Home Spun Joy

Howdy.  Sorry this is so late.  I thought I had already taken photos of my card.  {frown}  I made this little beauty on Tuesday, and apparently I forgot to take a few photos.  I've been working longer hours, so it's dark when I leave for work, and dark when I get home.  Which makes photographing anything other than the stars are bit rough.

Well, let's not dwell on the negative.  Let's get right to it!  I wanted to play along with a few of my favorite challenge sites, and they are still open for submissions! Yahoo!

My first stop is Mojo Monday.  I just love their sketches!  And this week's is super fun!

when I first saw this sketch, I was thinking of adding two different papers and using the green strip as their borders.  But, I wanted to add ribbon {smile}, so I changed it up a bit!

My next stop is Sugar Pea Design's Mix It Up Challenge.  This beautiful site gives you a sketch and an inspirational photo.  You can use either or both.  Very easy to work with.

and their current challenge is Anything Goes.  I love that option, because it gives me a whole lot of freedom to use whatever color palette I am currently loving, and what ever embellishments I can't seem to use enough of.  {smile}

And my last two challenge sites, are near and dear to my heart:  Word Art Wednesday, and Brown Sugar Challenge.  These two challenge sites are Anything Goes.  So, I can play along if I can get my post written {wink}.  Both sites are different but equally inspirational.  The wonderful folks over @ Word Art Wednesday have faith based quotes for you to use.  They are a family friendly site.  But their design team will certainly inspire you!  The wonderful folks over @ Brown Sugar Challenge, use more digital images and coloring.  But they too welcome all types of entries: tags, projects, journals, altered items, cards, pages, etc.  Whatever your heart desires to create!

and here is what I created:

and a different view:

I just couldn't decide which view I liked best.  So, I have given you both.   And here is the recipe:

I used Crumb Cake card stock, by Stampin' Up! as my base.  Love the heavy weight of this paper.  The main panel is a pattern paper, Oriental Chic, by Ruby Rock-It.  I just love the woodgrain and floral motif.  I roughed-up the edges with my scissors and sponged crumb cake classic ink on the edges before adhering it to the card front. 

I wrapped white lace and a baby blue gingham ribbon around the card, and tied the ribbon into a simple bow.

For my square panel, I simple cut my second pattern paper, Quilt, by Ruby Rock-It, into a 3" x 3" square.  I matted it onto a scrap piece of crumb cake card stock, and machine stitched along the quilting squares.  I think it adds a special homespun look and feel to the card.

For my rectangle piece, I simply cut a very vanilla card stock piece, and stamped my sentiment.  I used another sentiment from my (new favorite) stamp set: Choose Joy, by Paper Trey Ink.  I used basic black classic ink, by Stampin' Up!.  Since the piece is rectangle but my sentiment isn't, I stamped it high, to leave an empty space at the bottom.  I added a strip of washi tape from my collection.  I was happy that I had some washi tape that coordinated with the quilt pattern.  {smile}  I added a double matt to my sentiment rectangle: bashful blue and crumb cake card stocks by Stampin' Up!

For the circle piece, I didn't like how a paper blossom looked.  But, I wanted something soft and sweet.  So I did a double layer.  I first added a white doily sticker to peak out from both the square and rectangle pieces, and topped it off with a metal rimmed flat back large brad.  I was surprised, that I had a brad that worked so well!

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope that you  have been inspired to play along with any, or all of these great challenge sites.  They each have their own unique style, and creativity, but they are ALL beautiful!  This card is going to one of my best friends.  She has had a few struggles this past week, and I want her to know that I care for her, and that I want her to find peace, and happiness.  {smile}