A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA CHALLENGE #5-PART 2

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating on making my birthday thank you notes?  I am so bad!  Instead of doing what I should have been doing today I made up another card for the AMAP challenge #5 - Seeing Scenes.  I love these little piggies and I love the pun included in the sentiment. 
    Here's a little insight into how I go about creating a card...I normally start with a central image.  In this case, I stamped the wagon, masked it and stamped the boy piggie, stamped the girl piggie, and then added the sentiment.
    With that done, I start thinking about colors.  I used some Basic Grey paper on my A Muse card yesterday and that was calling to me again.  I rummaged through my stash and found the Stella Ruby paper pack.  It hit me that I just purchased a few of the BG 6x6 paper pads.  The great thing about these is that the papers mirror their 12x12 counterparts.  They didn't just crop the 12x12 designs down so that you only see a portion of the original papers.  You see the entire design on 6x6 paper. 
    Here's where I got stuck and what I decided to do about it...I had my stamped design, I had chosen my background papers and, thus, my colors.  I went ahead and painted the images with some Twinkling H2Os.  I don't normally have problems deciding upon a general layout for my cards.  What I do find myself doing is adding ribbon, or Primas, or brads in the say way/place over and over again. Right away I thought of Debbie Olson.  In my eyes, she is the QUEEN of adding just the right embellishment or ribbon in just the right way.  I subscribe to Debbie's blog feed and I think she makes something each and every day...you can count on her like clockwork....always an inspiration!
    I put aside my card for a bit and started looking through Debbie's blog artwork for placement ideas.  This spurred me on to break open my new little notebook from Emily Giovanni and make some sketches.  YUP, just like Becky Higgins, right?  For now, I just went through May and April posts.  I sketched out the cards that I liked the layout of and marked them with Debbie's initials and her post date.  THIS is going to be my layout reference.  I started with Debbie's ideas but I'm sure that I'll add my own and those of others that I admire.  When I get stumped I'll turn to my book..instant gratification...and a card is born!
    This is what's so great about the stamping/scrapping online community...the sharing of ideas.  And my card didn't absolutely follow any of Debbie's designs.  I used the corner punch idea from one card, the middle horizontal strip and brads from another, and the horizontal ribbon and tie from still another.
    Now this didn't satisfy my need for thank you notes and I kinda think I'll have to save it for Valentine's Day...ha...that's how inspiration works!
Supplies:  Stamps - All from A Muse Artstamps; CS - Bravo Burgundy, Baroque Burgundy, watercolor paper, Basic Grey Stella Ruby scrapbook papers; Ink - Black Versafine, Sahara Sand for shading; Other - Twinkling H2Os, brads, lovely brown organdy with pink polka-dots from Lindsey at Jacksonbelle's Embellishments.

Comments

[Connie]

Very sweet card.

[Rose Kerry]

Oh my goodness, I LOVE PIGS!! This card is fabulous, so cheerful, it would bring a smile to anyone's face!!! One of my favorite sayings "I'm in piggy hog heaven". Rose

[Debbie Olson]

Leigh, this is excellent--whimsical, creative combination--it works! Thank you so much for your kind words; you are one of my stamping heroes (heroines sounds dopey!), and I love your work!

[Vicki]

So cute Leigh!!!!

[L]

Whenever I come to look at your blog, those piggies make me so happy! :) Such a cute card!

[Anna Wight (SweetMissDaisy)]

So very FUN!! Love it!! You're so stinkin' creative. In a CUTE piggy kind of way. =)

[iralamija]

beautiful!

Bety :)

[Ida P. Krause]

Leigh, Very cute! Love the little pigs & the sentiment is just perfect. Ida