Taheerah Atchia

You know when you have a piece of news so, FANTASTIC, so AMAZING, so EXCITING, that you just want to scream it from the rooftops at the top of your voice all the time for all to hear? One of those announcements you just can’t wait to share with the world? Something so UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME that you’re pinching yourself about it constantly because you can barely believe it yourself?

I have one of those today.

I’ve been sitting on this for what feels like FOREVER, but I can finally reveal… I’VE BEEN ASKED TO JOIN THE RUNWAY INSPIRED CHALLENGE DT!!!!

You know that goal I set for this year, about making it onto a Bucket List DT?

Yeah.

I didn’t say that that was Manufacturer-only. *wink*

This has been a dream of mine for so very very long and I still keep reading that e-mail to make myself believe it!!! I am so so excited I don’t even have the words!!! This is without doubt *my most favourite Challenge out there* and I love it completely to pieces!! And the talent on this team, including the two other amazing ladies joining the team today, is just so staggeringly brilliant that I am seriously going to have to raise my game to keep up! *wink* I am so excited to be rubbing shoulders with such wonderful designers and teammates!!

So, after I had recovered from my several bouts of Imposter Syndrome, I sat down to play with the inspiration image for this challenge:

Look at that awesome purple-blue and coral-orange combo!! Purples are my favourite colours so this challenge really had me smiling! It’s so bold and isn’t afraid to show it!!

So of course for my card I ignored it. 😛

Here’s what I came up with:

*squeal* I love this so so so so much!!!

Although I love the suit itself, I was really inspired by that pretty pale pattern on the umbrella, specifically on the inside of it, so that’s the direction the card took. But as you can see from my envelope the suit did get its own treatment too!!

So, the card first.

I started with a Pure White card base and pulled out the WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals set. I took the buddleia stamp and set to work creating that effect!

I really wanted to capture the watercolour-like appearance, so I pressed Distress Inks in Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar and Tumbled Glass onto my acrylic block and misted with lots of water, then inked my stamp with it to stamp repeatedly over the card front.

Sometimes I got some generational stamping out of it too so there’s so many wonderful hues, intensities and defined/amorphous layers of colour there!

I stamped some of the individual flowers onto separate cardstock using A:Muse inks in Shell and Amethyst and trimmed them out by hand, then adhered them to my card with Glossy Accents.

For the sentiment I turned to my current favourite set, Valentine Wishes. I stamped this with Soft Stone ink and then used my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter pen to swipe over the stamp and stamp it again for a pretty glittered effect! I trimmed that out and adhered to the base with Glossy Accents too, allowing the ends to curl up off the base.

I glittered a handful of the blooms on the card too and then sighed happily at the dreamy prettiness.

Aside: After I’d finished the card, I was so giddy and proud. Then suddenly a feeling of panic: had I seen something similar created for a previous Runway Inspired Challenge? What if I’m just a fraud?! (Imposter Syndrome again!). So I went through all 2 years’ worth of Runway Inspired Challenges and checked them all! Phew! Nothing like it – just my panic!! And OCD.

BTW: if you have some spare time I *really* recommend going through all the older challenges. I found so much yumminess there I was left thoroughly inspired all over again!!

 Onto the envelope now!

I started with a True Blue Fan envelope from Clear And Simple Stamps. I blended a little Distress Ink in Dusty Concord over it then misted with water. I stamped both sides and the flap with the Hero Arts Tweed Pattern stamp, inked up with Memento Luxe ink in Tuxedo Black that had been misted and stamped off repeatedly to create a subtle pattern like that of the suit.

I added some strips of Orange You Fabulous cardstock which had been sprayed with Mister Huey’s in Overdue and Heidi Swapp Colour Shine Mist in Georgia Peach (just a hint) and then *triple* embossed with Filigree Clear embossing powder for that patent finish!

I applied the same treatment to the bow created with the Mini Bow Trio: Mini die collection, the tails snipped off so I just had the head on its own to mimic her belt.

The bow was adhered with Pinflair Glue Gel on one half of it so that it could be used with the flap up… 

 …or act as a closure when the flap is down!

Finally even the interior of the envelope was dressed up to look like the cowl scarf! I used the A2 Envie Liner die to cut a piece of patterned paper from the My Mind’s Eye Find Your Wings And Fly: Sky’s The Limit collection.

I wanted the darker lines lines in the scarf so I used a Distress Marker in Ripe Persimmon to draw the lines in. Yep – every single one! I adhered the liner using my Teresa Collins Mega Runner and that completed my entire ensemble!!

BTW: these photos are my first attempts at shooting on manual mode and without lights! I didn’t even need that much editing in Photoshop! What do you think?!

So anyway, now I’m all done squealing and monkey clapping with excitement and all the rest of it, you definitely want to check out what the rest of the DT have come up with!!

(Aga will be joining us later in the week)

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp so be sure to enter to be in with a chance of an awesome prize!

Thanks so much for joining me today and sharing in my excitement!! I would love it if you left some love before you went on your way!

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