Mojo Monday 250 + Color Dare

Oh! It felt so good to be back at work in my Stamp Pad! I was supposed to be working on a project for my team meeting on Monday, but I couldn't resist getting one of the new stamp sets we got at convention a little inky. I also had the new Slate Polka Dot ribbon and Silver glitter ribbons calling out to me... This stamp set won't be available until August 1st, but it's got some cool features I'm very excited about! 

See the graduated shading on the leaves and flowers? This is a two step stamp, meaning that you stamp the outline, then you stamp a solid stamp (usually the same ink but in second generation) to quickly color it in. However, on this stamp, the shading is built into the second step - I stamped all of this first generation, and the shading is beautiful! I don't know how they did that, but it was so fast and simple. I used my exacto knife to lift up some of the petals on the large flower, and the smallest flower was just cut out of the middle of an extra large flower image I stamped and colored. The background was stamped with the 2nd step flower shading image in Sky ink. My stitches are faux - just emboss, sand, and  pierce (click here for my post on this fun technique!) I filled the flowers with Sparkles as a finishing touch.

I used the sketch from Mojo Monday for this card. How cute are those banners hanging across the bottom? I am so happy about the new glitter ribbon. It's very easy to trim into shapes, and so sparkly! I also used the color combo of Pear, Sky, and Smoothie from Color My Heart Color Dare. I've never used these colors together, but it's such a happy and light combo!

Speaking of colors, one of the big announcements at convention was that 24 of our trusty shades are retiring!  Starting August 1st we'll be carrying a line of 42 shades of coordinating dye and pigment inks, alcohol markers, reinkers, and cardstocks + B&T patterns. I'm excited for the change, though I'll miss a lot of the retiring colors. It's not too late to stock up or finish your collection, though supplies are running low on some of these colors. Here's a linked list of the retiring colors, just in case you need it...

Amethyst

Baby Pink

Brown Bag

Dutch Blue

Garden Green

Garnet

Grey Flannel

Grey Wool

Heavenly Blue

Holiday Red

Key Lime

Lilac Mist

Moonstruck

Pansy Purple

Parchment

Petal

Spring Iris

Sunflower

Sunkiss Yellow

Sunny Yellow

Taffy

Tulip

Vanilla Cream

Vineyard Berry

Goodbye, old friends! I'm all stocked up on my faves like Dutch Blue, Moonstruck, and Tulip, but I'll miss you a lot...at least until I start stamping with my 40 new pigment inks and lovely new pairs of alcohol markers...