thanks, cupcake

I’ll admit it: even though I love crafting challenges, the inspiration challenges – where you are assigned a photo from which to draw inspiration for your creation – tend to be the most difficult for me.  I can’t really explain why that’s so.  I guess I feel a little overwhelmed by the choices – do I use the colors, or something from the layout, or does the photo remind me of something?

That wasn’t the case with this month’s InStyle Stamps Inspiration Challenge.  When I saw the inspiration photo, I knew right away that I wanted to use the yummy colors with this cupcake image.  I tweaked the OWH Stars & Stamps sketch #63 for the layout by rotating the card 90°, widening the image panel, and shifting the panel and the embellishment to the center of the card. Here’s my finished creation:

I dug out my bottle of Crystal Lacquer and added some to the dome to make it look more like glass. I haven’t used that stuff in a long time and it was pretty thick, so I had to use a paintbrush to apply it to the image.

Oh, here’s the inspiration photo:

This week’s OWH Stars & Stamps Midweek Throwdown is to make an Any Hero card – one with a note of appreciation and encouragement that would be delivered to a service member overseas to pick up his or her spirits.  I think if I can get over my shyness about what to write in an Any Hero card, I’m going to use this card for that purpose in my next shipment to Operation Write Home.

The supply list for today’s card:
Stamps: Tia’s Appreciation (InStyle Stamps)
Cardstock: Marina Mist (Stampin’ Up); Basics White (Papertrey Ink); designer paper from Cabana 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Inque Boutique)
Ink: printer ink
Other: markers (Copic); Crystal Lacquer (Sakura); Buttercup grosgrain ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon)

In the spirit of full disclosure, the image used on today’s project was provided to me by InStyle Stamps to aid in promoting their products.