SCT Summer Issue Challenge

Hello friends! I'm so excited to be guest designing for the SCT summer issue challenge week! Doesn't this inspiration board just scream summer? There's so much inspiration in this image and for my cards today, I was inspired by the flamingos and leaves in the bottom left picture.

I really liked that black background in the image on the left, but I was also drawn to the bright colors in the upper right, so I decided to create a card design that could have different backgrounds inspired by those two images. 

I started by stamping the birds, leaves, and flowers from the More Jungle Littles and Silly Birds stamp sets from Hello Bluebird. The birds went perfectly with the inspiration board! The images are all stamped onto white cardstock with Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink since it is Copic friendly. I colored the images with Copic markers, and then die cut them with their coordinating dies. I made sure to stamp, color, and die cut two of each image that was used on the card since I planned to make two cards. Creating two or more cards with the same design is also a great way to build up your card stash.

Once I created all of the images, I set them aside to start working on the backgrounds. To mimic the black and white design in the inspiration board, I used the Plaid Stencil from Lawn Fawn and distress oxide inks. I used Black Soot along the upper left and right edges and ink blended that with Hickory Smoke to give the background some more depth. After I ink blended the background, I used the Outside In Stitched Rectangle die to add stitching around the edge of the cardstock panel before adhering it to the card base.

I used the Plaid Stencil to ink blend the background for the second card, but I used brighter colors. For this card, I used Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Twisted Citron, Shabby Shutters, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass distress oxide inks. I also die cut the stitching around the edge and attached the background to a white card base.

I always like to layout my images on the card to help me decide how to arrange them, but once I settled on a layout, I attached all of the images with foam tape. After attaching the images, I heat embossed a sentiment from the Hello Bluebird's Cheery Greetings stamp set with white embossing powder onto black cardstock, trimmed around the sentiment, and attached it with foam tape. The grass, leaves, and sentiment along the bottom help to ground the birds so that they don't look like they're floating on the background.

Have you ever created two card with the same design but different background colors? Give it a try and see how it changes the feel of your card. I can't wait to see what you create and I can't wait to see how the inspiration board inspires you!

Supplies: Below is a list of supplies used for my project. Affiliate links are provided at no extra cost to you. Your support allows me to provide you with more inspiration. Thank you!

80lb White Shop at: LF	Black Licorice Cardstock Shop at: LF	White Embossing Powder Shop at: LF	Embossing Ink Pad Shop at: LF
Jet Black Premium Ink Pad Shop at: LF	Outside In Stitched Rectangle Stackables Shop at: LF	Distress Oxide - Black Soot Shop at: LF | EH	Distress Oxide - Broken China Shop at: LF | EH
Distress Oxide - Mustard Seed Shop at: LF | EH	Distress Oxide - Scattered Straw Shop at: LF	Distress Oxide - Spun Sugar Shop at: LF | EH	Distress Oxide - Twisted Citron Shop at: LF | EH
Distress Oxide - Tumbled Glass Shop at: LF | EH	Distress Oxide - Worn Lipstick Shop at: LF | EH	Distress Oxide - Hickory Smoke Shop at: EH	Plaid Stencils Shop at: LF