OCC: Color Challenge

This week on OCC we're tacking a color challenge. Grey, red and black - a bit of a masculine color scheme to me.

But I have a problem.

Pretty frilly thank you cards. Done.

Flowery pink butterfly stamped birthday cards. No problem.

Masculine cards. Hard. Oye.

So this was my masuline card. My brother-in-law had his 30th birthday recently and this was the card I created for it. It was hard because I wanted to embellish. I wanted to distress. I wanted to glitter-fy. What I ended up doing was finding some grey and black papers in my stash. I had to mix and match on this but for the fact that there's three different paper makers on this card (five when you count the cardstock and sentiment banner), I really like how it came together.

I left the stitching a little long when I trimmed it. That was a happy accident. I liked how it looked so I left it.

 I also added some things on the inside to finish the card. I don't do that a lot but I probably should.

Play along with us this week at Our Creative Corner and use this week's color pallet as your inspiration and don't forget to check out the other DT blogs to see how they've incorporated these colors into their projects!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan

Have a great weekend!
Holly

Yellow & a Little Kraft

Hi Friends!

Tonight I was inspired to play along with the CR84FN blog color challenge this week- yellow, kraft and a neutral. So pretty, isn't it?

After I put Grady to bed, I headed up to my studio and pulled out all the yellow patterned paper I could find. I didn't have much but I was pretty happy that what I did have matched quite well.

Layout look a little familiar? Yup. I borrowed it from an older card I did about a month ago an loved. I think I might make another with this layout in another color and make another card trio. (I just can't resist!)

I am in love with these little crocheted doilies as of late. I had them forever in my craft stash and always thought, "What on earth am I going to do with these?" But one day a few weeks ago, when I was in need of a flowery-type embellishment and wanted something other than paper, this was the perfect solution. Thank God I have a few packs on order so I'll be getting more this week. Woo hoo!

Be sure to come back on Saturday for the new Our Creative Corner challenge. I've done a card a little out of the norm for me this time. I hope you'll come back and see what I've done.

Have a great week!
Holly

OCC: Sketch Challenge

I love sketches. I just can't get enough of them. I remember when I first looked at a set of sketches from Paper Crafts Magazine I was pretty overwhelmed, a little confused and a lot unsure of how exact the sketch should be. But over time, I've come to really cherish them. Now, they pretty much get me started on every project I do. I just can't get started unless I have an idea of where I'm going. And if I shift my design in the middle and end up with a layout that's quite a bit different than the original sketch, that's OK to me.

This week on Our Creative Corner, we're using a sketch for our challenge this week. Vicki's sketch is perfectly simple so it really encourages designers to be creative with their cards. I'm really curious to see how different each one of you will approach it and what it will take to make it your own.

Because I love sketches, I really enjoyed the process as much as the finished project. Here's my take on Vicki's great sketch.

This is the first time I've used a crocheted flower on my card and I think it really works here. I've been drooling over Julia Stainton's work lately and she uses these occasionally so I thought I'd give it a try.

I stamped a word background stamp onto the tag and as it dried it lightened up quite a bit but I still love it.

And here's a little tip on keeping twine to stay in place on a circle. Sometime trying to tack twine to paper is a loosing battle so I used another trick I've used before that works well for me. I actually placed a few foam dots on both sides of the twine on the back to keep it in place.

I tried to take a picture to show you:

Play along with us this week at Our Creative Corner and use this week's sketch as your inspiration and don't forget to check out the other DT blogs to see how they've made this sketch their own!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan
Have a great weekend!
Holly

Snowflake Trio

I did it again. (No oops - I did it on purpose.)

I was inspired by the last OCC challenge when I did a card trio and truth be told, I made this trio at the same time I did the fruit one. You see, I'm in the holiday-card-making-spirit. I'm signed up for a local high school holiday craft fair in November and so I'm crankin' away on holiday stuff to get my little 8' x 10' piece of it all stuffed with holiday paper crafted goodies.

Here's what I like to do when I'm creating cards to go together in a set. I typically like to mix patterned papers and these days its pretty easy to do with the number of patterns most manufacturers build into their lines. The papers I used on this set are from Echo Park Wintertime and were actually a few larger scraps left over from another project - a perfect way to use up those leftovers!

Border papers (like the one above) with strips on one 12" x 12" sheet would be perfect for this kind of project and was also perfect for this minimalist layout. To bring the set together, I mixed the patterns up so a few patterns are on different cards.

Off to make more product for my little paper venture.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Holly

OCC: Fun with Fruit

Happy Saturday!

This week we're all about fruit at Our Creative Corner. Summer is the season of fruit so find your inspiration in the colors, shapes and fun that this challenge can bring.

I immediately went to my new Papertrey Ink Fruit Frusions (Pear, Cherry & Apple) sets. I did start out with the stamps but as you can see, I ended up getting really inspired by the dies I got along with them. I was so inspired, I made a set of three cards and I think I'm in love! This trio concept really got my creativity going (not to mention the new paper from My Minds Eye, Stella and Rose - Gertie) so hold on! I'm pretty sure you'll see more in the future.

Here's my favorite, the apple:

And the cherry. I'm so happy I decided to mix the papers on the cherries. Thanks to double sided patterned paper, this was a happy accident.

 And finally the pear.

And then for fun, I decided to bundle them together with a bit of tulle ribbon and make a cute little tag. This will be a perfect grab-and-go gift.

I love mixing patterns. I was lucky that my Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Fired Brick was the perfect red for the scalloped circle and matched the chevron paper I used for the circle back. LOVE IT!

So dig out some fruity stamps, paper or baubles and join us at Our Creative Corner! And don't forget to visit the rest of the team's blogs to find more luscious, juicy and sweet inspiration!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan

Have a great week!
Holly

OCC Challenge: Oh the Flowers!

Today is my very first post as an official member of the Our Creative Corner blog and I am so excited! I've been papercrafting for about 8 months now and I love, love, love it! I'm still learning and growing so getting to play along with these challenges is a great way for me to stretch myself. I can't wait to see what challenges are around the corner and I can't wait to see what others will do with this unique challenge.

This week's challenge is a good one courtesy of Kristen and her inspiring trip to Copenhagen. To be inspired by flowers but not be able to use them in the design seems simple enough at the start but try going through your patterned paper, stamps, diecuts, stickers, ribbons and brads while trying to stay away from an actual flower image and see what you think. It truly is a challenge!

My inspiration was in the bounteous, variety in color flowers provide. I thought of each circle as a bloom. Presented all together, my card background is like a wild flower field, colors of all types among one another without real rhyme or reason. I also love the sentiment from an American Crafts set I just got which tied into the challenge theme well this week.

I do feel like I cheated maybe a teensy bit by using my scalloped circle punch since it is pretty close to a flower but I think its ok. I was so proud of myself for actually finding patterned papers in my scraps that didn't have a flower on them. What a great kind of project for using up the little bits of patterned papers you still treasure but don't have the heart yet to toss.

Play along at Our Creative Corner this week and see what kind of creativity you can cook up with this week's challenge!

Holly