Back in the saddle again

It's been a whole week since I've had time to play in the InvisiblePinkCraftRoom. Last Monday I was enjoying Sis' graduation and after that me, my Sis and the Culinary Consultant have taken the Parental Unit for a week of sightseeing of Yorkshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire with a quick stop in Lincolnshire as well, clocking over 900 miles on the car.

So today we dropped the Parental Unit off at the airport, and after a bit of tidying up and loads of laundry (which dried in less than two hours thanks to the amazing weather we have been enjoying) I galloped my way to the craft room. It always takes a bit of browsing to get the good ol' Mojo going again, so I browsed my favourite craft challenges for inspiration. As I've probably trawled through half of this world's challenge blogs, it's not a coincidence that my little card is inspired by a record number of challenges. I'm entering the card in the following challenges

Addicted to Stamps and more - I was inspired by the purple and the basket of flowers

Addicted to CAS - the theme is Celebrate and I think it's always a good idea to have cards that you can use for different occasions when they come up, this would be perfect for a birthday but also for other reasons to celebrate. I love the Paper Smooches "Celebrate" sentiment stamp, the font is perfect and it's just the right size for almost any card

Color Throwdown - the colours for this card are from this challenge: Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry

Freshly Made Sketches (see sketch below) - this is my inspiration for the layout of the card

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenges - Emboss it

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - "Who's the Boss" i.e. embossing 

The two embossing challenges helped me come up with the background to the card, as I'm a bit of a CAS-o-phobe, and embossing on a white background leaves plenty of white space without seeming too "empty".

And last but not least, I'm also entering the card into Less is more where the theme is anything goes. Wow, it's going to take me the rest of the night to link up to all the challenge blogs... but boy does it feel good to be back in the Craft Room again!

I coloured the flower using markers and popped up the different layers using foam dots. I embossed the background and added some gems to the flowers. I heat embossed the sentiment in white to make it pop from the Bermuda Bay banner. Finally I added some stickles to the flower for a bit of extra dazzle.

Cardstock: Leonardo Workshop 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, scraps of Stampin' Up card in Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry
Stamps: Hero Arts Layered Flowers, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler 
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark, Stampin' Write markers in Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry
Other: Daisy Chain Embossing folder (free with the May issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft), Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, Tim Holtz distress stickles Mustard seed