The lows and the highs! WOW!

I don't know if anyone noticed how grumpy I have been lately. My last post is proof -- sorry about how I ended it... rather rude. I apologize! My 18 month old is cutting molars and nursing all night, and it has been about 4 days without real sleep. Very harsh.

Still -- I have some news that has me sooooo jazzed I think I will have a hard time sleeping!

I WON A CONTEST!

I have been all atwitter over the Lizzie Anne Stamps, as you might know. You saw how I was coloring some of Jolies Fleurs, right? Well, I was over on Lindsey's blog, saw the contest, was totally enabled to get some stamps... and submitted 3 cards. It was a push for me to make the room for ME to create, with the kids being very needy right now (and rightfully so -- they are young!) But my vision came through to Real Life ... and one of my cards took Best Overall. Check it out! The competition was _amazing_ and I am so honored to have placed! I don't think I could have judged it at all!!!

Now that it is all over, I feel like it is ok for me to post the cards ;^)* The top one I call "Fall Flowers" and it was surprising for me to work in those colors -- something I never do! I had a lot of fun playing with the "kissing" technique... let me tell you, it has real possibilities for changing the way you look at those bold, flat stamps

Thank you sooooo much, Lindsey, for the opportunity to play -- This is a really Big Thing for me, as I am aching to be on a design team for Lizzie Anne someday -- maybe they will notice me! Yay, yay, yay!!!

I call this one "Juicy Flowers" -- it was the winner!

See how it opens? This is a "signature" card of mine. I cased myself -- if you look in my SCS gallery, here.

This little guy is a 3x3 that I thought would be great for the "Out of the Box" category. I jokingly said to Lindsey -- this is right out of the box, and into the barn! I thought it would be a great "thank you" for a baby gift. I see so many ways to enhance this now... mainly I want to emboss a square around it just to "finish" it a bit.

Ughhh... but learning a lot

I am pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone. And it's hard!

I have trouble using the patterned paper that I love. And I have all these new stamps and I am going to USE them, too! ARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH...

The trouble is -- I hate what I am making!

But... I am still going to post it ;^)*

Because it is all that I am making and I would rather post than not.



Ok, here's the card -- and I am going to send it away as a RAK hoping that someone likes it even though I am struggling. I am a newbie in the SCS RAK group, and I hope that maybe the surprise element will make this card more appealing. I hope so!

Recipe: Stamps: True Friend (SU) and Jollies Fleurs (Lizzie Anne Designs); Card Stock: Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, Perl White, Whisper White (all SU!); Ink: Palette Hybrid in burnt sienna, SU sage shadow; SU Markers; Making Memories brads.

What I don't like about this card: Things seem "off" -- not balanced, or syncopated or grooving together. The scallops seem to be fighting with the points! The sentiment is cramped.
I should have sponged the patterned paper, now that I think of it... The darned brads aren't splayed out flat enough... grrrr...

There are a few things I do like about it -- I USED stuff I don't normally break out ;^)*

I even realized that the flower that is on the inside of the card, peaking out -- needed NOT to be cut off -- so I pulled out the stamp-a-ma-jig, and it worked just as I hoped it would YAY! The final sponging of sage onto the sentiment and Lizzie Anne flower softened things up just a bit, and that helped too, in the end. I even used - gasp- markers, to color in the flower! I don't usually do that because, don't laugh, I just got them! You see, I like more subtle shading and blended colors, so markers just usually are not the tool that I use. And YES -- I am hating the way the center of the LA flower isn't shaded nicely -- and YES I wish I had a LOT of money for Copic markers to play around with those -- but I don't. So there.