Hello everyone: The challenge for the month of July over at the
Power Poppy blog is HANG SOME PAPER!!!!! Hosted by the fabulously talented
Leslie Miller . Now, this challenge is not about Card Stock, mind you.....Leslie is asking us to use patterned paper, goodness, gracious!! Most of my crafting friends know that I just don't like DSP all that much, don't get me wrong, I love the patterns, most of them are lovely, sharp, colorful but for me, they represent a challenge on their own. My brain just can't deal with it, no kidding, when I see crafters making gorgeous cards combining patterns and cardstock I get so jealous. ME?.....well, I see DSP and I freeze!! I don't buy a lot of this type of papers, I do own some but I don't use it often, specially double sided DSP, if the one sided kind is difficult to deal with, the double sided paper makes it impossible (for me) to decide which side to condemn to obscurity forever.
So this Power Poppy July Challenge made me step out of my comfort zone and try, really try to come up with some kind of design that will follow the requirements for it.....this is the card that I made, please, just bare with me.
Believe me when I tell you that this rather simple card took me almost 10 days to complete!!!!! I made a ton of backgrounds with all kinds of papers from my very humble stash, my craft room look like something weird had exploded in there, there was paper clippings all over the floor and on my work table and on top of the counters, then the mess follow me to the kitchen table, where I showed some of the "layouts" to my ever patient husband who, I think, was even more lost than me when I kept asking "which one of this papers look best, honey?" and kept a stoic attitude through it all, gosh!! Back in my craft room, I looked like a mad scientist experimenting, cutting, pasting, arranging and rearranging layouts with disastrous results. So I left this alone for a while, I decided to let my brain rest, regroup, refresh, restart, recharge and I proceeded to cleaning up the mess and vacuuming the evidence of my experimentation, ughhh!!
Well, today I came back to face my nemesis , who patiently was waiting for me to resume the battle, I took a look at my stamped image, which is one from the lovely
Potted Primroses by Marcella Howley, and finished coloring it, I stamped the sentiment and die cut the tag, sat at my desk and started again thinking about how I can create a card for this challenge, I really didn't want to give up. Since I truly do not know how to combine patterns, I finally figured that I needed something that I can start building with so, I went to the closet and grabbed the box of pink paper scraps, I rummaged for a bit and finally I found that wide piece of DSP I placed under the bow, the colors are bright and pretty so I just grabbed it and let it guide me. The lay out took some hard thinking too, I went from horizontal to star burst to vertical, cut skinny pieces, big pieces, die cut pieces, sheeesh!! until finally I arrived at this layout and when I did, I again walked away because I really liked it and I didn't want to start messing it up, later I came back and glued everything in place, took the picture and I was done.
This is the challenge banner that pushed me into the uncharted territory of DSP.
I hope you like this card, I know I went on and on about this very simple theme (for most) which is DSP, I know I should not feel so darn intimidated by it but that is the way things are, I wish I could attend a seminar or something where I could learn not to fear this lovely papers and learn how to combine the patterns, that most times are so beautiful, to add variety and interest to my cards.
Anyway my friends, I thank you for reading this post and for your comments and as always, if you have any questions, (which I totally doubt for this post), please just ask me. I always try to reply to all the comments, ok?
Thanks again for visiting.
Many paper (not DSP) hugs for you.
Maria.
