PP106 - Lesley's Theme Challenge and blog candy

Hi Everyone. Happy Saturday.

Before Lesley went on her blogging break, she created a great Tic Tac Toe theme challenge for us this week. I had fun playing along with this and actually used it to make 3 cards today. We really hope you will join us across at the Paper Players for this very fun challenge.

For this particular card I started from the top left - Circles, then thru the center - dry embossing and all the way to the bottom right - Punches. After I had completed my card I realized that it also worked horizontally across the top row! Circles, Birthday and Favorite Color.

I really wanted to keep the feel clean and simple and, once again, used my new favorite color - Summer Starfruit. Starfruit is similar in feel to Kiwi Kiss, but is actually a softer color. I really love it. I paired it, once again!, with my other favorite color - Midnight Muse. I SO prefer this color to Night of Navy.

Creating the circle elements was fun. I pulled out my flower die and some of my favorite Patio Party DSP. I also used some rhinestones to keep the circle theme going.
For the dry embossing, I used my Fancy Fan embossing folder and chose the debossed side for this card
For the punch - I used my new butterfly punch and punched out a butterfly from both a piece of Whisper White cardstock and a piece of Vellum.

Here's what I came up with:

I was really pleased with it. It took me forever... in fact all my cards seem to be taking me forever to complete. I think it's because I'm not spending a lot of time in my crafting space. When I don't get much time to play, I really do get rusty. It takes me longer to compose the layout. Much longer to figure out what I'm going to do... all round... everything just seems to take longer!

Now that you have seen what I made, pop along to the other design team members and see the fabulous inspiration they have for you.

On a personal note:

Well, I am not sure about you, but we certainly watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games last night. I absolutely loved it. It was so incredibly high tech, but so low tech. Rowan Atkinson was a scream! The new BOND girl is AWESOME! (I screamed with laughter when I realized what was going to happen!) The smoke stacks appearing out of the ground, the tree rising to let a flood of people come out from underneath it; the children and staff of GOSH brought tears to my eyes. I didn't want to turn away as there were so many cultural, humorous and historical references that I was worried I would miss something. I think I got all of them except one. The pink parade of polyester people! That really threw me for a loop. (Found out later that it was a parade of Sargent Peppers. Mmmmm... not exactly a musical, or fashion - or anything icon - that I like to remember! :-) )

I did think that it would have been pretty hard for non-Brits to understand a lot of it, but Danny Boyle had said that these opening games were a homage to the Brits, for the Brits and for the thousands of volunteers. I loved that the 500 construction workers lined the entry into the arena. I LOVED the moments of silence for those who had lost their lives in both World Wars.

It was a display of Brits at their best. Self-deprecating, understated, ridiculous humor, patience and a passion for the "common man"! So, my hat goes off to Danny Boyle for making me proud - oh, and for keeping me entertained for over 3 hours. Hats off, too, for managing to capture Brits who are no longer with us in the videos - and for sharing the spotlight with Mohammed Ali. I also loved the fact that the flame was lit, not by the Olympians themselves - but a nod to the future of athletics.

My gobsmacking moment came when I realized that they were actually going to forge a ring from the firey molten liquid and raise it to become the fifth ring of the Olympic rings. AWESOME. Then, watching the joy on the faces of the athletes as they took their walk of pride. I loved the cauldron and the way it all came together. So many great moments.

So, what about you? What did you all think about the ceremony. What was your favorite part? What sport will you be following over the next 16 days? Leave me a comment on this post and I will draw a winner for a spot blog candy prize. What is it? Oooo.... you will have to wait and find out. :-)

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere. Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Have a beautiful Sunday.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe - all ingredients Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.