It’s time for another Watercooler Challenge! This one is a sketch challenge from Heidi. Here’s her sketch.

Doesn’t this look like fun? Instead of a square, I went with the 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ card. And, of course, I had to play with some of my new Holiday catalog preorder items. Here’s my card.

I stamped the little birds from Wetlands in the new Basic Black Archival ink on Watercolor Paper and colored the sand, water and sky with an aqua painter and ink (Sahara Sand, Island Indigo, Soft Sky). I love the new archival ink. Years and years and years ago, we had Basic Black, and then Stampin’ Up! added Basic Gray and the now retired (moment of silence) Basic Brown. They were waterproof on Very Vanilla (VV) and Whisper White (WW) card stock, but if you wanted to watercolor on another paper, you had to use StazOn. I have a horrible time getting a good image in StazOn on Watercolor paper. I’m not sure why, but I do. So I usually heat embossed the images so they’d be sharper. Then we got the new firm foam pads, and Basic Black and Basic Gray never dried on the VV and WW card stock. After several years of tinkering, Stampin’ Up! gave up and took those two pads out of the Neutrals Collection ink lineup.

Enter the 2015 Holiday catalog. WOOT! – Basic Black and Basic  Gray Archival inks. And they’re marvelous. Look at that sharp image! And I stamped on Watercolor paper and used lots of water and there was no bleeding of the ink. I am a happy stamper.

The window is another Holiday catalog product. It’s one of the new Hearth & Home thinlits dies. The Holiday catalog products will be available for you to purchase on September 1, unless you’re a demonstrator. Demonstrators get to preorder products a month earlier. It’s one of the best reasons to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, in my opinion. Well, that and the awesome friends I’ve made.

The rest of the card is very straight forward. I embossed the Bermuda Bay layer with the Tiny Triangles Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, and layered it over Cherry on Top designer series paper (this is in a 6″ x 6″ stack) and a piece of Tip Top Taupe. The sentiment is from And Many More, and it’s for my mom who just had minor surgery. She’s fine – but I know she’s miserable right now!

After I took the photo of the finished card, I realized I had forgotten the little embellishment on the right side. Oops! So I headed back downstairs to add the little door knob sequin to turn the window into a side-opening one, kind of like a door. I’m not sure where the sequin came from. I think it was either a Paper Pumpkin kit or a kit from last Christmas. It was in a little bag on my stamp table, and it’s one of the few things the cat hasn’t absconded with. She’s gotten very sneaky lately. I left some sponge wedges from class last week on my computer table downstairs in a baggie. They needed to be rinsed out, and I kept forgetting to bring them upstairs. This morning, they were scattered all over the floor. Miss Kitty had knocked them on the floor, chewed a hole in the bag and set the sponges free. Of course, she also played with them and chewed them to see if they were good. 5 out of 7 needed to be thrown away. Stamping Sponges are at the top of my next order. Crazy cat. It’s not like she doesn’t have toys of her own to play with. *shaking head and sighing.*

Give the challenge a try this week. You can get lots of inspiration from the other designers on the challenge blog. You have through Friday, September 4 to complete the challenge, and if your project is chosen as the favorite, you can add our snappy badge to your blog or web site! (EDITED: We’re changing the format of our challenge! Beginning Wednesday, September 2, it will be “Watercooler Wednesday” – and it will be a weekly challenge. Challenges will be posted each Wednesday, and you’ll have until Monday to post your entry. Then we’ll choose a favorite and the winner will be announced on Tuesday.)

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a wonderful day!