Withholding Judgment

So I'm not so sure about today's card.  I had this idea but it didn't quite translate the way I had it in my mind.  So I'm not in love with this card.  I keep looking at it thinking that it needs something, but I'm not sure just quite what.  So I'm going to sleep on it and take another look at it tomorrow.  In the meantime, what got me started tonight was the newest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, another challenge block that I stalk read every week, but haven't participated in for a while.  I really liked Rita's sketch this week and I've had this Happy Trails set from Lawn Fawn that I picked up at CKC about two months ago, but haven't broken out yet.  But now that I've played with the set, I really, really want to go camping, but the RV is in the shop.  Boo.

I had stamped the stars from the Lawn Fawn Lucky Stars set, heat embossed the stars with some Versamark and clear embossing powder, stamped the car and trailer from Lawn Fawn's Happy Trails set, inked the starry night background and grass with some colors of Distress Ink, and had the car and trailer pretty much colored with Copics when my husband came in my craft room.  He immediately commented on how cute it was (which he rarely does when something is in progress).  So I felt like I was on the right track, especially when I added Wink of Stella to the starry night, but it just fell apart after that. I love the starry background embossed with the Darice Stars folder using paper from the Lemon Lush 6x6 pad from Studio Calico.  I wasn't sure on the banners because I couldn't find a paper I liked, so I just colored them with a marker to match.  Basically I like each of the elements by itself, but they just don't really come together right...  So you just may see this card again soon when I figure out what's not quite right.  Do you ever have that happen to you? 

Welcome Baby

It's been a rough couple of weeks at work so I have been too drained in the evenings to play in my craft room. Last week, I literally came home, crawled in bed, went to sleep, got up, went to work, repeat until the weekend.... Last weekend, I was busy finishing up April's Project Life layouts and prepping photos for May, so I didn't even make a single card.  Today was another rough day at work where I feel so brain-dead that I just wasn't sure I could come up with anything creative, but I figured I could clean the craft room even as a zombie.  But a funny thing happened... there was this first blip in an otherwise flat line of brain activity as I started putting away the remnants of a 6x6 Studio Calico Lemon Lush paper pad from my April Citrus Twist Project Life kit, I was drawn to a piece of the green paper that I had die cut with the grass border die from Lawn Fawn.    I set it aside thinking it would work well on a card with some critters or something.  Then a second blip when I saw the cute Polaroid-like die from Amy Tangerine's Plus One collection for American Crafts as I was putting away the dies on my desk.  Then ... blip ... these cloud cut-outs would work as a mask for the background ... blip... these Distress Inks are the right color for a sky ... blip ... this red glitter paper would be cute inlayed in the heart cut out ... blip... oh yeah, I need a baby card for my co-worker (oh, and Mom do you have any sweaters made up?) ...blip... I have that new set from Newton's Nook called Wild Child that would work for a cute baby card ... blip ... blip ... blip... and ta-da!  It's all made from scraps on my desk and the Newton's Nook set I got the other day but told myself I couldn't use until I finish up Project Life for April.

So don't look to closely at the coloring.  It's a little blotchy because I got caught up watching tonight's episode of True Tori while I was cleaning (okay so I was talking back to the screen telling her that she's chickening out by not asking Dean if this is the only affair he's had, plus I really want to know and I'm bummed that she's going to handle it in "private" - you signed up to have the cameras follow you, now I want the dirt and you're denying me that) and my ink dried before I got to finish blending it and, honestly, in person, it doesn't look nearly as blotchy as it does with all that light on it so I'm leaving it alone.