Challenge!

As if crafting itself was not challening enough, we crafters love to challenge each other or be challenged by each other.  I decided to enter a challenge this month.  Above is my card for the Unity Be Inspired Challenge.  Unity Stamp Co. offers a monthly challenge.  Read more about the challenge on there blog here.

I decided to enter their challenge this month., because I needed some inspiration.  I often feel like I have a million ideas and then sit down to craft and all my ideas run away.  It is the empty paper syndrome.  One of the things I like about this challenge is that it is a sketch challenge.  They give you an idea!  How wonderful!

I had been thinking about what stamps I wanted to use and my background for a couple of days.  True to form, though, I went a completely different direction once I sat down to craft. The stamp I was first going to use was to large.  Oh no.  Even the stamp I went with was almost to large for a greeting card.  The full stamp is the middle image.  What I did was eliminate the birds when I stamped the flower my two additional times, by wiping the ink off the birds before stamping.  This made the image fit. I water colored the flowers and birds with a water pen and Distress Markers. I decided to fussy cut the images as if they are die cuts leaving a little bit of white around the image.  There was some little details that would have been to hard to cut out without leaving the white border.  I feel the faux die cut helps give this card a whimsical appeal.

When I cut the images out, the paper was still a little wet.  I was able to shape the flowers which added some dimension to the images.  I popped the middle flower up with pop dots.  I wanted the middle flower and birds to be the focal point of this card.

I really enjoyed making this card. Card making is also a wonderful way to battle crafting ADD.  Just like artist trading cards, greeting cards offer a small canvas in which to create.  You use a many or as few techniques as you like on each card.  They are great for practicing new techniques also. I have much more to say about greeting cards, as you will see in the coming weeks.

I hope you enjoyed the card!