Scrap Stash Saturday!

I'm so excited to be back in my blogging routine! Vacation last week really put a wrench into it, that's for sure!

You all know that today is Scrap Stash Saturday, one of my favorite features! When I sat down to make this card yesterday, I struggled so much. My mojo clearly was clearly NOT engaged adequately enough to create something worthwhile. What to do???????? I just sat there and reworked and reworked the card. I'm still not totally satisfied with it! But I'll share it anyways, just so you guys know that creative blocks happen to EVERYONE, and in my humble opinion, you just need to work through them, regardless of how frustrating it is! Otherwise, if you let the block take over, you'll never be able to create anything......

Well my friends, I think maybe this week I chose so many patterned scraps to work with that even I was overwhelmed and sat thinking to myself... "there's no way I can make this happen with all these different patterns"! Good heavens, how was I going to manage to use each of these scraps in a harmoniously attractive manner? Maybe that's why I struggled so much making it yesterday! I mean, look at these papers....bold stripes, bold dots, bold paisley, bold flowers. Whew. Good luck, girl.

I think I needed it. I sat, and I sat, and I sat. I added, I took away. I punched, I hid the punch (literally--you can't see it, but certain elements on this card are hiding circles I punched out and a slit punch I made that I decided against at the last minute!). I doodled, I covered up the doodle with sewing (like THAT'S really going to hide the doodling....). Are you beginning to see how hard this was for me yesterday?

In the end, this is what I came up with.....It's cute, I think. In a strange way! Just kidding. I'm being pretty hard on myself, aren't I? I need to stop that, shame on me. Let me share with you what I did. First of all, my main scrap pattern was the lime green and purple paper. Next, I took the peach floral paper and the striped paper, and glue them together, then cut a decorative border, so the striped paper is only showing just a tish next to the peach floral. I laid that piece on top of the paisly paper and then sewed a decorative border around the edges. Take a step back for a minute. See the peach floral paper? That's the piece I first punched three holes in vertically and put a piece of Lovely Lilac cardstock under so the purple would show through the holes. That didn't look very good, so I needed to come up with something else to cover the holes.

To the rescue.....my heart punch. I decided to punch 3 hearts out of the striped paper and mat them with the orange polka dot paper. That way, I'm using the scrap, but not in a way that you can see it too much! I just couldn't figure a way to attractively fit it into the card without making a mockery of it! Once I got the hearts on, I was feeling better about the card. I stamped a sentiment on a piece of Very Vanilla paper and then mounted it on a piece of Lovely Lilac cardstock. It was a little blah, so I doodled around the sentiment with my LL marker. Yuck. That did nothing for it, but I was not about to make a new one. So, I sewed a zig zag border around the sentiment instead. Right on top of the doodles. Why in heavens name.........

Anyways, I still thought the card was lacking, so I took a clear button and backed it with one of the patterned papers and glued it on right beneath the sentiment. There. Finished. Thank the Lord!

On a special note, I am thinking of adding a new element to the Scrap Stash Saturday feature. What do you think if I have one of YOU send me some scraps you'd like me too make into a card? Doesn't that sound like a fun challenge? If you are interested in trying that, click on Email Me right under my picture and I can give you my snail mail address. Or, I am also listed on the Bloggers RAK list if you want to check there. I think this would be so fun!!!!!

Well, I'm off to take youngest son to the dentist. Then we've got a baseball scrimmage at noon. Then, maybe, I can stamp! Have a wonderful day!