FM228 - You Make My Heart Smile! (Friday Mashup Glamette)

*Yay!  So great to be a "Glamette"!*

I'm in the middle of sorting through all my retired stamp sets.  My mind reels at the number of sets I've accumulated over the four short years during which I've been stamping.  Time to thin the piles.  If I'm honest with myself, no matter how cute, pretty or perfect a stamp set appears, if it's not in the style of cards that I make and has been sitting, unused, for most of its time in my house, I have to put it into the "sell" pile.  For me, with my hoarding instincts, this is a very difficult task.

During my time sorting, I came across a set that I had forgotten about and that really does appeal to me.  Especially since it's perfect for the challenge over at the Friday Mashup! this week.  This is the challenge:

The choices are:

Create a project with a silhouette image

Create a project with a background filled with colour

(sponging, watercolour, etc)

OR Mash them up and use both options

Of course you know I mashed them up.  The newly discovered old stamp set gave me the best idea!  Are you wondering about which stamp set I'm talking?  It's the Asian Artistry which I believe was introduced as a Hostess Set around 2009--well before I began with Stampin' Up!  I believe I picked it up at a garage sale and promptly put it on my shelf and forgot about it.  

Wouldn't most of those images be perfect as a silhouette?  I certainly think so.  My choice was to use the bamboo with the bird perched on it.  Just black out the bird and we have a full silhouette, after all.  For my background, I chose to do some watercolouring.  I used the Watercolor paper and used my circle framelit to create a mask.  I only wanted to watercolour a certain area, after all.  My colour choices for the watercolouring were So Saffron, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral and Watermelon Wonder inks.

I used Basic Black as the base for my card, followed by a layer of Watermelon Wonder, and then topped those with my layer of Watercolor paper.  The image and the sentiment were both heat embossed using Black embossing powder.  Then I masked and watercoloured my sun.  Finally, the bird was coloured in with my Stampin' Basic Black marker.  

I love the results!  I hope you'll take time to check out the other cards over at the Friday Mashup challenge this week.

I've also entered my card into the "Less is More" challenge because its brilliant colours remind me of a mandarin garnet.

And, finally, I've entered my card into the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge since it is clearly Clean and Simple, which is what their challenge requires.