Freshly Made Sketches 144 and Color Throwdown 300

Today is extra special because it's the reveal of a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and I'm also doing a little guest spot at Color Throwdown.  Last week I was chosen as the featured stamper at CTD and so this week I get to play along with the design team over there as a guestie!  And how sweet that this is their 300th challenge!  That's quite an accomplishment and I'm honored to be a part of it!  Over at FMS, Karren is our hostess this week and she's designed a sketch for us with an ever-popular flag.  I admire Karren's fearless approach to card-making.  There doesn't seem to be any technique she's not willing to try and I always seem to learn a thing or two when I pop over for a visit!  Now on to my card.

I will admit I gave a little squeeeee of delight when I saw these colors.  First of all Baja Breeze is one of the best blues ever and I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Stampin' Up for retiring it.  And there's just something about how it looks with a nice navy blue and a true orange that speaks to me.  These colors also inspire me to make less "girly" card, which is not something I do very often, but need to do to stay sharp in the man-card department!

I softened the navy blue rectangle a bit by adding a piece of velllum over it, but I shifted it slightly off to the side so that you could see the blue peeking out.  Then I decided that making my own plaid paper was in order so I set about sponging away.  Finally, I die-cut several of these "hi" letters and glued them on top of one other so that I would have some dimension to my sentiment.  A button, some fiddled-with thread and voila - I was done!

So I owe a huge thank you to the ladies at Color Throwdown who let me join in their challenge this week.  I admire all of them so much and drool over their cards week after week!  And speak of drooling, I suspect  you are going to do some of that yourself when you check out the cards the Freshly Made Sketches design team made to inspire you this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper:  Baja Breeze, Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie (SU); Solar White (Neenah)

Ink:  Baja Breeze, Night of Navy, Pumkin Pie (SU)

Accessories:  Fishtail Flags STAX, Happy Hellos die (My Favorite Things); Woodland Park button (October Afternoon); thread