Congrats Laura!!

Laura at Scrapnextrass - I'm a huge fan - is celebrating 300,000 hits! I can't even imagine 300,000 hits.... maybe if I hit the "view blog" button enough times after I make a new post, then I'll get there. Just kidding! Laura has incredible talent... her cards are absolutely beautiful, and I'm sure she will be celebrating 400,000 very soon. To celebrate she has challenged readers to CASE any card in her gallery. I have spent hours on numerous occasions just browsing around and there are so many that I want to try, but when I saw this card yesterday, I had to use it. I have this set of botanical stamps by Scrappy Cat that I haven't found a good use for, so I actually tried to copy Laura's stamped image using my botanicals and a flower stamp by Rhonna Farrer. Here's what I came up with.

Part of the challenge was to change at least three things, so mine were
* No sentiment
* No ribbon/rose - brads instead
* Color scheme - i used green, brown and a touch of purple
The picture looks blurry, but it's not... the card looks blurry in person too. I stamped the image and colored it three times before I tried this one. Since I'm still new to these water colors, and I need a tutorial on staying in the lines, I decided to go with the distressed look. I stamped the image three times each, moving it slightly each time, and then colored in the leaves with a light green, dark green and brown, not paying attention to any particular line. I layered these colors lightly and then used the water pen to blend them. I liked the way this turned out much better than my attempts at straight lines. :) Enjoy! And be sure to check out Laura's card if you haven't already!