Ombre feathers and why I need a bigger desk

I'm baaack! Ok, so maybe you didn't even notice I haven't been around in ages. I have an excuse... First it was work, and this weekend was the Culinary Consultant's birthday, so we spent some quality time with our favourite peeps, not leaving any time for the craft room. Me, the Culinary Consultant, my Sis and his Sis spent Saturday in Thetford forest climbing up trees, doing a bit of tight-rope walking from tree to tree and riding zip lines. It was really scary as some of it was really high up, but we had a blast. I have to admit I chickened out from doing one of the really big Tarzan swings where you just jump off a platform high up a tree, and then swing at full speed into a net. The Culinary Consultant and his Sis took it all in a stride and did great! 

Today, after Sis drove off home (and our guest room is once again empty, sad face...) I spent some time in the craft room, creating a huge bunch of stuff that went straight into the bin. Apparently my crafting muscles have atrophied. I pretty much pulled out every stamp set and die I owned. They are all spread across my crafting desk, you can see what it looks like... Every single thing I made was horrible. So I took a break, read a few chapters, had some cake and ended up having a bit of a nap as well (our sofa is way too comfortable). 

After my nap I decided to try again. I pushed all the crap on my desk to the side to make a teeny tiny little space in the middle of the desk. Stuff started falling off the edge of the desk... Hence the need for a bigger desk. And I guess the earlier messing around counted as warm-up, and I was finally able to create a card that wasn't too horrible.

My card was inspired by the colour combo over at Colour Me...! and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the ombre challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. Not one, not two but three different ombre elements! The background, the feathers and the sentiment. I was also inspired by the tic-tac-toe board over at CAS-ual Fridays. My choice is diagonally Stitching, Spritzing and Embossing. Stitching is the faux stitching around the panel, there is some spritzing in the background I did by flicking a watercolour brush, and embossing is the white heat embossing on the feathers.  For the background, I was also inspired by The Friday Mashup, where one of the themes is to create a background filled with colour. 

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand card
Inks: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Scripty Hugs die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder