Happy Birthday Kelly!

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Nikki.  We had a Christmas bake day at her place - it was so much fun!  We managed to get three different cookies baked (gingerbread, brown sugar cookies, red velvet cookies) and also decorated the gingerbread men before I headed home.  It was so great to be able to spend some one-on-one time with Nikki!  And my grand-doggie, Penny, was so well behaved the whole time ... she's so adorable!

Today I'm staying home and getting some chores done ... but not before participating in the SCS Challenges (Tuesday's Color challenge - cherry cobbler, crumb cake, always artichoke and Wednesday's sketch challenge).  I combined the two challenges and created a lovely rose card that I am giving to a friend for her birthday.  Hope you like.

Here's the sketch for today - SC363 from SCS:

I "flipped" the sketch vertically ... here's my version:

Stamps:  Embrace Life, En Francais (SU!)

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White (SU!)

Ink:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler (SU!)

Accessories & Tools:  sponges, Sizzix Square Lattice embossing folder, Cuttlebug Floral Screen embossing folder, Big Shot, sticky strips, Tombow glue, glue dots, and dimensionals

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I ran a piece of Always Artichoke cardstock through my Big Shot with the Floral Screen embossing folder.  I sponged Always Artichoke ink on top of the embossing to highlight.  I used sticky strips to mount it onto a card base of Crumb Cake.

I ran a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock through my Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I sponged Crumb Cake ink on top of the embossing to highlight.  I used sticky strips to mount it on top of the embossed Always Artichoke panel.

I stamped the En Francais with Soft Suede ink onto a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock and then sponged more Crumb Cake ink all over the panel.  I mounted this panel onto a thin frame of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and set aside.

For the rose, I stamped the flower in Cherry Cobbler ink onto Whisper White cardstock three times.  I sponged Cherry Cobbler ink over all three roses and then cut them out as follows (1 complete flower, one with the center two pieces, one with the single center piece).  I sponged Soft Suede ink around all edges of all pieces of the roses to give them an aged look.  I mounted the pieces on top of each other (starting with largest and ending with smallest) using rolled up glue dots (this is the paper tole technique).  The rose now has lots of depth and interest.  I cut a very thin piece of Always Artichoke cardstock for the stem and glued it on top of the En Francais panel.  I then glued the rose on top of the tip of the stem.

I mounted the main panel onto the card front, popping it up with dimensionals to add depth.