Dare to dream...

Hey, sorry to disappear there on you. Three weeks ago I woke up with awful spasms in my back - it's something I've had before and I assume it has to do with my TMJ. It has always gone away in the past but this time it's sticking around. I've spent a lot of hours resting with a heating pad, not able to do much more than read and browse the web on my laptop. I'm slowly getting better and I'm getting physical therapy now, but it's still hard to be up and around all day. Life does go on, though, and I really had to stamp this week because... I'm hosting the challenges at Our Creative Corner for the next two weeks! It's been a very long time since I've had the honor.

My challenge is to make a card or project inspired by travel and/or transportation, using at least two different designer papers. When I chose this challenge theme, I was in the midst of planning the trip my family is taking to Germany this summer. I absolutely love to travel, and this will be my first time to see Germany and my kids' first trip overseas. We are all really excited! Anyway, here is my card, using the colors from colourQ, which I haven't played in ages and love to pieces, and a sketch challenge that's new to me, Paper Craft Crew.

The stamp set I featured is called Postage Due. I stamped the collage image in Pool Party and then sponged Wisteria Wonder over the whole panel and Always Artichoke on the edges. (All the edges are distressed and sponged.) The postage stamps in this set are super cute, and I chose the "Paris" one. My two DPs come from the patterns pack and Twitterpated. I thought "dare to dream" was a perfect sentiment for thinking about travel - this stamp comes from Loving Thoughts. The card base is Core'dinations card stock sanded on the edge. Those little punched flowers started out a little simpler, but when I took the first photo I realized they just didn't look right and redid them. Sometimes I can let those things go, but it was easy enough to change, so perfectionism won out this time!

I hope you will play along with our challenge this week - we love to see what you come up with and we love when you join us in creating something special. Have a great weekend, and a happy Easter to those who celebrate - maybe spring is coming finally?? Hope so!

Copper Patina

Well, we've had another snowy week... hard to believe it's Saturday again already. This week's Our Creative Corner challenge is another fun one from Meihsia Liu. She gave us this photo as inspiration and required at least one metal embellishment.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with this one, so I started looking at sketches and decided to use the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. (Hope I didn't tinker with it too much!) Here is my card:

I wanted to try some sponging to see if I could achieve that cool patina look. I knew I had (non-SU) copper embossing powder lying around, and the Fresh Vintage stamp set from last year's SAB jumped out at me. Over the embossed images (on vanilla card stock) I sponged Tempting Turquoise and a tiny bit of Bermuda Bay, then I used Cajun Craze on the edges of the squares (and likewise on all the rest of the panels). I also used the distressing tool to rough up all the edges. I liked the idea of the bright blue accent (the rhinestones on the top of the candle holder) so I brought that into my card with rhinestones colored with a Sharpie and Pacific Point card stock. The background is Cajun Craze embossed with the vintage wallpaper folder, then Pool Party (which is basically the color my sponging ended up being) and Pacific Point on a vanilla card base. For the metal I pulled out my ancient box of Hodgepodge Hardware - I have a whole bunch of it left, LOL. The frame looked kind of bare stuck on by itself so I added some Pool Party ribbon behind it. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I'm not sure what I think of this one - I liked it better without the sentiment, I think. Maybe I will have to revisit this idea sometime...

I hope you will play along with our challenge this week - it made me think outside the box, which is good! The rest of the team have gorgeous creations for you to see, so don't miss those also. Have a great weekend and cross your fingers that spring is coming soon!

A flower and a crown

Hello with another Saturday post - time for Our Creative Corner's weekly challenge! This week our challenge is hosted by Meihsia Liu. She has a pretty vintage-and-shabby inspiration challenge, and we are supposed to use fabric flowers and a crown. The photo:

And here is my card, using a layout from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge:

For this one I chose soft colors: Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, and white. I used a strip of Tea for Two fabric to make a rolled flower - the leaves are from the bird punch and embossed with the houndstooth folder. The lace panel was made by sponging pink ink over the lace tape from the spring mini, then gently peeling the tape off to reveal the white cardstock underneath. For the background I used white cardstock embossed with dots and retired pear DP. The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned, and the buttons are retired from SAB last year. As for the crown... well, I struggled with that. This little image from Tiny Tags was the only crown I had, so I stamped it and embossed with pewter EP, cut it out, and added it to my sentiment.

This card makes me think of spring, which I hope is coming soon! I'm so sick of the snow. Come join in our challenge and don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's shabby chic goodness! Have a great weekend!