Patterned Paper

HI! I was checking out Nichole's blog this morning and she had created a little "challenge" for us to try out. She made the most beautiful card by creating her own patterned paper by using the Polka Dot Basics set along with the new Pond Life set..you can see it here... She wanted us to create our own patterned paper by layering it over another background pattern. I am always looking around for inspirations, ideas and color combinations in my daily life. I have found the best place to find these are in all the catalogs I get daily in the mail. They are great to look at because they show the "in" colors, as well as the "in" patterns and prints of the season.. It is so fun to see a new color and pattern set in a catalog and then turn it into a card. Well, I did find some inspiration from the new Land of Nod catalog..They have the best prints and colors that I just fall in love with every time I see the catalog!! There are several bedding sets in this catalog that reminded me a lot of the new stamp set Garden of Life. So, that is where I started today with this card. I used Spring Moss Cardstock(my favorite) and stamped the solid polka dots from the Polka Dots Basic set in Seascape Palette Ink. I know Nichole had used this set also with her patterned paper..it's just such a useful set to use with cards..it really adds a lot to them. I then took one of the flowers from Garden of Life and stamped it over every other polka dot as the centers of my flower using Lavender Sachet Ink. I really like how the layering turned out. I then wanted to add something unique to the actual flowers, so I took a piece of cream colored vellum and cut 3 small scalloped circles with my Nestabilities . I stamped the same flower image in Lavender Sachet onto the vellum and placed those on the 3 center flowers on the cardstock. I then stamped the stems with Jardin Moss Ink and cut and placed those. I wanted to keep the focal point rather simple because of the craziness of the patterned paper. For my sentiment, I cut a strip of lavender cardstock and scalloped the edges and also cut a smaller strip of Spring Moss where I placed the sentiment. I finished this strip off with 2 silver squared brads. I love these colors together and have to admit it looks much better in person. I'm still learning the ropes on taking pictures of my cards!! Thanks for looking!!