A GSG Swap!!

Yes, the Great Swaps Girls did another swap finally! It feels like its been forever! I've actually had my swaps designed for a week now, which is fairly early for me, but am just now posting them today since it is the due date.
This first one I really like, but am also a little unsure of. As you probably know my GSG gals are incredibly talented and I don't want to disappoint them. Many of them are also fond of the CAS "Clean and Simple" style so that's why I stuck with it instead of desiging something else. I love the contrast of the warm colors with the black and think this exudes summery vibes which I'm all about right now! It is fairly straight forward- stamped the large rose in black on Summer Sun then added some highlights with my aquapainter and pumpkin ink. The cardbase is pumpkin, and the accents are all black. Cutting 13 of those flowers was a bit daunting, but it went kind of quick and wasn't that bad!
This is the second card I made for this new catty swap. It is my first try with this new set Branch Out am I'm pretty happy with it. It is also pretty straight forward. Once I got a system in place for lining those large ovals up in a straight row it was fairly fast. I saved the cutting out of the tiny bird for last- that was tougher than the large flower above! Talk about TINY! It just didn't look right stamped directly on the branch though- the blue was too light and the branches were visible. I've never seen a see through bird before so... you know!

I saw the idea of using a jumbo brad as a tire swing a few months ago and it stuck in my head. I think that might be the main reason I wanted THIS set. By the way, I'm pretty sure you need the Crop-a-Dile to set these babies- it does wonderful work! I just adore how the leaves stamp can be overlapped and stamped in different shades to really give depth to a tree- a perfectly designed stamp in my opinion!

The DSP I used is called Manchester and believe it or not, it is NOT new to this catty! I always eyeballed it, and decided I really needed it for my masculine scrapbook pages. It hasn't been used that way yet, but will!

I hope my gals like and these are worthy!

Thanks for stopping by to visit!
~Kristin

Stampin' Up! Supplies (card 1)

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Basic Black

Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Aqua Painter, Paper snips (those things are the bomb for detail cutting!), Black Gingham ribbon, Scallop border punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Stampin' Up! Supplies (card 2)

Stamps: Branch Out, Short & Sweet

Paper: Baha Breeze, Kraft, Very Vanilla, Manchester DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss

Accessories: Jumbo Pewter eyelet, wide oval punch, Paper Snips (have I mentioned how awesome those things are?)