I Am Daring To Get Dirty

This week is the annual Dare To Get Dirty Challenges at Splitcoaststampers.  It's a fun, completely immersive, creativity-challenging, reality-escaping week of stamping bliss!  While SCS , as it's affectionately known, has challenges of ALL kinds every day all year long, Dare To Get Dirty is a super-charged version of them that members get pretty pumped up about.  And deservedly so!  Some years I make all Christmas cards for the challenges and other years my focus is learning the new techniques.  

I've been a member of the site since 2004.  I credit the passionate and generous community there with growing my creativity.   They also have weekly tutorials that teach techniques and 3-D projects.  I showcased a project in this post here that I made from an SCS tutorial.  Good, honest people stamp over there and you should go check it out.  You should also check out my card for one of the challenges:

Yesterday, my card screamed summer.  This one definitely says FALL.  (Will I make a Christmas card tomorrow?  I don't know....come back to find out...).  Those colors of Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, and Garden Green with a touch of copper in the ribbon are so rich and comforting, my favorite feelings.  And that background!  

What a fantastic way to include a sentiment on your card front when there isn't room to stamp it separately!

And because I love to share, I'll show you a favorite simple technique of mine.  It's a go-to in my stamping design arsenal:

I did this to the Very Vanilla cardstock panel that the sunflower is adhered to.

I know many of you are summer lovers, but I adore cooler - cold, even! - weather.  This card has me longing for fall and all its glories like cross country, apple cider, and hoodies.  Feel free to convince me in the comments that I should love summer, though!

Here's the recipe for this rich card:

• Painted Harvest stamp set
• Thick Very Vanilla cardstock (5-1/2x8-1/2; 5x3-3/4; 2-3/4x2-3/4; scraps for sunflower)
• Cajun Craze cardstock (5-1/4x4; 3x3)
• Garden Green cardstock (scraps for leaves)
• Crushed Curry ink (sunflower; I turned my stamp and stamped three times to get a full looking sunflower)
• Garden Green ink (background, leaves)
• Early Espresso ink (sunflower center)
• Soft Suede ink (for sponging and speckles)
• Copper Trim
• Leaf Punch (designed to punch out leaf shapes in the Painted Harvest set)
• Paper Snips (for fussy cutting)
• sponge (to get that speckled look and to sponge background panel edges)
• Multipurpose Liquid Glue
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• Grid Paper
• Bone Folder

Thank you for taking the time to visit my little piece of the Internet today!  You are appreciated by me!