fresh & fun

Whenever I look through the Creative Keepsake magazine, the Fancypantsdesign ads really jump out for me. I love the romantic doodled look. If I wasn’t a Stampin’ Up! demo I would have some of their products for sure. Here is the ad that inspired my the layout for my Inspiration challenge card:

 I just got my Marvy Urchida oval scallop punch in the mail from Ellen Hutson. It was on backorder for about 3 month. So there was no question about me using it. I started with a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of chocolate chip cardstock folded in half. I rounded the corners. Then I took a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Kraft cardstock, rounded two of the corners and stamped it with white craft ink and the Flannel Plaid Background stamp. I distressed the edges with white craft ink just a bit. Once it was dry I added the flourish stamp from the new stamp set Doodle This and the outline flower from Polka Dots & Petals. I let that dry and taped my beautiful new scallop oval on the card. I added chocolate flourishes  and solid flowers from Polka Dots & Petals as well as Office Accoutrement to the card, making sure some of the images would overlap my focal point.

The oval was still too white and stuck out like a sore thumb (that is an American expression, right? Sometimes I get my German and American sayings mixed up). I also felt like I didn’t have enough cool caribbean color on the card to tie the flowers in. I used the aqua painter to add a hue of cool caribbean around the image.

White organdy ribbon and chocolate chip grosgrain through an antique copper buckle were supposed to finish the card off. I took a picture and thought….that’s a little bland. I send a quick instant message to my sweet friend Cami and we discussed my dilemma. She agreed that it was too blahhhh and she said to add chocolate centers to the flowers. She also gave me some other ideas to play with. I kinda knew before I talked to her that I should freehand doodle a border around the cool caribbean coloring and maybe some doodle circles in the scallops. Well…..I really stress out about free hand doodling because I am not that good at it. I wish I could doodle like Anna. That girl is simply amazing. I jumped over my shadow and added the doodles and some white gel pen accents.

 I wish I had wide white grosgrain instead of the organdy. That might finish it off better. But this is how it’s going to be.

Off I got to drive over the toll bridge here to eat lunch with my family and do a little shopping. I think I might stop by at Michaels and get the cuddlebug and find the Adobe Photoshop element program.

Have a wonderful Sunday! Hugs!!!