Leave a Trail

I recently found Betty Bee's Buzz - a wonderful blog that has all kinds of things - projects, challenges, instructions and sharing...  Every Monday at Betty Bee's Buzz, one of the Honeybees shares a special project with you on the Monday Motivational. Last week, the incredibly talented Amy Sheffer of Pickled Paper Designs was guest Honey Bee for Monday Motivational.  Amy shared a great challenge that I got very excited about - a wedding theme for your not-necessarily wedding themed project: something OLD, something NEW, something BORROWED, and something BLUE.  What a brilliant idea!!

I have to laugh at myself about the process of making this card.  Lately I have been trying hard to discipline myself to create more in the CAS style.  For this one though, I intended to go for lots of layers and DP. It had much more going on when I first started.  I started with three panels of DP matted on black.  I changed the paper and the colors and the layout a million times... I fussed and I fussed... and then something wonderful happened!  I decided to simplify it and I stopped struggling.  I do love the layers and embellishments so much, but I labor so long and hard and I just don't have much time.  This card took me hours and hours by the time I built it up and broke it down, but I am happy with it in the end.  What a nut I am.    

This is a graduation card for my friend who just finished her Masters of Education degree.  I wanted to do something different, and I thought this image and sentiment from MFT's Enjoy the Ride, which is in their June 2011 VIP Package, was perfect for this occasion.  In the end, the only DP I used was to paper piece WTG's clothing.  I colored the rest of her and her bicycle with Copics.  You can't really see it in my photo, but I colored the handlebars and two other parts on the bicycle with my silver Zig Painty pen to make it look "chrome-y".  I love that touch!  The yellow panel is dry embossed with a polka dot impressions plate from SU - also hard to see in the photo. 

My something OLD is retired Barely Banana card stock from SU.  My something NEW is my new MFT Enjoy the Ride set.  Something BORROWED is the technique I've seen many times but seldom used, of stamping a sentiment twice, highlighting a word or words with color, cutting them out and popping them up on top of the sentiment already stamped.  My something BLUE is this WTG's paper pieced pants.  To tell the truth, there was a lot more blue when I was playing with panels and background colors, but they went away in my process of simplification!  I do love those pants though - I have a pair just like them!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this, and am so glad I finally got to play one of these challenges.  I plan to do more.  If you haven't yet, please go on over and check out Betty Bee's Buzz.  You will love it!