Gray skies are gonna clear up . . .

. . . put on a happy face!!!

That's what this card says! I just can't help but smile when I see those little handmade orange camellias on my branch. :)

I made this card today to honor a good Splitcoast friend, Pam (aka pam124 on SCS). She was named Queen for the Day in Splitcoast's QFTD game. I usually shy away from challenges (such as SCS's Featured Stamper challenge and QFTD) that require CASE-ing another stamper's creations. I'm just too intimidated!! But the planets were in alignment today, and a CASE just fell into place. Here is the card from Pam's gallery that I CASEd:
I changed the image, color, and orientation, but kept all the basic elements of the sketch, the stitching, the eyelets in the corners, the ribbon down the middle, and a circular element in the corner. My circular sentiment ("gray skies are gonna clear up") was computer generated. The felt clouds are die cuts I received in a RAK from another SCS member.

I am having such fun making my own little paper roses and camellias from my collection of basic 5-petal basic flowers from the Prima Got Flowers? line. I followed this fabulous tutorial to make mine. So easy!

So here are the other challenges I'm playing in with this card:

• Play Date Cafe Challenge: PDCC65
• Cute Card Thursday: Recipe of 1, 2, 3 in any combo. I used 1 huge circle brad, 2 felt clouds, and 3 handmade orange camellias
• 4 Crafty Chicks: another Recipe challenge: Ribbon, Brads, Patterned Paper
• Simon Says Stamp: Bingo! Include any three items that are in a straight line on the challenge Bingo card: I chose the diagonal: Brads, Flowers, Ribbon
• Papertake Weekly: ribbons and/or pearls (I went with ribbons this time)
• City Crafter Challenge for week #40: Handmade Flowers
• Gray is the New Black Challenge in the Moxie Fab World: to use gray in an innovative way. I once read on the blog of a stamper/landscape artist that we stampers usually get it all wrong when we stamp trees--we use brown to stamp the trunks and branches of trees and bushes when, if you look closely in nature, they really are gray. So, I guess my innovation with gray is using it to represent the branches of my camellia bush accurately!! But I also had fun using gray to tone down my vivid oranges and olives, using gray for my felt clouds, giving my layers subtle frames with gray stitching, and even using the word "gray" in my sentiment. It was all such fun!

Well, we weathered our snow day with no troubles today. Now we are preparing for the deep freeze (overnight lows below zero for a couple of days) and another potentially major snowstorm midweek. Yikes!!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blissfully clearing skies!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Schlosser Designs Boughs
Paper: MFP snowstorm CS, SU old olive CS, SU basic gray DSP
Ink: Palette charcoal, SU old olive
Accessories: MFT Cloud Dienamics (RAK from a fellow SCSer), 1.5" circle punch, SU boho blossoms punch, Crop-A-Dile, orange eyelets, sewing machine, sponge, orange grosgrain ribbon, swirled satin ribbon, foam tape, basic Prima flowers, SU silver circle brad
Techniques: machine stitching, sponging, handmade flowers