Clean And Simple Thank You

Hi everyone! Today's card is another try at "Clean and Simple"....I used to be totally frightened at the thought of so much empty space and I would fill up every square inch.....and then some!!! Thanks to Splitcoast and Blogland, I have found so much inspiration from studying other stampers' work....I am grateful to all of the CAS artists out there who have helped me to de-clutter!!

Once I had a plan for my card, I knew that I wanted to sponge around the stamped image, so I created two different masks (below) out of scratch paper. One I cut around the outside, just inside the stamped line (this helps your sponging to come right to the edge of the stamped image with no white spaces); The second image I cut out the insides of the basket handles with my craft knife, so that I could cleanly sponge the blue in there too without ruining the coloring of the handles. **Tip: since the basket handles are very thin, before cutting them out, I placed some scotch tape on the backside of the paper to strengthen it, so that the thin strips of paper would not tear while I was sponging over them. Clear as mud?!

I will be submitting to the following challenges:
Our Daily Bread designs Shining The Light Challenge: Summertime;
Splitcoast's Featured Stamper this week is Emily Keaton......yay, Emily!!  Her gallery has so many different styles.....there were several CAS cards I sketched out which I will definitely be case-ing, but I finally decided on this beautiful card.....I love the simple design, plus she uses scoring a lot, which I thought was very cool, so I used my little friend, the Scor-buddy, to help with that...oops, I forgot to round the top corner!
Crafty Pad: Food Challenge;
Stampin Sisters In Christ: Reflection of yourself.....I love summer and picnics, I love to eat, and as far as card-making goes, I love tedious work such as using my craft knife and using masking;
Raise The Bar: Hello Summer.

Card 'Ingredients':
Stamps: Our Daily Bread designs 'Thank You';
Cardstock: Stampin Up 'Confetti White';
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Stampin Up markers: Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Lucky Limeade, Really Rust, and a Bashful Blue Ink Pad for sponging;
Accessories: Scor-buddy scoring tool, scratch paper for masking, craft knife, and sponge dauber;
Size: A2.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a blessed day!!