I am so excited to be able to share with you a new monthly hop!  If you just came over from the amazing Jeanna, welcome to the next stop.  My friends and I want to be able to share with you our ideas in a monthly format.  We will use different themes each month – sometimes colors, sometimes a sketch, sometimes a stamp set focus.  The one thing you can count on is that it will be fancy!  Over the last year “fancy” became our word to describe the best projects, the best new clothes, even the best pedicure colors.  Now we want to share with you our take on “fancy” each month.  This month we have a color challenge that the whole team will be using as inspiration.  And you know what?  You can join in too!  Just use our inspiration piece (all or some of the colors) and post a comment with your link on any of the team Fancy Friday team’s blogs.

For my card I wanted to show you this new technique I learned in a Watercolor for Card Makers class I have been taking.  I love the idea of being able to paint an image but that is definitely NOT my talent.  Thank heavens for the artists at Stampin’ Up who create them for me!  But I can cheat and look like I know how to paint.  How?  Well, I inked up my flower from Gifts of Kindness using my Stampin’ Write Markers in the colors from the challenge and stamped it on Watercolor Paper.  Then, using a paint brush dipped in water, I blended the colors and the lines to create this image that looks like I painted it by hand.  Then I took my Aquapainter and added the Island Indigo (really watered down) around the edges of the paper.  Once everything was dry, I added some water drops to it and the sentiment from the same stamp set.  The image here is the star of the show so I simply attached it to an Early Espresso card base using Dimensionals (a lot of them since the paper tends to curl after all the water was added).  I had so much fun with this that I’m looking for more stamps I can use with the technique!

Wanna chance to play along and with the challenge and have a chance to win the Seasonally Scattered stamp set? Be sure to leave a comment on any of our blogs with a link back to your creation, and ONE lucky participant will win! Here are the rules for the challenge: 1. Leave a comment on one of our blogs with a link to your creation, comments/links MUST be left by Friday, September 19th 7:00 PM MST in order to be eligible for the prize. 2. Please use the color palette provided. You can use any combination or all of the colors provided as well as any neutrals. Although SU colors are listed, you can use any colors you have on hand as long as they are similar. 3. You MUST put a link in your post back to the challenge.  **Winner will be announced during the September Fancy Friday Blog Hop! (the last Friday of September).**

Okay, off to go visit the awesome Mercedes Weber!  You will love her project!

Don’t forget….signs up are open now for Stamps on the Fly Bright & Beautiful Edition

Click HERE to purchase these wonderful Stampin’ Up products!

Stamp:  Gifts of Kindness; Paper:  Watercolor, Early Espresso; Ink:  Real Red, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist, Island Indigo, Early Espresso; Accessories:  Aquapainter, paint brush, Dimsensionals