Challenge me!

I have come to be constantly visiting the blog of a very talented lady from the US. Her name is Gretchen Barron and she is sooooooo clever. Anyway she likes to challenge us and usually I don't have enough time in my days to get to them on time, but the moment I saw this sketch challenge I had to have a go.


I knew that it would go hand in hand with the colour challenge that had been set by the ESAD group. I was very concerned about these colours as I generally shy away from oranges, but I thought that I would try. The winner of this challenge gets to have their item displayed on the 'front' page of the ESAD group blog. How exciting would that be?



I decided to use the Baroque Motifs on the background and cut it up and alternate my colours. I did think that the Riding Hood Red and Old Olive would look great together - but I wanted to get away from 'christmas' colours. So I chose the Riding Hood Red and Pumpkin Pie. I stamped the image onto one sheet of both colours in Riding Hood Red ink and then dissected them into quarters. I did consider joining the alternates up to make the normal stamped image but felt that there was too much blank unstamped cardstock on the corners, so instead turned them around so the image was on the outer corner.


I then mounted these on Old Olive for one set, and because I had enough to make a second card, I mounted them on the opposite colour for the second set of images.

Because I was entering a competition to go onto the ESAD website, I thought that I would try to only use product that is from the current Idea Book and Catalogue. I couldn't quite find the right button embellishment, so decided to make my own. Yep, those are handmade buttons made using cardstock, a paper piercer, a punch and some Crystal Effects.

To make my centrepiece I inked up my Pocket Silhouette stamps using my marker pens. I then randomly stamped them onto my on point square. It started to look a bit overdone at the top and there were gaps where the stems were finishing. So rather than keep stamping and end up with something that looked like my 22 month old had stamped, I decided to use my sponge daubers to burnish the edges and bottom of the square. It filled the gap in nicely, and gave a bit more definition to my 'picture'.

So tell me what do you think?

Card: Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Markers: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Punch: 1/2" Circle
Ribbon: Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain
Stamp Sets: Pocket Silhouettes, Baroque Motifs

Till next time, happy stamping...