Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights Challenge

I'm joining Ellen Hutson's Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights Challenge just under the wire.
This week, the challenge is based on this photo for inspiration.

Here's my card. I was inspired by the black stripes and all that gold.

The stripes were made with My Favorite Things Striped Background,
inked with Black Soot Distress Ink and sprayed with water, then stamped on
watercolor card stock. 

The gold blooms and leaves were die cut from gold foil card stock, adhered to vellum
and trimmed out. I gold embossed the sentiment on a vellum banner and
finished off the card with a few gold sequins.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

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CAS(E) this Sketch 116

Here's CAS(E) this Sketch 116 brought to you by our teammate Leigh.

And here's my take on it.

 

Using Post It Tape, I masked off a square on the card and ink distressed
with Picked Raspberry and Wild Honey Distress inks, then spattered some water
over the inking. I attached a Hero Arts butterfly and gold embossed
a sentiment from WPlus9. Some gold sequins finished off the card.

Please visit CAS(E) this Sketch to see how my teammates interpreted the sketch
and join us if you can. Link up your project(s) by Thursday, April 2nd,
and you could be our next guest designer.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Celebrating With Cacti

Have you seen cacti and succulents popping up in blogland?
Today I'm sharing a card with Hero Arts new Stamp Your Own Cactus set
paired with one of my favorite coloring mediums--watercoloring.

I stamped assorted cacti and containers with Versamark and gold embossed the images.
Hero Arts daubers were dabbed on a work surface and mixed with water, then used

to color in all the images. If you're ever in a pinch for watercolors, consider daubers.

The colors and results are quite amazing!

I'm especially pleased with how the containers turned out. I added some gold
and green for a mossy look that gives them a bit of texture and dimension.
The cacti were "grounded" with a white embossed sentiment strip.

And a heads up, if you entered Hero Arts Nature Challenge,
the winners will be announced on the blog this Friday so stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by today!

HERO ARTS PRODUCTS USED:

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Paper Smooches Hello Butterflies

I'm entering a card in Paper Smoohes Sparks Challenge just under the wire,

with this week's challenge being ANYTHING GOES.

Here's my "all dies" card with the new Butterfly Duet dies and ink daubers.

I was pleasantly surprised with the vibrancy from Hero Arts daubers.

They look just as bright as watercolors and the best part is, the inks are just dabbed
onto the die cuts. I sprayed some white ink on the butterflies for a bit of interest

and adhered them to the card. A die cut sentiment finished it off.

Thanks for stopping by!

* * *
(ETA: My card was chosen as a Featured Player at Paper Smooches!)

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