Happy Anniversary, ColourQ!

Hello!  It's my third post for today, so please scroll down to see my samples for the Curtain Call Color Challenge and the Practicing Creativity sneak peek!

I am just squeaking in at the last minute, but I couldn't let this week's ColourQ challenge pass me by.  Arielle and the Royal Court Design Team have been bringing us fabulous color combos and samples every week for a year, and while I haven't been playing since the beginning, this was one of the first challenge blogs I discovered when I started blogging and I try to play as often as possible!

The challenge this week was a little different, as it includes a sketch to follow and the choice of any of the past color combos.  I chose #22, which includes some of my favorite shades of blue and green.

My card was also inspired by my daughter this week!  She loves to draw and color, and lately she's been drawing blueberry bushes for some reason.  So, I decided to stamp and heat emboss an image from Turning a New Leaf and adorn it with blue gems.  I've seen this "out of the box" stamping/die cut technique several times but had never tried it.  I admit it was tricky and mine didn't turn out as neat as other examples I've seen, but I like the effect.

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! (Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Certainly Celery), Papertrey Ink (white)

Patterned paper:  Stampin' Up! (Elegant Soiree)

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink (Turning a New Leaf, Background Basics:  Text Style, Signature Greetings)

Ink:  Stampin' Up! (Certainly Celery), Papertrey Ink (Enchanted Evening), Clearsnap (Antique Pewter, Dune)

Tools:  Spellbinders (circle, Labels 1 dies), ProvoCraft (embossing folder)

Accessories:  Michaels (rhinestones), Stampendous (embossing powder)

The image is stamped with Certainly Celery, but for some reason my ink looks a little on the gray side.  The Celery mat is stamped with text in PTI's Enchanted Evening.  I used some more of SU!'s Elegant Soiree dsp, and the Navy cardstock is embossed with leaves from a ProvoCraft folder.

One last thing I'll point out is that I wanted to ink the edges of the white cardstock because they looked a little stark, so I mixed two different Clearsnap inks to get something as close to Sahara Sand as I could.

Okay, I'm off to post before the link expires!  Happy anniversary to everyone at ColourQ, I'm looking forward to many more weeks of inspiration!