STAMPlorations sketch challenge guest DT August

I'm so excited to be joining the talented STAMPlorations team for another guest DT spot, this time for the August sketch challenge. You may have seen my guest post for the July sketch challenge here, and after using a STAMPlorations digi for that card I decided to get a few of my favourite STAMPlorations sets. I've already made a few cards and I absolutely love the stamp sets I have (you can find a few cards here, here, here, here and here). When I saw the August sketch, I immediately saw doughnuts and macaroons. Ok, so I may see doughnuts whenever I close my eyes, but luckily it happened to work well with the sketch.

I am crazy about doughnuts. I stop by the Krispy Creme display in the store just to talk to the doughnuts... I know, I'm crazy. I made my own doughnuts a while ago, you can see them here. I actually made macaroons myself also, you can see them here. So I absolutely adore the Sugar Rush stamp set and had such a great time playing with it for this sketch.

This is probably as much mixed media as I'll ever do, but STAMPlorations always inspires me to at least try to get a bit more experimental. I started by creating the background using Tim Holtz distress paints and lots of spritzed water. I dabbed the paints onto a craft mat, spritzed with plenty of water and smudged the paper around in the colours, adding a dab here and there for more colour. Then I stamped a few sentiments from the Sugar Rush set onto the background, and heat embossed them in white. I stamped the macaroons and doughnuts in Staz-on, watercoloured using distress markers and a waterbrush and fussy cut them. For the sentiment I used a scrap of Tim Holtz Old Paper cardstock and stamped the sentiment in Vintage Photo and heat embossed in clear embossing powder. I also inked the edges of the banner in Vintage Photo. Last, I arranged everything onto the background, added a few sequins and added some Glossy Accents to the doughnuts to give a bit of gloss to the icing. Unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the images.

I decided to have a card photo-shoot outside instead of my usual windowsill location as it seems like summer is back, hopefully not only for a one day visit. And I decided I wanted to show off my gorgeous hydrangea as well, I absolutely adore it. I thought it matched the colour scheme of the card perfectly. 

I would like to share my sugar-filled creation with the following challenges:

In the Pink - Anything goes as long as it's pink

Addicted to stamps - Anything goes

Creative Moments - Anything goes with summer fun

Fab and Funky - No pattered paper

Try Stampin' - or not - on Tuesday - Inspiration picture

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour card, scrap of Tim Holtz Old Paper card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush

Inks: Tim Holtz distress markers and a waterbrush, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Tim Holtz distress paints Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Bundled Sage, Picket Fence and Broken China, Tsukineko Versamark, Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black

Other: Ranger clear embossing powder, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Glossy Accents, sequins from my stash