This should have been a 10-minute card

Let's see, how long did I spend making this card? About 2 or 2.5 hours, I think. Perfectionism is a frustrating affliction.


Things started out fine. First thing this morning I got onto SCS to see the inspiration challenge for the day. The challenge was to make a card inspired by this rug:

I chose my colors, papers, and stamps, deciding to focus on the blues, gold, tan, and red in the card and use a flower motif. I stamped the three flowers and applied the gold stickles to let it dry while we were off doing other things for the morning. After lunch I came back, inked all the edges in not quite navy, and figured out the layout - putting the floral paper behind the diamonds, mounting the diamonds on coordinating cardstock, and using a blue panel with gold brads. I had some adhesive missteps along the way, but in the end I was very happy with how it turned out. Then I had to figure out what to do with the sentiment. It occurred to me that maybe I should just stamp directly onto the card, but I was scared to do that because it was already all put together and if I messed up the whole thing could be ruined. So I tried all other kinds of stamps, layers, colors, etc., and nothing was working. Finally, after way too much time, I realized I was probably right from the beginning and just decided to risk it. I think it paid off. But what a long road getting there! Flower stamp is from Stampin' Up Carte Postale; sentiment by Inkadinkado. Ink: Stampin' Up not quite navy, Marvy Matchables English red and ochre. Floral paper by Scrapbook Walls. Cardstock by Stampin Up', DCWV and Bazzill.

For those of you hoping for some family news, let me see... We spent the morning buying 30 gallons of paint for the house-painting job that's supposed to be happening in the next couple weeks. We'll keep it approximately the same gray color. While we were waiting on the paint I was looking at swatches, trying to figure out what to do with our kid/guest bathroom that is going to be remodeled sometime in the near future. I think we've settled on gold walls and dark red accents. I probably would have picked something else but the pine wood pretty much dictated really warm colors, and I think this will look nice in the end. Now that Todd's basement project is all done, we are hoping to move on to some other things. I so desperately want a screened-in porch, having had one in the house where I grew up, but that's going to have to wait a while yet.