A little while ago I decided it was time to empty out and do something with some of the little "bits & pieces" I collect. You see, when I clean up my work space (which I seem to do far too rarely, but don't tell anyone, lol), I often find little leftover "bits & pieces" from a kit or Paper Pumpkin project I assembled, or some extra doo-dad from a card class I held, or something from a card design that got started once-upon-a-time and may have taken another direction – or just never got finished at all. So I keep a couple plastic bags on my desk and add those little tidbits to them at clean-up time.

So I decided recently it was time to pare down the contents of those bags a bit and see how I might actually USE some of those collected bits. I started by emptying out the bags and surveying what was there. (This is a partial sampling.)

From there, I started moving things around into little groupings of stuff that might go together…. whether by color and/or by theme – and several of those groupings eventually became the seeds for a card design.  I'll be highlighting some of the results in upcoming posts.

Here's the first completed card….. something that's been hanging around ever since last Christmas-stamping season. I've taken it out and looked at it from time to time during this past year, but just kept hitting a creative block. The concept had started out as a "black & gold" card. I remember being really excited about the somewhat different and elegant concept, and I'd made respectable progress on the card nearly a year ago - until I got totally stuck. Could NOT for the life of me figure out where it should go next! While the black & gold seemed pretty enough, it was just – well, boring.  I knew it needed a focal point, and that's the role the wreath was to play, but it still just wouldn't "work". 

So fast-forward nearly a year, and I finally figured out what the problem was. The volumes of each color where too similar….. often a no-no when planning a design. So I decided the answer might be to add a small amount of red for a bit of punch…… and here's what I ended up with.! I'm MUCH happier with it now!

Since this card had been "under construction" for the better part of a year, I didn't have to add much to it. As it turned out, I added a circle of Whisper White cardstock behind the wreath so the printed vellum underneath didn't show through…. and then I stamped and embossed the sentiment in red and fussy-cut its custom shape. Then I die-cut the bow from a scrap of red foil paper, and added a single rhinestone for bling. The arrows below show the only elements I actually added to what I'd started a long, long time ago! 

Stay tuned for more completed projects that have arisen recently out of my "bits and pieces" endeavor!

And in the meantime, if you're a FB friend and/or a regular customer of mine, I hope you'll join us for our 3rd annual World Card-Making Day Virtual Retreat! Hosted on Facebook, it'll be 48 hours of creativity and fun – from the comfort of your own home. (Although you DON'T have to be present for the entire time, of course!) So make sure you RSVP that you're attending (details are in the FB Event), and then gather up the goodies you plan to work with! And we'll see you in only a few more days!