NND Sponsors Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #465

Have you heard of the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge? For each challenge they post a YUMMY cupcake photo and color combo for inspiration! Everybody likes cupcakes, right?

The current challenge going up today features the a Plaid theme!

We're sponsoring this challenge so If you head over to their blog and play along you have a chance to win a $25 store credit to our store at newtonsnookdesigns.com! How awesome is that?

Of course I had to play along -- here's the card I created:

I was excited to see this challenge theme was plaid! We have an awesome two piece Plaid Stencil Set so I had to use that for the background.  This stencil is two pieces so it makes it easy to create patterns in multiple colors. I started with the thicker plaid stripes and used blue ink over the stencil. Then I added the thin purple stripes using the second stencil. I decided to go back and add a third color so I used the thicker striped stencil again and this time I used lime green ink. It's so fun how you create custom patterns! 

Once the background was complete I stamped the owl holding a heart shaped balloon from our Love Owl-ways Stamp Set on watercolor paper using archival waterproof ink. I then colored the image using Inktense watercolor pencils and a water brush. I cut out the image out using the coordinating Love Owl-ways Die Set. Then I created a strip of clouds using our Sky Borders Die Set and cutting the cloud border on top and bottom of a white piece of paper. 

I assembled the card, adding a stripe of purple behind the clouds to help them pop. I added the owl on using dimensional foam tape. Then I finished it off by stamping the "Guess whoooo loves you" Sentiment from the  Love Owl-ways Stamp Set. I love how this turned out! 

Make sure you pop over to the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge blog to see more fun today. We have several other NND Design Team members featured as "Guest Sweeties" for this challenge and some of the regular "Sweeties" (that's what they call their Design Team -- cute, right?) are featuring Newton's Nook Designs stamps too! And don't forget to create a card in the back -to -school theme  and link it up for a chance to win our sponsored prize!