ATC Swap using Play Date Cafe's Color Challenge

   Tuesday means I'm usually scrambling to make something for the Play Date Cafe challenge which closes tonight at midnight!  I love this week's color combination, and I've had a fun day playing with an ATC series!  I was surprised to see how putting the colors next to the neutral grey changed their intensity.  I had many ideas...which is usually my biggest problem, but since I'm swaping ATCs with a stamper in Holland, we decided to use the same set: Exotic Decor from Hero Arts, and make flowers.   Narrowing it down to a technique helped me focus even further on the project pictured below. 

   I decided to do a series using masking on plain white glossy cardstock, and making my own glossy cardstock in each of the challenge colors.  I embossed and/or stamped with Distress Inks [Crushed Olive and Dusty Concord] then got out my trusty brayer to make the different colors.  Cutting out the masks was not too time consuming, and I like the effect I got after brayering the grey backgrounds.  My blender pens came in handy to use gradients of color from the Distress Ink pads--very useful for working within the same palette. 

   I like how these came out, and I hope my new friend will enjoy them too.  Perhaps you have some glossy cardstock?  Maybe a brayer?  Next time you need a color-matching cardstock, remember you can just make your own!