Thank You For Your Friendship

Today I'm sharing a card made for my personal challenge - working my way through the Paper Crafts Color Inspiration magazine. Here's the first color combination.

Here are the DEEtails:

Being a color challenge, I really wanted to let the bold colors take center stage. I started with a piece of Bermuda Bay card stock and a piece of Raspberry Tart DSP. I added a strip of crinkled Old Olive Eyelet Border underneath and a little banner, stamped with the sentiment from SU!'s Upsy Daisy set. I added a little flower with a rhinestone brad from my stash and a swirl of Rhinestone Jewels. I adhered everything to a Chocolate Chip card, allowing a bit of color to peek through. Hope you like it!

Special DEElivery:

This card is for sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm out of town this week, so most of my posts from the past week and upcoming week were written ahead of time. My husband said I was like a machine, cranking out these cards last week so I could post every day. Hehe! I'm feeling a bit like a celebrity this week, with all the fabulous comments you have been leaving me! :)

Today I thought I'd answer one of the questions I received. This one is from Queen Mary - love that name :)

Nina Dee, you said you wanted to get more personal this year so I have a
question to get you started! How does your inspiration work? Do you see the
colors and envision a card? Do you envision a stamp? I love your card but I'm
really too literal in my card making to be very good at inspiration challenges,
so I'd LOVE to know how your brilliance begins!

Thanks Queen Mary! :) First off, I only do inspiration challenges that inspire me. I have to like the picture in order to create a card based on it. It's important to find a challenge blog that has the types of pictures/photos that inspire you and fit your card-making style. If you're looking for a great challenge blog, click the DEEsign Challenges butterfly under my banner to see a number of challenge blogs that I like to participate in. Another great place to find inspiration is magazines and catalogs.

When I start an inspiration challenge, I look at the photo and focus on elements of the photo that really stand out to me. As I think about my card, I choose elements that look like things that I can duplicate (this is sometimes limited, based on my supplies) - it might be a flower, the lines in the photo, or even the placement of objects in the photo.

Here is a bit of my thought process in creating cards for a few of my favorite Cupcake Inspirations Challenges:

I loved the tiny flowers in this inspiration photo and knew I could "copy" the line of flowers. The pearls and lace border were other elements in the card that stood out to me. (Click here to see the card I made).



Here's another one... I loved the bold, bright colors and I the cute doily. I also liked the contrast of the cupcake wrapper peeling away from the chocolate cupcake, so I made sure to include a Chocolate Chip and Whisper White contrast on my card. (Click here to see the card I made).


Here's a photo where the balance of everything was just perfect, so I completely copied it all - the over sized flower, the pearly center, a big bow, amber jewels, even the background. (Click here to see the card I made).


Hope that gives you a little insight to my creative process. :) Thanks again, Queen Mary!