They say that some things are worth waiting for. This card is like that! I originally started this card almost a month ago to enter it into the PTI monthly contest (using Guidelines stamp set). I folded the white card base and stamped the Ocean Tides/Kraft Guidelines background panel. But then, I was stumped. I wanted to use Lemon Tart (one of my favorite PTI colors), but it was too light be a focal color. Since the contest is long over, I was able to do it unhindered by the desire to “win” something.

I *love* how this card turned out! I used Melon Berry (another of my fav colors) along with Butterfly Kisses (a definite go-to caliber set). I embellished with my white gel pen and a few strategically placed rhinestones.

Over at SCS, there will be another VSN mini on Saturday. But on Friday – there was a surprise challenge! The challenge was to embellish a card with at least 3 things (from a list).

So, my card isn’t highly embellished, but I made up for it by eating a couple cookies whilst I created the card 😉 The first requirement was to use a favorite stamp set. Well, for me, my favorite set is always the one I most recently got – that would be Wishing You by Dawn for PTI. Then my “bar” selections were ribbon, buttons, and the piercing template.

This card uses the sketch from Karen’s Sweetest Thing blog (SSSC11).

The purpose of the card is to reconnect with someone – so I thought the mailboxes were a good choice. I wanted a fun cheery card, so I pulled out some older SU paper. Thankfully I had ribbon that worked! 😉 I do wish I had the rectangle or square nesties, I’m not completely satisfied with the focal mat, but it works well enough.

I am hosting an inspiration challenge this week over on the PTI forum (CMWC49). You can play along too!

This is the piece I selected as my inspiration – a skirt I found in an Etsy store called GoodGracie. I loved the bright colors and fun patterns.

I decided to use the bright colors and also the pattern from the blue fabric (the white paint effect). I don’t have any ric-rac, let alone ric-rac in a color that would go with this card, so I just made my own ruffle – which, without a sewing machine was accomplished with lots and lots of glue dots!

So, when I was packing for my move (which is temporary), my mom convinced me that if I only used my sewing machine for cards, I didn’t need to bring it with me. Ugh! Now I know that even that use is a good thing – I miss it!! The wavy sewing on this card was done by hand – yes, by hand. I would have liked to do another wavy line, but it is late and I needed to get this posted.

Today is PTI’s monthly blog hop. I’m sure I’m coming late to the party, but, I loved the challenge and needed to get this idea on paper! To view more of the blog hop entries, stop by the PTI forum. This month’s hop challenge is to create backgrounds – either using stamps made for creating backgrounds, or re-purposing other stamps.

I chose to use the Honey Bees set from PTI for my card. I used the honeycomb stamp to create my flower background. It isn’t much of a stretch, but I like how this turned out. I used a Mojo sketch (mojo78) for the layout.

Whew, I’m done! And only a week late, lol. This card was hard – my normal format is A2 size cards, so doing a long/tall card was a challenge. Since this was a challenge from the PTI forum, I wanted to use a PTI set – but I challenged myself to use one I haven’t used in a long time. Finally, I took umpteen pictures – I can’t seem to find the right place/angle/lighting in the new house. My pictures keep coming out dark. I am using the same sort of setup, so I’m not sure what is different. Maybe it is time to get a light box 😉

OK, enough whining. I do like this card, it actually ended up much better than I thought it would (I’ve had it half done for a few days). PTI doesn’t have a lot of multi-color pattern paper (I *hope* they start coming up with designs that incorporate more of their colors), so I pulled out a Basic Grey pack that I’ve had for awhile and decided to use that. My colors ended up being all over the map – some retired SU, some current SU, and a PTI color; but that was all in the attempt to match the pattern paper.