Very Nearly Spring!

The Spring Solstice is just around the corner, Daylight Saving begins early, early tomorrow morning, and our American "Psycho" Bulldog, Rudie, is acting like a spazz because she just got a bath outside! What a perfect time to make some spring-themed cards. It also happens that there is a new challenge happening over at LilyBean's Paperie which inspired the card I'm showing for this post. The "rules" for this one were to include a pocket of some sort, ribbon, buttons, stripes, and the color pink. The prize is a very pretty apron from JillieWillie (she makes such fun things!) and, once again, all of the entries I've seen so far are so creative and colorful. I like these directional challenges, I think, more than the "sketch" challenges because you can let your creatively flow and, try as I might, I can never stick to the rules of the sketches!

So, thank you, Melissa, for giving us such a fun palette of things with which to work. As I have seen in the other entries, everyone seemed to possess a limitless imagination! Here is my humble entry:

I used my Making Memories Circle Cutter for the FIRST time to cut the circles and trim the Basic Grey papers. I glued two Raspberry Fizz circles together and cut the piece just under the center and that gave me my pocket, in which I put a little card and a decorated sheer bird ornament. (A complete list of supplies can be found below.)

Now I just have to decide who I'll send this to--my mom truly deserves it since I was the most horrible daughter this week when I MISSED her birthday! Please note the wording--I did not FORGET her birthday; I MISSED it by a day. The whole week I was thinking that her birthday (March 4) was Thursday and on that day, I planned to Skype with her and my dad on our web cams since I am 3000 miles away from them. So when Thursday came around I happened to look at my calendar--which I did not do on Wednesday--and to my horror, I realized it was the 5th! So Mom, I know you said you that weren't upset (just worried) when your birthday came and went with no word from me, but I really am very sorry to have missed your birthday! Incidentally, my folks are headed out here for a week on March 24th so I will have plenty of opportunities to atone for my big mistake.

Chatty, chatty, chatty! I hope you like the card and thank you, Melissa Phillips, for the chance to play along in your new challenge. Everything you make is truly amazing and I thank you for that, too.

{Supplies: Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Paper: Striped, Green, Light Pink from "Sultry" collection (Basic Grey), Brown Polka Dots (Jenni Bowlin); Green Velvet Flower: (Imaginisce); Ribbon/Fibers: New Leaf Satin, Raspberry Fizz Grosgrain (Papertrey Ink), Sheer Pink, Lace (Wright's), Floss (DMC), Linen Thread (Stampin' Up!), Fuzzy Pink (Michael's); Buttons: (Papertrey Ink, Jo-Ann); Rub-Ons: White Flowers (Daisy D's), "Spring has sprung" (American Crafts); "Dwell in possibilities" (Stampin' Up!); Sheer Bird: (Maya Road); Gem: (Target); Stamps: "Beauty is all around" with flourish (Autumn Leaves); Ink: New Leaf, Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Circle Cutter: (Making Memories); 3" Scallop Circle Punch: (Marvy Uchida)}

A Fabulous Bag!

I just found out about a challenge over at Melissa Phillips' blog (LilyBean's Paperie) and decided to enter. The challenge is "a girl and her bag" and it's all about POLKA DOTS! Good stuff. She's got this bright, fun bag (pictured above) by Jillie Willie up for grabs and the bag was the inspiration for the challenge. But...a funny thing happened on the way to my finished product... I'm not quite sure how it all went down, but my finished product contains NONE of the supplies I got out to use when I started! I love the bright colors and original style of the bag and here is a photo of some supplies I INTENDED to use at the start:

And here is my finished project for the challenge:

So...What happened? Beats me. It's a days' worth of design evolution, I suppose. But, I like it! I probably won't win the challenge--there are a lot of AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL entries--but my end card does have a lot of romantic polka dots! And I was inspired to make this because of that Jillie Willie bag and the LilyBean's Paperie challenge so it's all good. I'm not mad AND I keep looking at the picture of what could have been with all those great greens and blues and that big pink flower and I know I will end up making something with all of that stuff. But right now, I've got to get this entry in before time runs out.


{Supplies: Cardstock: Blush Blossom, River Rock (Stampin' Up!); Paper: Ric Rac Roses, Ric Rac Polka Dots (Daisy D's), Brown Polka Dots (Jenni Bowlin) Green Polka Dots (no source); Tags: Avery; Ribbon: Pink Sheer, Lace Hem Tape (Wrights), Gathered Lace (Joann), Sheer Brown Dots (Michael's); Bird Punch: (Martha Stewart); Buttons: (Autumn Leaves); Adhesive Pearls: (KaiserCraft); Flowers: (Prima); Stamps: Polka Dot Heart, "Friend" (Inkadinkado), "Happy Birthday" (Papertrey Ink), "To" "My" "Beautiful" (Impression Obsession)}