The process behind a card

I woke up this morning and went through my typical morning routine, but kept having the same thoughts over and over; as I created a card, these thoughts kept creeping to the forefront, so they influenced many different aspects of the card. I hope you like it; I will break it down for you.

It started with the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, which is a theme challenge. The goal is to create a project having to do with teenage boys. I read the challenge yesterday and realized that I am a little lean on “boy-ish” stamps and accessories (which makes my scrapbooking a bit difficult when I need to make a layout for a “manly” occasion), but I really wanted to participate in the challenge (since it would be a real challenge), so I decided to marinate on the idea for a bit.

This brings me to my next thought: what do boys like? How was I supposed to know? I have three sisters and I don’t think you could classify any of us as a tomboy, so I had to look somewhere else to get some ideas. Nothing came to me. Yesterday evening, my husband and I were enjoying a typical evening at home when he received a call from one of his brothers; this turned into a lengthy project including more phone calls, a couple e-mails, and much revision. It was pretty fun to work with both of them to (hopefully) create something which will be a success. Upon completion I thought that I just needed to think about my husband and his brothers…why didn’t I think of this before? Sometimes I can be a bit disconnected. Although I now had an idea, nothing was coming to me yet. Crap!

As I sat to create this morning, I still had no idea what to do. I was committed to create a card for the SCSC “teenage boy” challenge, but was drawing a blank. I sat at my laptop and began cruising through a list of my favorite crafting blogs; I was lead to different blogs which were linked and then I found the perfect inspiration: kween bee kreations by Kris Kilcoyne (I found this linked through Stampin’ Pretty by Mary Fish who is on the Design Team for Mojo Monday). She posted “Beep-Bop-Boop!!” which included a straightforward card using Stampin’ Up!’s Lots of Bots and Circle Circus stamp sets (and you know how much I love Circle Circus). There was a comment left on the post stating how the “bubbles” from Circle Circus seem to go well with the robot. This got me thinking: what else could the circles be? I pulled out my set and looked at them while considering my brothers (well, my husband’s brothers, but they feel like my own): they enjoy mountain biking and I saw one of the stamps which could “be” a gear, or a wheel, or something…I wasn’t sure what, but I thought it went pretty well. I next thought I could replace her robot with a biker (somehow…I don’t have a stamp or anything).

The juices were flowing at this point. I thought of his brother with whom we were working last night and came up with a color scheme which I thought he would enjoy. Then, I tried to think about where I would get a biker; I could draw one, but that wouldn’t look to good, so back to the computer I went and googled (I love Google too) for images of bikers…I found a ton, thankfully. Ok, it was coming together. I found an image which looked the most dynamic, printed it, scanned it, and loaded it so my CraftROBO (again…LOVE IT) could cut it out. All that was left was to assemble it.

As I was adding the sponged edges to the card, I thought about another crafter’s blog which turned me on to sponging the edges of paper: Stamp with Heather by Heather Summers. I love checking out her new projects and what she creates…one word: amazing! This got me thinking about how much my crafting has evolved, even just over the past month or so, by stepping out my “norm” creating and trying new ideas, techniques, and layouts. I attribute this to the many different blogs I have come to enjoy reading as well as learning. Thank you to all of you (there are so many).

So there it is: the process behind this card. I hope you enjoy it as well as learning a bit more about how my discombobulated mind works sometimes.

Recipe: Circle Circus and Beyond Basics stamp sets, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, More Mustard, and Naturals Ivory card stock, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, and More Mustard classic ink, Soft Suede grosgrain ribbon (the back side of the polka-dotted ribbon), corner rounder punch, dimensional spots, sponge, and an internet image cut using my CraftROBO.