The Time Out Challenge is celebrating their 5th birthday. I'm late to the party, but just in time with a birthday card to celebrate.

I'm sharing another card with a watercolored panel I worked on while we were away. This time it's Papertrey Ink's "Peonies on Parade."

The beautiful peonies were watercolored with Altenew's 36 pan watercolor set.  

I used a combination of pinks, orange, and reds and love the way the colors blend into one another using a wet-on-wet technique. The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Penned Elegance." The only embellishment was the addition of a few black pearls.

I did add a bit of dimension by using a black Glaze pen on the center of the peonies. 

While we were in Wisconsin, I watercolored some images for cards. As usual, the first few days after returning from a trip were very busy, but finally while I watched the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship games last night, I had time to put the images to good use. I have one to share today for three challenges. The first is The Flower Challenge where "Anything Goes" is the theme.

The second is for AAA Cards. The challenge there this time is One Image plus an Optional Twist of Spring. We awoke to another fresh coat of snow, so despite the encouraging forecasts the only sign of spring is right here in my craft room. 

And, finally for Less is More where the challenge is "Take Three." Although there are three main blossoms in the cluster, it is just one image, not several that have been masked, so I think it works for both the AAA Card challenge as well as Less is More. 

The image is from Papertrey Ink, "Bold Blossoms" that was printed on watercolor paper. I used Altenew's 36 pan watercolor set which is perfect for traveling as well as having great colors for flowers. That's no surprise since Altenew excels in creating beautiful floral stamp sets. 

The sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink. I love the "Penned Elegance" stamps and dies. Before I owned a set of the dies, I borrowed them from a friend and stamped and die cut a bunch of them. They were in my stash just waiting for the right occasion, and this was it.

To qualify for the AAA Card Challenge, no embellishments can be added. I did die cut the panel with the large rectangle from W+9's "Gift Card Layers" die, and added a few white dots to the flower centers with a Signo broad white pen. I'm hoping that doesn't disqualify the card from the challenge.

Here's hoping I'll soon be able to post some photographs of spring flowers!

There's a gorgeous gallery of cards up on The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes.

I have a second card to add to the gallery, another card created with my recent favorite: Pink Fresh Studio's "Fleur 1."

After coloring the two floral images with Copic markers, I die cut them with the coordinating dies and added them to a Papertrey Ink Shape Shifter Circle #1. This time I used just two of the the dies: the outer scallop and the "stitched" border. On the last card I posted for this challenge, I used all three. You can see it here. The versatility of the Shape Shifter dies is one of the things I love best about them. The sentiment is from an older Papertrey set, "Floral Frenzy," that's been in my collection for years. 

The bow was stamped in Hawaiian Shores to match the card base, and I added five yellow Nuvo dots to complete the card.

Seize the Birthday has a new challenge up. They always offer a generic birthday option, but the topping this time is “Dots and Stripes.”

I have a birthday card for a friend that I think meets the “dots” part of the challenge.

The white diecut background, “Diamond Background” by Simon Says, was backed with Papertrey Ink’s Raspberry Fizz cardstock. Then I die cut “Happy,” (My Favorite Things) twice—once in Raspberry Fizz and another in True Black to create a shadow effect. I adhered it to the background piece and added the rest of the sentiment, Papertrey Ink’s “Stylish Sentiments: Birthday,” by embossing it in white on black cardstock.

The dots for the challenge are in the form of Nuvo drops that I added to the background piece. They add just the right amount of dimension.

This card is for a teenager, but it could be easily replicated in different colors for both men and women.

The current challenge at AAA Cards is more complicated than usual:

I'm playing along with the One Plus Three, but not the optional twist. The one is a sentiment and the plus three must come from this pie chart:

My three are a stamped image,  colouring (with Copic markers), and a die cut. Actually I have two cards created with Pink Fresh Studio's "Lush Greenery" stamps. It might appear that the cards are identical, but there are subtle differences between the stamped images.

I started by stamping the two images and coloring them with Copic markers. Then they were die cut with the coordinating dies. After stamping the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Penned Elegance," I added a narrow black border to the die cuts, and adhered them with dimensional tape to a square card made from Simon Says Green Apple cardstock. 

Another CAS design–and badly needed cards for my stash,

This week's challenge at The Flower Challenge is wide open—Anything Goes. 

I'm still playing with the Pink Fresh Studio "Fleur 1" set. This card only used one of the florals, and I quite like it. Clean and simple.

I started with a Pale Peony card base, and added Papertrey Ink's " Shape Shifter Circle #1, then adhered the floral (cut with the coordinating die) with some dimensional tape. The greeting is from Papertrey's "Birthday Strings" set which I embossed in white.

For the tiniest bit of sparkle, I added a clear drop from Studio Katia in the center of the flower. Just the right card for a spring birthday!

Yesterday I posted a card for a sketch challenge which is a bit unusual for me, and I'm back again today with another sketch challenge. The CAS Colours & Sketches is a new challenge for me and, like yesterday's card, as soon as I saw the sketch I knew I had just the right stamp set for the sketch.

"Lush Greenery" is another Pink Fresh Studio set. I managed to make a card for the challenge as well as two smaller cards which I'll share another day.

The top and bottom images are similar, but not the same. Once I had stamped them I colored them with a variety of Copic markers. Then I trimmed down the image so I'd have a narrow border of the New Leaf top-folding card showing, The first sentiment I added was on New Leaf cardstock, but it was too much of a contrast. Changing it to white made all the difference—much more CAS.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Penned Elegance" set which I die cut with the matching die. These are some of the nicest sentiment dies I have.

I'm also adding this to Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes. 

Edited to add that I missed the CAS Colours and Sketch Challenge by just two hours! Sigh.

I have a good friend who finds starting with a sketch an ideal way to create a card. I don't always find it that easy, but when I saw the current sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

And I knew exactly what I wanted to use—a Simon Says die that I've had for some time, but never used. It turned out to be a bit larger than I remembered but I carried on, and I'm glad I did as I'm pretty happy with the end result. 

The die is "Hibiscus Frame" which I die cut from Neenah Solar White. Before adhering it to the white card base, I traced around the flower and then ink blended with Distress Inks on a separate sheet of Neenah cardstock. I trimmed that out and adhered it behind the frame. The sentiment is from Simon Says "Tiny Words." 

I added a bit of glitter to the stamen with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen.