It's sad to say good-bye...

This post is a difficult one to write. After several years of being part of the team at Our Creative Corner I have decided it's time to step down. I will really miss this fabulous team - I can't quite believe it's been this long, but I joined in September 2009. WOW. Time goes by so fast!

The OCC will be undergoing some changes as our leader, Linda Coughlin, will be handing the reins over to a new artist. More details will be coming about that, but for now Linda asked us to repost a former project as a way of saying "good-bye (for now)." I looked back over everything I made for the OCC and it was really hard to choose just one project, but in the end I settled on this card.

This fussy-cutting hydrangea card represents a couple things I think of as my style: clean and simple, and, well, fussy! For more details on the card you can click back to my original post from 2011.

I'm kind of at a loss for words as to how to sum this experience up - I've had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful and talented stampers, and I've loved the challenges I've gotten to play with over the past 3.5+ years. There have been times when if it weren't for the OCC, I probably wouldn't have been stamping and blogging at all, so I'm grateful to have had this opportunity. Best wishes to all my former and current teamies, and to the new OCC as it goes forward.

I hope I'll have a chance to be on another DT in the future - I'm guessing the spring and summer are going to be pretty busy and my posts may be sporadic. But I'll still be here when I can, work and other commitments notwithstanding!

Pretty Punch Art

Hello again - well, the good news is that I'm feeling better, but the bad news is that I'm getting busier and finding it harder to get any stamping done. I'll keep trying, though! Anyway, today is Saturday so of course we have a new Our Creative Corner challenge for you. Rudlis is hosting today and asked us to use fashion/mannequins/style/stitching/etc. as our inspiration point. This was tough for me - I don't have any of those trendy dress stamps or dies, so I had to get creative!

 

I made this sweet little dress with a couple different punches and Twitterpated DP in Riding Hood Red (one of our retiring colors). The skirt is from the blossom builder punch, and the top is part of the owl punch - I cut the sweetheart neckline and the skirt's scallops myself. I added the ribbon punch for a belt with a punched flower and rhinestone trim. For the stand, I used a thin strip of Early Espresso card stock with a decorative label punch base and a mini ornament punch for the finial. The banner punch and red DP are non-SU - I embossed the DP with the dot folder. To set off the punch art I added the label with pierced edge and a strip of espresso DP. The sentiment, which I embossed in white, is from the retired set Watercolor Trio.

 

OK, you have your challenge - please join in with us this weekend! Make sure you check out what everyone else on the DT created as well. We are grateful for your participation! Have a great weekend!

Thoroughly Modern Madison

Good morning! I'm back with my second challenge for Our Creative Corner. Here's what I came up with:

My hubby would never go for this bedroom, LOL! But sometimes I think the modern aesthetic is just very cool so that's what I was going for. This is my card:

This is one of those cards that when I sat down to make it, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I actually started out using a sketch challenge but in the end I changed the layout completely because it just worked better this way. Since I have such good timing, I finally broke out the Madison Avenue stamp set that was recently available during Sale-a-Bration. Yeah, I didn't stamp too much during SAB. But these images spoke to me as a way to create some modern patterns with these bold colors (Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, More Mustard, and Soft Suede). Thanks to the Stamp-a-ma-jig the two background panels came together fairly quickly. I tried to use the Madison Avenue flower for the focal panel but it wasn't working somehow. This flower from World Treasures pulled everything together and keeps the modern feel. I added tiny punched circles from the cupcake and owl punches to bring in the indigo and mustard colors. My texture comes from the embossed stripe background, the popped-up elements, and the indigo brad. For my sentiment I grabbed the retired set Pocket Silhouettes and one of the bitty banner dies - after I cut it out, I glued it onto suede card stock and cut around it to make a layer to match the rest of the card.

I hope you'll play along with this challenge - I will admit that it might not be an easy one, but isn't that the point of a challenge? :) Be sure you visit the rest of the team and give them some love for their projects too. Have a wonderful weekend!

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!

Have a super birthday!

Saturday already? These weeks are flying by! I'm here with my card for this week's challenge for Our Creative Corner. This week our host is Paula McClane, and she has a fun challenge for us - she is hosting a murder mystery party for her birthday, which is today - so happy birthday to Paula! The theme of her party is super heroes - so we are being asked to make a layer-cake birthday card in red, yellow and blue. Here is mine:

For my cake I chose the image from Make a Wish. The colors I picked are Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler and Daffodil Delight (plus white). I did one layer in each color, cut them out, and popped them up in the center of a framelit-cut oval. The indigo label was embossed with the polka dot folder, then I added cherry faux stitching with a marker and a cherry seam binding bow. The simple background is two panels of designer paper, then I added the sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners.

I hope everyone has a great weekend - guess what, it's going to snow again here in Massachusetts! Maybe I'll get some extra stamping time if we get snowed in. I hope everyone gets to play along with our challenge, and before you join in, go check out the rest of the samples from our wonderful design team! Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday primroses

Good morning! I'm back with a vintage-style card for this week's challenge with Our Creative Corner - which my club members are also making this weekend. The OCC challenge is a sketch challenge this weekend - we hope you'll play along!

This was one of those cards that went through a lot of false starts. I had a few different techniques I was trying and nothing really worked out like I planned. But I like the end result. The card started with the Natural Composition specialty paper, which I sponged all over with Raspberry Ripple ink, and Soft Suede around the edges. For the border trims I used the scallop edgelit die and the decorative label punch layered three times. (All the paper was sponged with Soft Suede on the edges.) The outer panels are Crumb Cake polka dot paper and River Rock cardstock embossed with the fancy finial folder. I had a really tough time putting the focal image together. I had already dyed the vanilla flower trim with Primrose Petals reinker, accented with Raspberry Ripple from a marker on the edges. I thought I was going to use a stamped or watercolored flower image but nothing was quite right. The oval was stamped with the flourish from Everything Eleanor in Crumb Cake, then I put the three roses on top of the die-cut leaves. Finally I added the sentiment from Curly Cute - I put the right end into the decorative label punch and adhered the crochet trim and bow.

I'm off - it's a busy weekend around here! I hope everyone will come and play along with our sketch challenge. We always love to see what you come up with for our challenges. And be sure you go check out the rest of the design team's creations - they are always worth a look!

Memories of New Orleans

Greetings from snowy Massachusetts - we are in the middle of a blizzard and I'm having fond memories of a warmer climate! The challenge this week for Our Creative Corner is a Mardi Gras photo.

I have to admit, this one stumped me good. I don't have anything in my stash that goes along with this theme. But I do have photos from when Todd and I visited New Orleans last April, so even though it wasn't Mardi Gras then, I decided to go with that and use the colors and style of the photo to create a scrapbook page in My Digital Studio. The layout is from an MDS challenge blog called MDS Monday.

Hm, not my favorite MDS page I've ever done - it's been a while and I felt a little rusty. But I do like the gold glimmer paper as the background, and the colors are bright and fun - much better than the winter wonderland outside my window!

I know the DT has some fabulousness to show you over on the OCC blog so be sure you stop by to see their creations. Then put on your party hat and celebrate this fun challenge along with us! Have a great weekend, and if you're like me and suffering through the blizzard this weekend, stay safe and warm out there!

Raspberry Preserves

Hi again and happy Saturday! I'm still catching up on my freelance work and keeping crafting on the back burner for a couple more weeks, but I managed to make a card for today's challenge with Our Creative Corner. Our challenge today comes from Liliana Inguanti: use some form of woodgrain and at least one button. Instead of going for new stuff I pulled out one of my favorite sets from last fall, Perfectly Preserved.

The woodgrain paper (retired Christmas DP) was my starting point. I already had Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade and Raspberry Ripple out on my table and thought they would be fun colors together. The button is actually Cherry Cobbler, but the nice thing about our buttons is they can usually work with more than their "official" color. I tied some limeade baker's twine through the button and put it in the center of the thank you sentiment from A Fitting Occasion. Clean and simple works for me today... I hope you like it!

I know the design team has wonderful projects to show you so make sure you go check out everyone's fabulous work. Then please come play along with us - our challenges wouldn't be the same without you!

Warmest Wishes in White

Busy, busy week.... not much time for crafting while I'm working on a couple freelance projects for the next few weeks, but I'm doing my best to keep up with my Saturday challenge commitments. So with that here is my card for this week's fun challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess for the next two weeks is the lovely Liliana Inguanti, and for this week our challenge is to make a white card with a decorative edge. This is what I came up with, using the Mojo Monday sketch.

I wanted to try white-on-white embossing with the Elements of Style flower stamp. It may be hard to see it so here's a close-up:

OK, now can you see it? It probably shows up better in person. I made the frilly bow with white taffeta ribbon and glue dots, accenting the embossed die-cut. I always like to use lots of texture when I'm making a white card, so I embossed the background with the fancy fan and lacy brocade folders - just for fun, on the lacy brocade I put the embossed side down. Next I added a panel with the eyelet border punch (retired) and I cut the card base with one of the border framelit dies. Yes, you can cut both layers of the card at the same time! I accented the scallops with pearls and added the sentiment from Blooming with Kindness, which I stamped in Early Espresso.

This is a great challenge so we hope you'll play along - and check out all the gorgeous ideas the OCC team has for working with white this week!

Shabby Banner

Hello and happy Saturday! I'm back as promised to show you the second card made at my club this weekend. It's also doing double duty with the challenge at Our Creative Corner - I'm a busy working mom so of course I'm all about the multitasking! The challenge this week, hosted again by Sharon Wheet, is to make something in a shabby chic style. I knew I wanted to feature some new products from the spring catalog that fit perfectly.

There are a few new goodies making their debut with this card. I featured the Hearts a Flutter stamp set and matching dies for my banner. The colors come from the Twitterpated DP: Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo, and retired colors Pear Pizazz and Blushing Bride. (Retired colors in a current DP? Well, I still got 'em and love 'em so I'm gonna use 'em!) It's hard to see but I attached the banner to a red card stock piece cut out with one of our large framelit dies. On top I added a strip of the new lace tape - this is cool stuff since it's already sticky and you don't have to punch all those little cutouts! I decorated my banner with punched flowers and leaves, pearls, a (retired) button with indigo baker's twine, and the new little butterfly punch - and can you see behind the butterfly is the new mini curly label punch? Too stinking cute! Now, look closely and you can see one more new product at the bottom of the card. It's the new Simply Scored embossing plate, which is really fabulous. I added a sentiment from Curly Cute. I know I didn't get too shabby here - I didn't want to sponge it but I did distress the edges of the paper with my rubber scissors. So I guess it's a little less shabby and a little more chic? I don't know, but I like how it turned out.

That's it from me today - be sure you visit the other OCC team members' blogs to see their wonderful projects, and we hope you'll play along with us this week! Enjoy

A new year, a new start....

Hello, friends! I know it's been a long time. Unfortunately the situation with Todd's case hasn't really gone very far, but we remain hopeful. While we're waiting for everything to sort itself out, I decided that what would really be helpful to me is doing the things I love - and that means I'm trying to get back to stamping and playing challenges. It's been an awfully long time and I feel very rusty, but I'm diving in by rejoining the team at Our Creative Corner. (I've missed those awesome ladies and I'm so grateful to them for letting me take time off as I needed it!)

Anyway, the challenge that kicks off the new year is a lovely one from Sharon Wheet: aqua and pink plus a flower of any kind. Here in Massachusetts we have snow on the ground, so it kind of cheered me up looking at those springy colors. I decided to open up some new stuff from the spring catalog that just went live yesterday. Here's what I came up with, and I combined with a couple other challenges: Freshly Made Sketches and CAS-ual Fridays (make a thank you card).

I know you can spot the new stamps: it's a gorgeous set called Secret Garden and it comes with matching dies. LOVE! I wanted to try my hand at some watercoloring with a blender pen. The largest flower was colored with Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo; the small pink flower with Pink Pirouette and Pretty in Pink (with Melon Mambo in the center); and the aqua is Pool Party (with Baja Breeze in the center). I used black Stazon for stamping and you'll definitely want to use watercolor paper with this technique. The framelits cut it out beautifully. The background is Pool Party, with the top embossed using the Elegant Lines folder. The sentiment comes from Perfectly Penned, and the middle strip is crochet trim adhered to Pink Pirouette textured card stock with a piece of retired melon ribbon. The bottom corner seemed to need a little something, so I added some pearls to finish it off. I think pretty and elegant can still be CAS - what do you think?

It feels great to be back and I hope to be seeing you more often. I'm not going to go crazy and post every day or anything. ;) But I'm aiming for more often than just the OCC challenges on Saturday. It might be tough to get back into the stamping groove so wish me luck! And be sure you check out the beautiful samples from the rest of the OCC team - they are gorgeous as always! We hope you'll play along with us too. Happy new year - thanks for visiting and see you again soon!

Heavens to Betsy!

Whew, these Saturdays roll around quickly, don't they? Time for a new challenge at Our Creative Corner! We have a new hostess this week, Paula McClane, and she is asking us to combine bling with nature elements in our projects. Here's what I came up with:

I was about halfway through making this card (which was already my second try) when I realized I had just used the Betsy's Blossoms set two weeks ago. Well, I would have to say it's one of my favorite new sets, so I couldn't help reaching for it again! I combined a couple of other challenges with this one: colourQ and Freshly Made Sketches.

I did make some subs with the colors - I accidentally used Blushing Bride for my light pink, and instead of poppy I used Melon Mambo. I struggled a little with the layout, but when I was playing around with my label die-cuts and ended up with a skinny frame of the melon polka-dot DP, something clicked. The scalloped border on the right side is a new edgelit, the Blushing Bride DP is retired, and the sentiment is from another new set called Sweet Essentials.

I hope everyone has a great weekend - be sure you visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the creations from our wonderful team. It's always one of my favorite moments in each week when I get to see what they've come up with. And we love to see your work as well so please play along with us!

Serene Summer Silhouettes

Whew, it was another busy week. It's probably going to stay that way for the next little while, but I'll keep trying to post! Today it's time for my second challenge at Our Creative Corner. For this week I chose this photo of round fabric buttons for inspiration and came up with what I think is a fun challenge.

For my card I kept it pretty clean and simple this week.

I created the background and center strip with images from Summer Silhouettes, and the main image is from Serene Silhouettes. Give me a set with "silhouettes" in the name and I'm all over it, LOL! My colors are Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade, Blushing Bride, white, and black. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake, and the only non-SU product used was the 2" scalloped circle punch.

I'm outta here for today, but before I go of course I have to remind you to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the samples from the team. There's a ton of stamping eye candy for you this week! Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Eleanor's Blossoms

Good morning! I missed my stamps this week - there was just a lot of other stuff going on. But I'm here today as hostess of the challenge at Our Creative Corner for the next two weeks. I'm calling this week's challenge What Not to Stamp - it's a card makeover challenge! You can read the full description on the OCC blog, but to summarize it here, pick an old card (one you have a photo of), then CASE it with a makeover. It took a bit of courage for me to dive back into five-year-old card photos - wow, some of my first efforts were so.... awful! In the end I picked this 2007 card to do over. This was one of the first cards I published on my blog.

You can read more about this card here. The things I liked about this card were the background technique (I made it with a swim diaper, LOL!) and the colors with accents of gold. I also chose to use swirls, flowers, and a bird on my remake. I took my layout from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge, and I'm also entering this card in the Stampin' Royalty Anything Goes challenge. Here's my new card:

I used two stamp sets for my images: Everything Eleanor and Betsy's Blossoms. I started by making the Baja Breeze background panel by stamping the swirl all over with Early Espresso ink. I used the new gold pen (coming in the holiday catalog on August 1) to add accents around the swirls. For the center panel I started with naturals ivory card stock and sponged on some Baja Breeze ink with saran wrap and a paper towel. Over that I sprayed gold shimmer mist and sponged Early Espresso on the edges. Here's a close-up photo that shows some of the details a little more.

The Baja Breeze shaped element stamp is from the Eleanor set, with the bird and leaf from the Betsy set. To make those crisp and clean leaves look a little more vintage and distressed, I inked the stamp and then kissed it with a clean paper towel. I brought in gold accents with two (retired) brads. Finishing touches were a sentiment from Lacy & Lovely, a strip of crochet trim, and an accent flower. It's die cut with the new flower Framelits (the smallest one) cut out from a stamped flower in Primrose Petals. In the center I put one of those super-cute new In Color dahlia adornments.

Wasn't this fun? I hope you're inspired to find one of your old cards and make it over with us this week. Don't forget to check out the amazing transformations from the rest of the OCC team - they are fabulous!

Island Night Rose

Good morning! It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner. Our hostess again this week is Sharon Wheet, and this week the challenge is to use navy and pink plus another color of your choice. I picked Island Indigo to go with Night of Navy (of course) and Regal Rose. I think these colors look pretty fabulous together!

The featured stamp image is from Embellished Events - a fun new stamp set in the catalog. I colored it with markers, punched with the 2 1/2" circle punch, and placed that on top of a scallop square die cut that I embossed with polka dots. I added some rhinestones in the corners and a sentiment from Create a Cupcake, punched with the decorative label punch. For the background I used some retired rose DP, two strips of indigo ribbon, and indigo card stock embossed with the stripe folder.

Make sure you stop by the OCC blog for this challenge - especially because we are welcoming our wonderful new DT members today! You'll love seeing their creations each week and playing along with all of us!

Invitation in a Box

Happy Saturday! This week at Our Creative Corner our hostess, Sharon Wheet, is challenging us to make something for a summer party. I thought a bit and considered making some kind of favor in a container - then I saw my stash of altoid tins and decided to try making an invitation in a box. I kept it pretty simple but I think there are fun possibilities with this idea - what do you think?

This is the front - I covered the top and sides with two of the prints from the Patio Party designer papers and then wrapped the edge of the lid with white grosgrain ribbon. I used the colors in the papers for the stamping (Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Midnight Muse) and the stamp sets Mouthwatering and Inviting.

When you open the box the party details pop out. Sticking with the theme, I made my party an ice cream social. I lined the insides with more designer paper - the surfaces of the box leave lots of space for decoration if you want to add more. You could even add confetti or other fun stuff inside the box.

Here's a side view - to make the invitation pop out I made one of those springy paper things you make in elementary school - you know, take two strips of paper, attach them at right angles at one corner, and fold them over each other, back and forth... I'm probably not explaining that well, but you know what I mean, right?

OK, I think that's it! Now I want to have an ice cream social - or at least some ice cream! I hope you'll imagine your own summer party and make a project for this week's challenge. And you won't want to miss what the rest of the team has created - it's always worth a visit to the OCC blog to check them all out!

It's a cupcake card - really!

Are you looking for the cupcake? Can you find it? While you're looking, let me apologize for disappearing again the past couple weeks. It got really busy with the kids' last days of school and the beginning of the summer routine. I hope I will be able to get back to posting again - I'm taking it day by day right now!

Found the cupcake yet? This card is for the challenge this week at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess is Kristin Tierney - who is leaving us, sniff, sniff! - and she has asked us to use something that would ordinarily be used in baking. I was a little lost on ideas, but one day when I was at the M store I came across these cute cupcake liners by Paula Deen in the dollar bin. I figured there had to be a cute way to use them on a card. The layout comes from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge.

The new In Colors Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals, along with Always Artichoke, were really good matches for the colors in the cupcake liners. The flower was die cut from the bottom, and the largest circle is actually made of multiple liners. I cut off the outside border, flattened it, then added a couple more pieces to complete the circle. It ended up being so big that I made a 5x7 card. I wanted a big sentiment for the main circle and chose this one from Word Play. I added some of the large pearls and artichoke seam binding ribbon. Then I thought the corners needed a little something so I pulled out a MS punch. I'm still kind of... meh. I didn't have a lot of time to pull this together and it wasn't quite what I envisioned. I will have to play in some more challenges in the coming days to make sure I haven't lost my mojo! LOL!

Anyway, thanks for visiting today, and be sure you check out the amazing and delicious-looking creations from the rest of the fabulous OCC team!

Burlap Butterfly

It's been a very long time since I was able to participate in the weekly challenges for Our Creative Corner. The ladies over there have been so understanding with my needing to take a little break. I'm planning to be back as an active part of the team for the rest of this year - yay! This week's challenge is to use buttons and burlap. I can't say I ever thought about using burlap on a card, or even where to get burlap, LOL. But the local fabric store had several colors and I decided to use it on one of the cards my club will make this weekend. The layout comes from the Deconstructed Sketch blog.

Note: there are a whole lotta new products making their debut here! I wanted to feature a technique with this card and chose reverse masking. First I took one of the Apothecary Accents dies, cut out a shape with it, and sponged Crumb Cake ink inside the frame left over onto naturals ivory card stock. Next I punched out the Elegant Butterfly from a post-it note and sponged Primrose Petals (another new In Color) the same way. Before removing the mask I stamped the swirl from Everything Eleanor inside the butterfly with Early Espresso. The sentiment comes from the stamp set Lacy & Lovely. Once I was done stamping, I cut the image out with a labels framelit and sponged espresso ink on the edges. (Probably should have similarly sponged everything else but I forgot - oh well!) Three pearls form the butterfly's body. To finish the card, I cut a piece of burlap slightly larger than my die-cut shape and glued the two onto a panel of Primrose Petals DP and espresso CS embossed with one of the Delicate Designs embossing folders. I put a panel of Crumb Cake DP onto the naturals ivory card base, then added three buttons out of my stash, threaded with linen thread.

I hope you will take on our challenge and play with some burlap this week. Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog and see what the rest of the team has created this week! I'm really happy to be back and looking forward to many more fun challenges with all those lovely OCC ladies. Have a great weekend!