Bold, Bright Blooms and Bouquets

Today's featured stamper challenge features the work of Jenn Balcer. Her gallery is filled with bright, vivid colors, so I knew that would be the look I would be going for during today's challenge. The cards of Jenn's that caught my eye most often were the bold floral ones, so that's what I decided to work with.

This card uses Mixed Bouquet. I really wasn't that excited by this set until I used it at a few shoebox swaps and saw how very versatile it really is. So, I ended up trading for it through the SCS B/S/T forum, got the set, and haven't used it until today. How sad is that?

The card was inspired by Jenn's card here.

Her card used the emboss resist technique. I used the crayon resist technique instead. While her card has a softer look from the white embossing, mine is a little more bold. I ended up changing the orientation of the card and size and position of the sentiment because I didn't want to cover up too much of the pretty panel. When I went back to find the link to Jenn's Mixed Bouquet card, I noticed that the card I made was really similar to another one in Jenn's gallery, too--I swear, I didn't notice that one at all before!

The second card I did was inspired by this card here. I kept the layout pretty much the same as in Jenn's original version and just changed a few details, including the stamp set and colors.

Jenn's version used Elegant Eggplant, Cool Caribbean, and Certainly Celery. I decided to switch the card base to black and pair it with another bold color. So, I settled on red and black. I don't have the Big Blooms stamp set that Jen used so I substituted Polka-Dot Posies, another set I didn't "need" until I tried it out at a shoebox swap (hmm, notice a pattern here?).

I added a few extra embellishments, including some red ribbon at the top of the stamped panel and a button at the center of the flower.

Materials Used (Top Card):

Mixed Bouquet and Mixed Greetings stamp sets, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink, Pink Passion, and Green Galore Classic inks, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Pixie Pink, Glossy White, and Shimmery White cardstock, silver cord, sponge daubers, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); turquoise grosgrain, pink/purple organdy (Michaels)

Materials Used (Bottom Card):

Polka-dot Posies and In My Thoughts stamp sets, Real Red and Basic Black Classic inks, Real Red, Basic Black, and Whisper White cardstock, dimensionals, Basic Black and Real Red grosgrain, mat pack and paper piercing tool, glue dot (Stampin' Up!); clear button (Foo-fa-la)