Happiness Abounds Birthday Card AYSI281

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge:

There were lots of things on this week's board that I loved - DSP, bright colours, dies and even florals - but I was slightly unnerved by the addition of watercolouring into the mix! I find watercolouring a little hit and miss (sometimes my attempts are a hot mess!) so I decided to play safe and watercolour my stamped florals and take it from there. Take a look at where I ended up:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I decided to use some of the brightly coloured Hues of Happiness DSP for my background and use this as the starting point for my card. I resisted the urge to use some of my florals diecut from another sheet in this pack and instead I stamped a whole bunch of flowers from the 'Happiness Abounds' stamp set onto Shimmery White cardstock and heat embossed them in black. Shimmery White cardstock is great for watercolouring as it's not too absorbent and so is very forgiving. I watercoloured my flowers in the same colours that featured on my background paper, and positioned them around a central diecut piece, also from the co-ordinating Blossoming Happiness Dies:

I heat embossed my sentiment onto a Stylish Shapes diecut banner, added a twine bow and my card is complete - all elements of the recipe included, phew!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back on Sunday with my project for The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAPPINESS ABOUNDS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£46.75)	HUES OF HAPPINESS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.25)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	WATER PAINTERS (£13.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)
BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)