Not What I Planned / NAC #26 / My Challenge # 53

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Hey y'all. I've got a new challenge card for you tonight and as much trouble as it was to get it done, I'm really happy with how it turned out and I hope you will be too.

Do you ever plan on things going one way and even though you start out that way you end up with something else? Yeah, well that seems to happen to me fairly frequently, but boy did it happen in a Major way today. There's one thing I've always tried to be on this blog and that's just honest. I started this blog to make myself step out and try new things to not be a "Scaredy Cat". Because I hope that at least every once in a while I inspire someone who might be starting out or struggling with some of the same confidence and or creative issues I struggle with, I try to keep it real here. As much as I hate to show items that I feel aren't "just right" or "fabulous", I know that all my creations can't be that way. I often struggle with the fact that cards or projects I see on other blogs always seem to be that way, so why can't mine. Are you wondering where I'm going with this? I started today's card with an idea in my head. I could see just how my card was going to be and it was going to be pretty nice. I started it and I was excited by how it was going and then it went down-hill in a major way. Because I'm all about showing you that I'm just a normal stamper like many of you out there, I will show you my "horrible mess" but not at the beginning of my post. I'm afraid if someone was "hopping" through bloglandia and saw it first they might never come back. It will be at the end of this post so I hope you will hang around long enough to see it.

Today's post is from the Fabulous ladies over at Nacho Average Challenge and it's a color challenge. I really try not to dislike color challenges but they really do stump me a lot of the time. After my first idea tanked I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to come up with something acceptable. However I haven't missed one of their challenges yet, so I was determined to rise to the challenge. Here's my card-

Thank You Card featuring
Build A Blossom Stamp Set and Punch and
Blooming with Kindness Stamp Set

What do you think? It's way off from my normal style, even though I couldn't tell you what my normal style is. LOL! I'm still really happy with it though. BTW- do you know how hard it is to type when your studio assistant is on your lap and draped over your hand?

Here's the Color Challenge I was working with tonight-

I used Soft Suede as my card base and also used it to lightly sponge over my embossed frame. I used a dauber instead of a sponge to better control the placement of my color over my Tulip Border. This was created using my Tulip Frame E.F. which I haven't used in way too long. I used a Whisper White piece of c/s for the center panel. The sentiment is from Blooming with Kindness and is also stamped in S.S.

Here's a closer look at my focal point-

This is the first time I've used the Build A Blossom stamp set. It had been on my wish-list for a while and even though I try to use my new stamps as soon as I get them, this one has been sitting for a while. I stamped both of the petal images in Perfect Plum and then used the coordinating punch to punch them out.
***Tip***- When punching these petals out, stamp and punch from L-R since the "Petal" portion of the stamp is on the left hand side of the punch. This will help to minimize your wasted c/s. Although I love that most of the images can be punched with one punch it can also be a very wasteful punch. This is a great punch to use with your c/s scraps. :)

After stamping 5 of the solid petals (on the bottom) and five of the not-so-solid (sorry I didn't know what else to call them) ones I used my Paper Piercer to punch a small hole in the base of each one.  Before I put them together I used my bone-folder to curve the bottom petals down and the top petals up. This really adds a lot of dimension to the flower. I felt like it still needed something so I let Tink have some fun with the top petals before using a mini-brad to hold them all together. I hid the brad under the center piece which I also let Tink play with. This was popped up with a Dimensional. One Dimensional over the "legs" of the brad secures the flower to the center panel. My leaves were stamped in Old Olive and were secured with little pieces of Dimensionals from the sides of the packs.

Here's the inside-

I used another sentiment from the Blooming with Kindness set and because I had to have something pretty for the inside I used a flower from the Everything Eleanor set. I think it coordinates nicely with  the flower from the front. A little love from Tink and my card was done-

So what do you think? I know just who this card is going to and I really hope she likes it! I hope you and the fabulous ladies at NAC like it too.

So now for my FAIL. There's a new stamp set in our Sale-A-Bration Catalog that I just had to have. It has a Ferris Wheel on it and my idea was to water-color the background in the Old Olive for the grass and shades of Perfect Plum for an evening sky. I'm not the best at water-coloring which is why you don't see that much of it here on my blog. But I have to say I was happy with how it turned out. I inked up my Ferris Wheel in Versa-Mark and Soft Suede (I wanted to clear emboss it so it would stand out a little more since it's a softer color than say Early Espresso). Great idea, not so great results- Please be warned ahead of time that it's pretty awful-

Epic Fail! But see, the background looked nice. I tried it again with just the stamp-

I think it was the fact that I was stamping on the Water-Color Paper. because I got a much crisper image on my grid paper. Oh well, all things being what they are, at least I tried something new and you can see that we all have our cards that don't turn out right even if we rarely see them out in bloglandia.

And because I couldn't let those awful pics be the last thing you remember about my blog here's another picture of my studio assistant Duecey, being a blanket assistant too as I was working on Tooey's baby blanket-

My sweet boy!

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I hope it inspires you to try something new today...even if it doesn't work out. you know the motto of this blog is to "Just Try". If you liked today's card or have questions about it I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comet below. I love hearing from you and your comments really do make my day. If you'd like to +1 or Pin it (the good card not the fail, please) I've put those buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. you are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain. 

Be Safe,
Shan

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