers either with some of my mini rhinestones, or a spica glitter pen (just ordered one from Ellen's store!!) Definitely need to make more cards with this set, it sat neglected for TOO long!

Supplies: (all supplies are SU! unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Stem Silhouettes, Holidays & Wishes
CS: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Old Olive marker
Acc: Antique brads, 5/8" chocolate grosgrain ribbon

TFL!
-Jana