Happiness is...

Hello, Stampin' Friends! I'm back with a quick CAS card I whipped up for my Team swap at our monthly meeting tonight. I love team meeting night - my girls come over and we'll make a card (I'll post that one tomorrow!), swap sample cards, and chat about all things CTMH, stamping, and scrapbooking! I've been busting out behind the scenes artwork for volume 5 (and posting sneak peeks to my Instagram/FB page), and I'm really almost ready to release it. I have to do another double check on the For Always album - it's a LOT of flowers to count, lol. I hope y'all think it was worth the wait!

Now this card is CAS, but that doesn't mean there's no dimension to it! I used the March SOTM, which includes different sizes of fabulous 2 step floral rose images. You stamp the bottom layer in a lighter color, then line up the top stamp (Thank you, clear Acrylix!) to add the details in a darker color. Here I did a kissing technique for the first part of the two step stamping. I inked a large polka dot background image (retired) in Honey ink and set it ink side up on my table top. Then I inked the bottom solid image in Creme Brule and stamped it off before laying the inked solid image onto the inked polka dot stamp picking up a bit of texture in the solid stamp. Then you stamp the "kissed" image onto your project. To finish the 2 step process I then inked the detail stamp in Creme Brule and layered it over the lighter dotted base stamp. Finally I used a clear glitter gel pen to outline the detail stamp for a tiny bit of shimmer.

I used a sketch from Retro Sketches to build this card. The challenge this week is to choose your favorite sketch from their archive of awesome card sketches, so I chose #47, which I missed the first go around when it was the sketch of the week but really loved.

I was also inspired by the color challenge at Play Date Cafe this week. I chose Creme Brule, Slate, and Outdoor Denim to match their challenge colors. I stamped the sentiment in the Outdoor Denim and then stamped over it with my favorite stamp from In The Background in second generation ink so that the sentiment would still shine through.

Finally, I'm linking this up to the Heart 2 Heart Clean and Simple Challenge.

You still have a couple of days to vote in the Practical Scrappers Top Ten Card contest. If you've voted in the past, each round requires a new set of votes, so I'd really appreciate it if you can find it in your heart to vote (for me or the other cards) one last time!