Getting my mambo on

I actually started this post hours ago, after cleaning out Boo's fingernails (how does a baby who only sleeps, eats and poops get dirt under his nails??), but got interrupted by life and am just now getting back to it. Boo is now sacked out on the Boppy on my lap, so I'm typing in an awkward position, but at least no one is screaming. :)

I spent this morning working on the Stamping 411 sketch challenge and also plugging away at Boo's baby book, which I am doing as a scrapbook. I made Piglet's the same way. I scrapbook the first year, and then after that, the photos just go in an album because I prefer card making to diligent, sustained scrapping of life's small moments. But for events, big trips and baby's first year, I thoroughly enjoy making a special scrapbook. I will say I'm not a "traditional" scrapper because I don't use a lot of embellishments or matting with my photos, as I prefer the photos to be the main event on the page, rather than part of a composition. But it works for me and I think it looks nice. I might share a page or two later on when I'm a bit further in the process. One thing I do like about scrapbooking is that is forces you to pick the best photos and discard the rest. I'm all about weeding out.
So on to the card. As I said, I used the Stampin' 411 sketch challenge because I went to bed with this card in my head, and it came together extremely quickly this morning because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I love that! I also discovered a neat trick with Melon Mambo. I don't know about you, but I find that the Melon Mambo ink always comes out a bit brighter than the paper and I am always trying to figure out how to fix that. When I was coloring the flowers for the background, I started out by coloring in regal rose, intending to use Melon Mambo as an accent on the flowers. I accidently colored one in all the way and realized that the two colors together produced a nice deep shade that was closer to the paper color. Happy accident! I had originally wanted to watercolor the big flower (and did one as a sample before setting it aside as too bright) and ended up with my double marker technique on the flowers. I did go back over the Melon Mambo with more M. Mambo to give shading and depth to the flowers.

My color combination comes from Stacey's 2010 Convention Curtain Call Color Challenge. I can't go to Convention this year, and am not planning to participate, but I loved the color combo so much I wanted to use it anyway! I debated about the sentiment placement--I originally had it in the lower right corner, as the sketch called for, but felt it looked too boring or something, so I moved it up into the cherry blossoms. I'm still not sure the composition of the card is balanced this way, but I'm leaving it because I don't want to mess up the panel underneath by moving it.

Supplies:
Crumb Cake, Whisper White cs, Melon Mambo dsp, retired Baja breeze dsp (from clearance rack)
Embrace Life Stamp set
Melon Mambo, Regal rose markers, Chocolate Chip ink
Choc. Chip satin ribbon
Choc. Chip button latte
glue dot
vintage brads (antique brass)
dimensionals
paper snips
scallop edge punch, modern label punch