Where Do You Find Inspiration? /NAC #70

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Hey y'all. Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you are ready for a Safe and Enjoyable end to 2013. It's Tuesday, so that means the Nacho's have a New Challenge for you. It's a Color Challenge to end the year. I hope you'll play along with us.

So today's project started a little differently for me and it made me think, "Where do you find your Inspiration?" I don't know about you, but sometimes inspiration strikes me in the weirdest ways and it's often surprising where it goes from the initial starting point. That's how it was for me with today's project. Also, I often Seriously Overthink things. Do you do that or is it just me? Also, I think it's fun to look back and see where your Inspiration started and how it evolved to it's end point.

So here's today's project I actually did it 3 ways, like I said- over thinking-

So at first I was really stumped by this week's color combination-

And then I remembered I had these from Thanksgiving and had thought they would make a pretty card-

Ok- not exactly the same color but it was close and it was a start. Then I had to figure out a layout. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love card sketches. I have a board on Pinterest just about sketches, in fact one for cards and one for scrapbooking. I had recently seen this sketch and thought it would be fun, especially since I have the Tape it stamp set in both Clear Mount and MDS-

Still a lot of open space though. AUGH! So, I started thinking and it struck me that maybe if my guy made a card from scraps in my stash he might do something simple and then maybe slap some Washi on it so my card was born.  I cropped and used the little heart flowers to go with my original "flower inspiration".

The card ended up a little darker than I planned so I played around with the combo and came up with these as well-

I just re-colored the layers and washi and changed the font styles and colors. I like the pink one the most but it definitely wouldn't be something I could give my man. LOL :) The green one was the last and it's definitely the most middle of the road but I still like it too.

You know what happened next? I looked at my team members projects and really realized just how much I had over-thunk it! Oh well. It's a creative process and the best part of doing this in MDS... I didn't waste any materials during my experimentation. YEA!!!

Well, that's all I have for you this week. I hope it inspires you to play along with us this week. Most of all I hope it inspires you to really step out of your comfort zone and try something totally different. You might be pleasantly surprised. I would love to hear what inspires you and/or how you come up with your ideas and I can't wait to see what you come up with!

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

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 and Happy New Year's early!,

Shan

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Tape It for NAC #51

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Hey y'all. Happy Saturday! I hope you're having a great weekend. It's Saturday night and because I'm a slacker that means it's time for another Nacho Average Challenge card. I miss the days when I got to stamp and blog every day.  Today's card has lots of new products to show you, hope you enjoy. Here's this week's NAC challenge card-

I have to say that I'm so happy with how this turned out! Everything is new with the exception of the Whisper White cardstock and the Stripes E.F. Aren't the colors Yummy!?! They're the new 2013-2015 In-Colors. I started with a base of Coastal Cabana. I then created the banners using the other colors- Baked brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Strawberry Slush and Pistachio Pudding. Most of you know I hate mixing and matching colors and patterns because I never feel like I do a good job of it. I really stepped out of my comfort zone for today's card and I'm glad I did. :) The patterns on the banners are from the stamp set Tape It. They look like Washi Tape, you just can't tell on here because I flagged the ends. This set was on my must have list and in my first catalog order. Love it!!! The greeting is from the Really Good Greetings set. I am loving all the good sentiment stamps in this year's catalog. How about that ribbon? It soft and stretchy and just all around fabulous. I saw it at this year's Baltimore Regional and new I was going to be getting all of them.

Here's the sketch I was working with-

I changed it up just a little. What a great sketch though. I know I will definitely be using it again and soon. You know I like to have pretty insides too so here's what I came up with-

I stamped my sentiment from Oh Hello in Coastal Cabana onto a piece of Whisper White c/s that I ran through the Big Shot with my New Deco Labels Framelets and my new Magnetic platform. How inspired is that Magnetic Platform? Uh, the answer to that would be, So Inspired!!! I stamped a different pattern from the Tape It set and used those pieces to "tape down" my cut-out piece. Two WOW little factoids for those of you that know me- 1- I stamped my sentiment after I ran the c/s through the Big Shot and I did it without using my S-A-M-J. 2- As hard as it was for me I didn't obsess about the "tape" being in exactly the same place on all 4 corners. I know you're now asking yourself if I really made this card, but I did. :) Baby Steps...

I forgot to add a picture of my sweet little Nacho last week so I've got something a little different this week. I don't know if you watched The Voice this season or not but I was so excited to see little Danielle Bradberry win! Someone else found their voice this week, 3 guesses who and the first 2 don't count. My little Nacho discovered her voice this week and she's telling all sorts of stories to anyone who'll listen. That is except to me when we Face-Time. Silly girl just sits there and smiles and tries to grab me and then cries when I sign off. Lucky for me her sweet momma got some video for me or I wouldn't believe it. Here she is-

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked my card and that it inspires you to let loose and have some fun. If you liked today's card or have questions, I hope you'll leave me a comment below. I love hearing from you and your comments really so make my day. If you'd like to +1 or Pin it, 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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