The Royal Court

Hi Stamping Friends!

Well today's the day you've all been waiting for!  It's the most exciting stamping news I've had in forever.  Drumroll please...  Arielle Gordon of the COLOUR Q  color challenge blog has asked me to be on her Design Team called The Royal Court!  How fun is that?!  I was so completely shocked and honored when she emailed me.  And of course I said YES!!  I've always dreamed of being on a DT but never thought it would actually happen.  And then I was even more amazed when I saw the awesomely talented ladies who are on the team with me.  Let me tell you, I was quite a wreck trying to come up with my first DT challenge card.  Just ask my hubby!  This is a fabulous group of stampers.  And I'm still in awe that I was asked to be a part of all this wonderful stamping goodness!

Now on to the good stuff... stamping!  One thing I've always loved about Arielle's color challenges is her choice of inspiration pieces.  She picks out the most fantastic, colorful pictures.  Here's this week's challenge cQc #26

Aren't those shoes just the cutest?!  So soft and girlie.  I really wanted to do an Easter card with these fun colors, but I just couldn't get that peacock image out of my mind.








So here's the FIRST card I came up with, the one I finally emailed to Arielle:

You know how much I love to combine my challenges, so this uses the Fall To Layout FTL84 from the CLEAN & SIMPLE blog.  The peacock image comes from the Very Thankful set.  When you buy this set from your SU! demonstrator, Stampin' Up! will donate $2 to the Ronald Mc Donald's Charities.  SU! has contributed nearly $800,000 to RMHC over the years.  I wasn't really thrilled with this card, so I went blog hunting for another sketch challenge and this is the SECOND card that I made:

This card uses the sketch from Amy Rysavy's blog PRARIE, PAPER & INK  AMYRS77.  While it is a very fun sketch, this card was a bit too busy for me.  Too many flowers and scallops and polka dots or something.  I dyed my Lavendar Lace Corduroy Button by using my Craft Ink Spots.  So again, I went back to blog hunting and found another sketch.  (Aren't you glad there are so many sketches to choose from?!)  And this is the THIRD card I came up with:

I finally got that Easter card in there!  This card uses the SFYTT sketch from Jen del Muro's blog I{HEART}2STAMP.  Again, another fabulous sketch, but for some reason it just wasn't working for me.  I think it's the DSP, just a little too busy.  The lily image comes from the Fifth Avenue Floral set.  That's when I decided to send Arielle the FIRST card and just roll with.  I've got quite a few more weeks to figure out this design team stuff.  BUT... I still thought I had to improve my original card, so I took a few things off and added a few things and now it looks like this:

Now I know what you're thinking (probably the same thing as my hubby!)... really lady?!  It's just a color challenge!  Why all the fuss?!  But man!  Have you seen the other talent on this team?!  I've got to make par, give it my all, earn my bread and butter, or something like that.  I need perfection people!  And yet, after FOUR tries, I'm still not satisified.  I think this time I just simply tried too hard.  I hope (and so does my family!) that next week isn't near as taxing as this week was.  Even if it is, I'm just happy to be doing some "fun" stamping again.  The "stamping for no reason" kind of stamping.  Not for a stamp camp or hostess club or a customer, but just for creativities sake.  Woo!  Hoo!

Well, thanks for sticking around for this awfully long and involved post.  I promise they won't all be like this.  And I'm really not that much of an over acheiver.  But I am a first born, so I do have my issues!  I hope you can play along with us this week.  I'm sure it won't take you near as many tries as it did me.  :)  And be sure to visit the other members of The Royal Court.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!