Beate's Challenge

A perfect ending to a perfect Mother's Day... I had some time to myself to finish up the card that I made for Beate's Fresh & Fun Challenge. Couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day! It started off by getting to "sleep in." I worked Saturday night 'til almost 2 am so sleeping until 10:30 was pure decadence! Mary Elizabeth had made my breakfast, consisting of a bowl of Lucky Charms (Rachel was scarfing up my marshmallows as I entered the room), a glass of milk and a cinnamon roll. She had drawn me a placemat and picked flowers for a pretty glass vase. What a sweet girl! Next, I received sweet cards from both Dan and the girls. They told me about my Mother's Day Gift- an ink caddy from Storage Unit's Ink. Apparently, those folks are pretty busy and it may be a few weeks before it arrives. Just some fun anticipation that should be good for me! Maybe my craft/homeschool room will be completed by the time it gets here! It was time to lunch so we headed for Applebee's (not my first choice BUT the girls love it and it is EASY with them.) After Applebee's we went back home and I got to take a NAP!!!!! When I, Queen for the Day, arose we headed to Target for fun family time looking around, then stopped on the way home for a carry-out supper. Yes, it was a special day! As far as Beate's challenge goes, I needed to kill a few birds with 1 stone. Not only did I need a challenge card but I needed a new baby boy card and a card using the Palette O Prints paper. So here it is. I absolutely loved the sketch that Beate shared with us! The colors were inspired by, yet again, Ribbon Originals Sweet Shop ribbon. That ribbon set goes so well with most of the POP colors. I used Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal and Almost Amethyst CS. The Whisper White border was created by first cutting the strip of CS then giving it a scalloped edge with the SU corner rounder. Afterwards, I ran in through my Cuttlebug to emboss the circles. I, then, used a pad to paper technique with Versamark, followed by Stampin' Pastels and sponge daubers to add a bit of coordinating color to some of the circles. I ran into a bit of a problem with the chalks wanting to smear when handled. I tried using an acyclic sealer but they continued to smudge. Finally, I ended up using clear embossing powder to set the pastels. I would have preferred a softer, matte look and next time I will probably try 2 coats of the acrylic sealer. I had not used the Loads of Love set in such a long time but thought it would make an appropriate boy card. I often forget about this set but on the rare occasion that I do use it, everyone seems to really like it. To add to the "baby" theme I used the bottles from A New Little Someone and used the Mask Technique so that it could be hauled in the bed of the truck. My sentiment was Warm Words "welcome" embossed with white embossing powder and to finish it off, (with the only non-SU product on the card) I added a little MM safety pin. This sketch if so versatile, I will definitely us it again! Well, back to stamping. Take care!