50 Shades of Pink....

It's Bellariffic Friday once again! Can't believe how fast the summer seems to be slipping by. We're finally starting to see the fruits of my vegetable garden. The 30 tomato plants are bursting with yellow pear and red roma tomatoes. I'm having to go out daily to see what the sun has rippened. Last night there was a nice fat red pepper for us too! Woo Hoo. Sadly some moth turned white wormy thing infected all my summer squash and zucchini. I was so totally sick by it that I just pulled them all out. I don't think I could have eaten anything after seeing the nasty buggers all over and I don't think I'll be planting those next year!

So on to today's card, I know that's why you're really here! We were gifted with another sketch and at first I was a little challenged to pull together 4 different papers to follow it. Ida Lulu by Stamping Bella was on my desk from last week so I decided she would be my focus. Now I've colored her in pink before and had visions of yellow to try this time but Paulineabella did such a fantastic job last week in that color that I thought I needed to switch it up. I was drawn once again to shades of pink. The Echo Park Be Mine 6x6 paper seemed perfect for lots of pink options and I actually found 5 to use here.

I started by stamping Ida on to Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink. I then colored her with copics and added ground, surround and detail shading with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. I cut Ida out using a Classic Oval Nestie die using care to extend the umbrella outside the edges. I placed this on a paper pieced background machine stitched together and cut using the Labels 25 Nestie die. Both layers were matted in black. I used a Stampin' Up! border punch for the vertical panel and topped that with a complimenting vertical stripe dp and then a satin ribbon and bow. The sentiment was cut into a tag and added underneath, it just didn't look right along the center panel as in the sketch so I improvised a little. Machine stitching and a twine topped button finish this off. Except... I forgot to mention the red gel pen framed glasses topped with Crystal Effects and the Black Glaze pen that made all the black areas pop. I just love using that pen - Ida's hair and the trim along her umbrella and dress look so much better after applying that pen.

Head on over to the Bella blog for some more inspiration. And then pull out your creative tools so you can play along with us next week. Our challenge is Birthday Wishes! I know I can ALWAYS use extra birthday cards.

Enjoy your weekend! I think we might be heading to Hunter Mountain ski resort up in the Catskills for the Octoberfest. I'm praying for sun, fun and beer!

Thanks for stopping by,
Cath