graphicus challenge

There is a double challenge on the Graphicus blog this month - 'celebration' and 'plum and gold'. I did try to combine them both, but the waste bin received those efforts - as time was running out, i decided to do two separate cards instead.
This is for 'celebration' - using the silhouette stamp from the EL birds plates, stamped in versafine and clear emboosed before spraying with glimmer mists to try to give the effect of a dawn sunrise. I think the colours I used eventually were sunflower, starfish. candy apple red and monnlight - there could have been a bit of spring violet as well - did several with slightly different combinations, and they all worked to some extent! The coloured image was trimmed down, matted onto silver mirri, and then onto a sheet printed from the Peacock summer party Artylicious cd, then onto a textured gold card before mounting onto black card - I know this is a strange choice for a new baby card, but I thought it looked better, and in Norfolk we du difrent! The wording is from a creative acrylics set free with a graphicus order, with a red ribbon behind it to make it stand out better.

The 'plum and gold' entry is dual purpose - I signed up to Lavendar's challenge on the Joanna Sheen forum to start making Christmas cards before March (thought I ought to after having to buy cards last year!), so this is my first card for next Christmas! I stamped the madonna image from EI in colour box eggplant ink onto pale gold card, then again onto white card with black versafine and onto plum card with versamark and pirate gold EP. The white image was coloured with brush pens and a water brush in varying shades of purples, then cut out and mounted over the image on gold card - the long cloak was cut from the plum card and glued on top. The gold card was matted onto background paper from the peacock summer party cd again, then onto plum card. It needs a greeting yet to finish it off properly, but I haven't got any gold peeloffs, so will have to wait for that.