the colors! the colors!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is a color inspiration, with one of the most beautiful graphics we've ever used:

i love how autumnal this is, and yet how elegant. you could do nearly ANYTHING with these colors, and we invite you to do so! here's what i made:

plain kraft xl giftbag: michaels; patterned paper: prima, my mind's eye, american crafts; florals: prima, petaloo, recollections; brads: mme, american crafts, we r memory keepers; glitter thickers: american crafts; teeny tiny pearls: recollections; washi tape: scotch, little b; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine 

niece lindsay's *13th* birthday was last week, and alas we missed the party, but luckily we had access to both face time and the post office, so the celebration went full speed ahead. i mention this because when i sit down to tackle my list of assignments for the week, i also have a second list, inside my head, of what occasions are coming up, and what sorts of items (cards, gifts, etc) i will need to cover those. so sometimes i wind up with a bit of an odd combination; as in this case, when i had a palette of greens and oranges but a need to create a girly gift bag. i wasn't 100% sure it was going to work, but then i came across this ancient piece of prima paper in my stash:

i always loved this design, but it's 12x12, and i don't scrapbook. and somehow it just never seemed right to trim it down and lose the gorgeous, intricate frame, so this has sat in my stash for... well, i have no idea how long, actually... but it's been there a while. this time, tho, i needed a big (9x12") panel for lindsay's gift bag, and this paper had ALL THE COLORS from the inspiration board. cha-ching. i was gonna make it work!

like i said, the first thing you notice is the fancy frame. but you know me, i need TEXTURE, too, so i decided to make that even more prominent by machine stitching all around it. which took ages, and hardly showed up. (...okaaaaaaay...) well then,  howsabout if i use tweezers to add tiny sticky-back pearls to all of those little tear drop shapes? again, it took forever, and unless you're riiiiiiight up close, you do not see them at all. (...really...?) righty-ho, let's go with LOTS of bright colored flowers, with jewel brad centers, and black glitter thickers spelling our her name. yep! now we're talkin'! (...thank you...)

there's loads more inspiration to be found at SOS, why not treat yourself to a serving of that particular eye candy right now, darlings? ♥