We Love Stamping February Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. Where we love to see you showcase your stamping. This is the first of two posts today as it is the card chain challenge reveal today too.

Faith has chosen our theme this month:

**CAS**

OR

**Anything Goes**

I do love CAS cards, but I don't feel as though I have been making many these days, so I did enjoy making this one. I have always liked the look of a blended panel with simple stamping over it, so I decided it was high time for me to give the technique another go.

I chose a smooth white card to blend my Catherine Pooler inks onto. I used 'orange peel' and 'apricot' to get the ombre look. I stamped the flower stem in CP midnight black ink (Altenew wildflower garden) and stamped the flowers in CP flame. I decided to add interest by die cutting the edge (Heffy Doodle edge dies) and then mounted the panel onto a coloured card base (Hunkydory adorable scorable mattastic). The sentiment is from Alex Syberia expressing gratitude stamp set. I stamped the same flower on the insert and envelope for a coordiated look. I do love it when everything matches.

You will definitely want to enter this month as there are prizes of stamps and stencil from Lavinia. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is seen somewhere on your card front, it no longer needs to be the main focus. Please also mention the products used. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anything goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 26th February.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Of course I didn't just make one. Here is the second card I made using this technique. I don't think it worked quite as well as the first one and it was more complicated because I had to mask the flower. I have used CP inks 'with an olive' and 'lemongrass' and the flower is from Altenew's pen sketched flowers stamp set.

I used drawing gum to mask the flower, simply because I saw it on my shelf and thought it would be quicker than fussy cutting a mask. It worked pretty well, but there was a tiny bit of ink on one of the flowers so I decided to get a yellow zig watercolour pen and add a little here and there on the flowers - it kind of worked. This time I mounted the panel on a yellow coated card base. I did use a few tiny gems on both cards.

What do you think? I would love to know which you prefer.

I am also sharing the first card at:

CAS on Friday - #301 Flowers

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.