Saturday, October 1, 2011

From Korea with Love

Greetings on another Saturday - time for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. This week the hostess is... me! Since today is World Card Making Day, the challenge I planned is to make a card inspired by a country other than your own. I hope you'll play along!

The country I chose is Korea. Way back in 1993 (wow, almost 20 years ago!) I spent three months living in Taegu (or I believe the spelling "Daegu" is more common now) on an exchange with Yeungnam University. It was a wonderful experience. One of my favorite memories is of the cherry blossoms we got to see all over the city, since we were lucky enough to be there for spring. The university has a special place that everyone calls "Love Road" - it's lined with cherry trees, and if you walk there with your significant other while the trees are blooming, it's supposed to mean you'll get married. I didn't test out that theory, LOL, but I did find it really beautiful. I wanted to share a photo but I can't find my Korea photo album - argh! It's around here somewhere!


Anyway, I decided to make a "love" card with one of my all-time favorite stamps. I can't remember the name of this long-retired hostess set, but I will never part with this stamp. I did a couple other challenges with this card - Freshly Made Sketches (OK, I did fiddle with the sketch significantly...) and the Color Throwdown. The colors this week were Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade and Chocolate Chip. The flower centers are colored with the poppy marker - that's all the poppy that made it onto the card! I just couldn't see a good way to add more. I used the Elegant Lines embossing folder for the background and the heart punch and Embosslit for my shape accent, along with a Chocolate Chip button. The sentiment is from another old set - Many Happy Returns. Oh, and if you're wondering how I did the corners on my tag, I slid them into the decorative label punch to make that little scallop-like detail.

Come over to the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team made - and then put your thinking cap on, get out your atlas, or just raid your stamps and play along with us!

18 comments:

Linda Callahan said...

Beautiful flowers - beautiful colors! Love how this turned otu! Thanks for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches!

Linda Coughlin, the funkie junkie said...

This is drop dead gorgeous, Lori! I really like the colors and the texture is marvelous. That is also one of my favorite stamp sets - it's called Garden Silhouettes. Super fun challenge this week - can't wait to see all the international entries that come in!

Have a great fall weekend!

Hugs,
Linda

Sharon Wheet said...

Your card is simply gorgeous! and I loved your story about 'Love Road'. How romantic! Love the color combo, too! Beautiful card. :)

Jen Mitchell said...

I love this! It's a perfect card to commemmorate your time in Korea! The colors are fabulous and your heart with the button and sentiment are so pretty!

Rita W said...

Gorgeous! I love every detail of this one; the heart, the tag, the texture from the embossing folder...it is all just beautiful! Korea sounds so lovely; I think cherry blossoms are so pretty. Thanks for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches this week.

Broni said...

This is SO pretty! Thanks for playing in the Color Throwdown challenge with us this week!

Lesley said...

This is a lovely card Lori! Love the colours and the story that goes with it! In 1993 I went to Japan! Hard to believe it is so long ago!! WOW! Thank you for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches!

Marjie Kemper said...

Lori, I love that dark rich texture of the embossing and then the sweet delicate stamping. Such a neat contrast. And WOW you've had quite the experience living in Korea!

Marjie Kemper said...

Lori, I love that dark rich texture of the embossing and then the sweet delicate stamping. Such a neat contrast. And WOW you've had quite the experience living in Korea!

None None said...

This is beautiful, I love the colors you utilized and the embossed bg is perfect for your image.

Tui Nathan said...

Oh my .... this is really beautiful Lori ... I can so relate to the cherry blossom trees, they are breathtaking in every way - and your card captures that beauty, love the use of the embossing folder in the background!

Jennifer Rzasa said...

I wish I could see the photo of Korea you mentioned in your post! Your card is just beautiful, from the colors to the texture. Hope your week is going well so far!

Lela said...

Wow, your card has beautiful colors. It's just lovely

Sylvia/LittleTreasures said...

Love your card Lori..My son was in Daegu 2 1/2 yrs with the military and 2 yrs ago this week, we visited for 10 days. It was wonderful. Beautiful country, visited also Busan and Seoul, wonderful people, food, markets, public transportaion and weather. I'd go back in a minute.

Holly Barrett said...

Lori, I love your embossing on the brown background paper. It's so simple but really adds to your card. Beautiful color combination for a great take on this week's challenge. Have a great week!

Wendy J. said...

A lovely korean inspired card, Lori. That is a great stamp and I enjoyed hearing about your time there in korea. I like the colors you chose and I really like the way that embossing folder adds texture to the card. Great job. Thanks for the challenge.

Vicki Burdick said...

This is gorgeous Lori, I love the colors and the EF!! sorry I am so behind with my commenting lately!!!

Allison said...

This is absolutely gorgeous! Love this!