A Challenge, in so many ways

For my card club in November, the challenge was to make a card using circles. This very broad scope left the field wide open for interpretation and creativity; that should make it easy, right? Wrong! And, to top it off, I was the one who picked the challenge (since I was the hostess in November). When I did pick it, I had an idea in my head; I went home and tried it out, but it was not working out well…so back to the drawing board.

Circles…circles…circles…what to do with circles…? I couldn’t believe I was having so much trouble with this challenge. I tried to put it out of my mind, hoping that an idea would just come to me in a dream or something – no luck. I was sorting through my stamps one day and came upon a background stamp. Hmmmm…maybe I can use this. I thought and thought and thought; finally, I broke out my circle stamps and went to town on the image. I wrote it up, sketched it out, and decided on a card.

Think I was finished? Not even close. I decided on paper colors, chose the ink, found a phrase for the inside, stamped all the images, punched all the circles, assembled the layers, and voila…the card was complete. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I look at a card when finished and think, “Yup…I like that…I did good,” but this was not one of those times. What was wrong? What was missing? What needed to be changed? I was at a loss. It turned out exactly like I planned, but it was different than my sketch. I asked so many people what they thought I should change…add a ribbon, add a brad, add color, change the layout, change the stamp, and on and on and on…

I wasn’t sure what to do; I thanked everyone for their input (thank you all again…though I didn’t take your advise, I was happy to receive it), but decided to just stick with my original card. The more I look at it the more I realize that I do kind of like it (not full fledged “I like it” yet, but it is getting there).

I am interested to see what you think about the card. What would you change? Let me know.

Recipe: Pastoral Toile and All Natural stamp sets, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, and Very Vanilla card stock, Going Grey and Staz-on ink, 1½ and 1¾ circle punches, and dimensional spots.