Ahhhh! Time to Play With Paper!

I do so love it when I get a good dose of time to play with my paper! And it is even better when it is a totally unexpected dose of time! Last night Sean had to go to a meeting and it turned out to be a late night, so I was at home by myself for the evening. What does that mean? Laundry? Nope. Dishes? Nope. Vacuuming? Nope. SCRAPBOOKING!!! That's right, folks! I took some much needed time to focus on crafting. In that time, I managed to complete two cards and one layout that I am really pleased with. I used challenges this time around to get me moving and BOY did they! I think I work will with a little push from the outside! LOL! Okay...enough jibber jabber....here is what I made!

First off, this is a Precious Moments card that I created for the Alzheimer's Care Takers Card Challenge that is posted on Carolyn King's blog. I think it is so cool that she is doing this and even cooler that so many people have stepped in to make it an amazing event! Thanks, Carolyn!

I have to admit, this isn't my favorite card that I've ever made, but I think that is partly due to the fact that these are not colors that I normally work with and the Precious Moments idea isn't one that I normally go with either! LOL! So...it was a challenge, but I think it looks nice and I would love to know what you think of it.

The patterned paper is Sunborn, the shimmer paper is Prizm. I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and blended them adding just a touch of reflection with my Uniball Signo pen. I added the Bazzill flower with the CTMH sparkle to finish it off along with the American Crafts gingham ribbon.



My second card of the evening was for the House Mouse Monday Challenge Blog. I love these stamps and I had three brand new ones sitting on my shelf that I hadn 't used yet because I was afraid to get them dirty! LOL! So...I took this challenge as a push to get one of those stamps dirty! And I LOVE the card! The challenge was to include stitching on your card. Other than that...no rules! Just be sure to use a House Mouse stamp, of course!

Patterned Paper is BoBunny, Embroidery Floss is DMC, Stamp is House Mouse, Markers are Prismacolor markers, Grey pen is a Zig Chalk Writer by EK Success, White pen is my Uniball Signo, Stickles are by Ranger, and the trim, I believe, is Basic Grey. It is stamped in Close to My Heart Archival Black ink.





And....finally...the layout that I created was for yet another challenge! LOL! The challenge over at Got Mojo? was to create a layout inspired by the Cirque du Soliel. To be honest, I don't know if anyone will see the inspiration in my piece or not, but this is where it led me. I had an impression of Cirque from things I had seen on television and in print ads, as I've not seen them live. And yes, the obvious bright, bold colors and contrasts certainly did come to mind. However, after visiting the website I noticed that some of the more recent stuff appears to be more on a surreal level. Well, I guess they have always been a bit surreal, but the images on the website invoked a softer tone than I normally associate with them. This led me to create a rather surreal looking layout. Another thing that stands out to me when thinking of Cirque is the fluidity of motion. I was sure to incorporate that into my layout, as well. I kept my edges soft, but I played with line and motion. The shapes are strong, but subtle all at the same time. What do you think?



The patterned papers are Dreamstreet (background and text) and American Crafts (brown leaf). Ink, stamps, and twill are all Close To My Heart. Chipboard letters are American Crafts Thickers coated with Martha Stewart Glitter, Sparkles are Close To My Heart, and the glitter glaze is Making Memories, the flower is Bazzill, and finally, the trims are from my jar.

I apologize for the poorly lit photos. I usually take my photos either really early in the morning before the sun is up or at night due to my work schedule. I am working on a solution to this problem, though, so hopefully you will see improvement!

So, what do you think? Do you utilize all those great challenge blogs out there? Let meknow your favorites! I have a long list, but I'm always looking for new ones!