Don't you just love a challenge? Some can be easy, some can really stretch you to move out of your comfort zone. And...we all like to remain comfortable...Right???!!! We like to remain right there...in the worm and cozy down comforter zone. BUT.....If we remain in our comfort zone, we will not grow. All growing comes with growing pains and some hurt more than others, LOL
Keeping this in mind, I like to challenge myself to something new. This forces me to move forward in my paper crafting. Last month my personal challenge was to make some simple one or two layer cards. It was tough...I LOOOOVE my dimensionals, my layers, my bling and accessories. You know what, though????? I loved it, REALLY loved it.
This month I am challenging myself to make one scrap book page layout a week. You can read about this personal challenge in yesterdays post. One thing about personal challenges is that you can choose them to either jump completely out of your CZ or just reach an finger out. You will purposely make the challenge "personal". You know you need to grow, but don't want to do it to FAST, LOL.
With this in mind, I check out the challenges on forums and blogs I often visit. One forum I visit just about every day, Split Coast Stampers, has daily challenges. Each day of the week offers a different type of challenge. You can access them right from the home page. Just scroll down about half way and you will see them on the right. Saturday is called "'Inspiration Challenge" in which the person hosting the challenge finds something for you to look at and you are to use it, somehow, as inspiration for your project.
Yesterday was the very first Saturday I have been able to actually take the challenge. The host had 3 photos to choose from and use for your inspiration. One photo was of journal covers that has swirly silhouette type decorations on them. The other, wrapping paper I think, had similar swirls in retro colors. Both of these seem to be every where one looks, so I, personally, was not very challenged by them. I love swirls, flourishes and silhouettes so I use them enough. The retro color combos using orange are not my style at all. So much so that I don't even own those colors, LOL.
Anyway...as you can guess, I chose the third one. Here it is:
The colors still seem quite retro to me, but workable. The critters are cute. AND....my order from The Greeting Farm came in. Perfect timing! This is actually a card they sell on the site the host found the pictures. The inside sentiment is "...when we'er together." Cute kids and their pets for a cute sentiment. Well....here is what I came up with:
HA HA HA.....hahaha...aren't these little guys just adorable! Everything is better when you are with friends! They all look so happy in their green and yellow rainbow cloud covered field.
Here is a close up of these little guys:
I am just in puppy love with them! Now, as much as I thing these images are wonderful...this is so NOT my kind of card. I like this color, but not alone! And not with the More Mustard Yellow! Nor am I a polka dot person. You will rarely, if at all, see them in my cards in the gallery before today. But...it was a challenge and I over came my inhibitions for it.
I need to practice my coloring too! Practice, practice, practice, LOL. At least I find it calming, even if I over blend and start ripping the paper.
I should have used Water Color paper, since the right paper makes all the difference when it comes to paper crafts. The right paper is the best foundation and can make a project great. On the same note, the wrong paper can ruin a project. I used whisper white card stock here and it is not made for blending. My last step was to added some color to the cheeks but the paper was already wet from the blender pen. As I tried to blend the cheeks, especially on the pig and cow, the paper started to ball up and it was just not going to blend. Bwaaaa ha ha ha, they look like they are blushing.
Did you notice the changes I made to my blog???? Yup, the Super Bowl was on last night, as I am sure EVERYONE was aware, LOL. So I challenged myself to figure out how to put one of those bars on top of my blog with the links in them. (Navigation bars I found out is the name of them, teehehe) I have seen them on so many blogs and wanted one so that my side bars would not look so cluttered. I am so proud of me, teehehe..it is not perfect, but it is workable. And I did it all... by... my...self! I have graduated from 2nd grade to 3rd grade in computer skills, bwaa ha ha ha.
You can now find the card recipe in the card gallery in the "Navigation Bar" just above the posts. Ha ha ha...I am a bit giddy right now..I admit it.
Let me know what you think..please ;o)
Tomorrow I have another really hard challenge I did to share with you.
Until then...HUGS! Sandy O
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