OCC: Card Makeover!

Hi Friends!

In my job as a marketing manager, one of the things I do very often is challenge the graphic designers who work on my team to improve their skills. Most of the time, their growing relies on trying something new. But sometimes it comes in reworking something done previously using new techniques, freshly re-honed skills and a wider scope of inspiration. And that's what I like about the Our Creative Corner challenges as well. Sometimes we just need to start with something we did in an earlier time and see how we might improve on it.

This week at Our Creative Corner, we're doing just that. Our host, Lori Rider, was inspired by TV makeovers and has adapted the makeover concept for this week's challenge. As she puts it, "When I look back on those cards I made when I first started stamping, I cringe... what was I thinking?" 

My hobby only started a few years ago, so I have a lot of material to draw on! First, here's the "new" card - the one I've created for this challenge:

and here's the card I made in September of 2011 (insert "yikes" here):

I took the layout, rotated it 90° and kept the light blue/pink color scheme.

I distressed all the paper pieces, adhered the ribbon and bow and then added a few BoBunny chipboard butterflies with some glitter and WOW what an improvement. Don't you think?

I hope you're inspired enough to get working on a project and submit it to this week's challenge. Take a look at what the other OCC designers have put together for us this week:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie

Vicki Burdick It's a Stamp Thing

Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anita Houston The Artful Maven Haven

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts

Tui Nathan Stampin Time

Lori Rider The Diva Stamper

Kristin Tierney Lilly Beth Boutique

Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon

To play along with this challenge, you'll have to do a little bit o' homework. Hunt through your photos and find one of those old cringe-worthy cards – but then choose one or two things about it that you do like and use those elements on a new card. Think of it as CASEing yourself. Maybe you keep the layout, the colors, a technique you used... anything is fair game. You have to show us the old card so we can see how far you’ve come!

A Reminder About Posting:

We ask that you read the challenge requirements carefully and not submit work that does not fit our challenge.  Any submissions that do not follow the challenge requirements will be removed.  

We do require that your project be a new project and not back-linked to a project made before this challenge started. Please be sure you link back to the OCC blog post in order to be eligible for our Top Talent award.  This challenge closes at 11:59 p.m.Eastern Time on July 27th.

I can't wait to see what you chose and how much better you were able to pull it off!

Holly