Hi Stampers, welcome back.  My week is all messed up thanks to classes and appointments so we will catch up on some shares today.

First, Late Night Stampers Design Team Challenge this week is "BLING"  I'm kind of not much for bling, so this was a little outside my comfort zone.  I was having a "Blank Brain" day too, so I decided to combine it with the Mojo Monday Sketch, #129

Mojo129Sketch
I love these sketches, they give you a starting point and I really liked the layout of this one

so here is what I did.

Flower fancy stamp set - red and black
and here is how I got there.

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I heat embossed the flowers from the FLOWER FANCY STAMP SET with Black Embossing powder onto Whisper White Card stock

This piece is 2-1/2 square,

matted to 2-5/8 square of Basic Black

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I decided to color them with my Stamp-n-write markers.

I colored the whole flower with real red, then I went back and colored each petal again with the red, and while still damp, I added a line of Chocolate Chip down the side I wanted to shadow, then,

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I went back and blended it in with my red marker.

This is a great way to add depth and shadows to your work and the brown blends nicely with darker colors

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Next, I took a piece of the Bride Specialty paper (page 158)

and I inked it using my Real Red reinker and a sponge.

See how the embossed design shows through.

I wiped it with a damp baby wipe after I finished.

I got this idea from Miss Carole'Anne, and I used it in December too on my Vintage Vogue card  CLICK HERE.  It is another form of "Resist"(meaning the embossed image resists absorbing the ink or paint).

this piece is 3-3/4 wide by 3-1/2 long

matted in Basic Black, 3-5/8 wide and 3-3/8 long.

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Next I used my Big Shot and my two tags die (page 198)

and cut out tags in basic black.

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and created faux stitching around the edge with my White Gel Pen

(page 190)

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Here are my pieces all ready to go.

The card is Basic Black, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, score and fold at 4-1/4

Whisper White Mat – 4 x 5-1/4, this has been embossed on the Big shot, but you can't see it in this picture.

The Black Tag, I wrapped a piece of the Black and White Stripped ribbon around it, then did another ribbon application on the top with the new Real Red Satin Ribbon,

Holding all that down is the base for a BUILD A BRAD,

oh, and I added some round clear Rhinestone brads to the center of the flowers.

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I used a scrap of the bride paper I inked to punch the image for the brad I'm building, 

then covered it with the sticky dome from the Build a Brad Kit

 (page 179 – these are very cool).

There you go

AND

Here is the other set I created last weekend.

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I used my new watercolor technique

(makes the prettiest paper towel (bottom left)).

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and turned them all into cards.  Swap cards are usually only the face of the card, so those are laying down, the rest are all thank you cards.

This technique is "resist" as well and that was our other challenge for the swap this month.

Ok, I'm off to finish even mor
e projects, I might even be caught up by the end of this week…..but don't bet on it, haha…

Thanks for stopping in and don't forget to leave me a comment before you go, or sign up to become a facebook fan (right sidebar of my blog has a link)  to qualify for the blog candy that I will be drawing for on the 15th.