SUFriends4ever Swap Card

I'm hosting a swap going with a group of my friends using the Fresh Cuts stamp set and/or Fresh Cut Notes. So, IF YOU ARE IN THIS SUFriends4ever SWAP AND DON'T WANT TO SEE MY SWAP YET, DON'T LOOK AT THIS POST!!!!!

I will do the description first and add in some empty lines so that the picture of the entire card doesn't appear at the top of this post for those ladies in the group who don't want to see it.

For this swap, I was really inspired by this card by SCS'er sleepyinseattle. She had used a trusty layout of mine - picture with a bow or strip of paper behind it, and not too much else to the card. While that sounds simple, what I really liked was that she used pastels to color in this Fresh Cuts image that she had embossed. So, I followed her lead and embossed in gold ep and colored in with my pastels. I made kind of a rainbow gradient with my pastel shading for the background behind the flowers and leaves. It shows best in the main image of the card, but the small close-up posted above shows it a bit too. I have gone a little paper piercing nuts lately, so this card has some, along with some trusty scallops. What I did differently for me is place the sentiment in an unusual spot for me. Usually, I would have placed it above the paper pierced holes in the bottom right-hand corner. I instead placed it above the ribbon and white CS strip (that has paper piercing!). I hope that it looks okay there!

Anyway, here's the card along with the recipe:

Stamps: Fresh Cuts (preview stamp set from 2008 Summer-Fall Idea Book & Catalog)

Paper: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White CS

Ink: Certainly Celery and VersaMark

Accessories: Pastels, gold ep, Celery 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, piercing tool and template, heat tool, embossing buddy, dimensionals