A Design Team? Me? REALLY?

A few weeks ago, my friend Cristena put out a design team call for her "Stampin' Queens". I've never been part of a design team before, so I wasn't sure if I should apply or not. I've always WANTED to be part of a design team (because I think it's pretty cool!), so I emailed Cristena and her response was, "HELLO! Of course!"

So...here is my first card for the Stampin' Queens Sketch Challenge:

The sketch we were given was square and while most of my design teammates opted for a larger square card (at least to me it looks like they did!), I decided to challenge myself even FURTHER and create a 3 x 3 card! I know...crazy, right?  LOL!

Here's the sketch itself:

Anyway, I had some 3 1/2" strips of Early Espresso left over from another project, so I cut it down to six inches and trimmed off the extra 1/2" creating my 3 x 3 card.  Then I cut some strips from the Early Espresso Designer Series Paper which can be found in the Neutrals Designer Paper Series Stack.

For my large circle, I punched out a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock with my 1 3/4" punch. Then I used my Circle Scissor Plus to cut a circle slightly smaller and used the negative to put over my 1 3/4" punched piece and sponged inside that circle leaving a thin border with no colour. To stamp the leaves inside the circle, I used Soft Suede Ink and stamped off before stamping into the circle (with the mask still in place).

I stamped the sentiment in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla Cardstock and punched it out with my 1" circle punch. It was matted on a piece of 1 1/4" Early Espresso.

The finishing touch was stamping the large leaf from French Foliage on Very Vanilla and cutting it out.  I then covered it in Crystal Effects and let it dry before adhering it to the front of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

What do you think?

STAMPS: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
INK: Soft Suede
PAPERS: Soft Suede and Very Vanilla Cardstock, Early Espresso DSP
ACCESSORIES: Very Vanilla Ribbon (retired), Punches, Sponges, Circle Scissor Plus, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!