Simply Create Too Challenge No. 16

At long last...a full month to be exact, my family and I are home. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. I am so tired of eating out, that I have opted not to have my traditional restaurant dinner for my birthday this year. We had a nice room and the hotel staff was wonderful. I was able to bring my little dog and we were directly across the street from the church we attend. So, I kept these things close to my heart and that is how God continually reminded me of how blessed we actually were.

However, I was super excited to get back into my craftroom, especially since I'd done a bit of retail therapy shopping  and

 I had several goodies waiting for me. They are all organized and put away ready for me to get my mojo up to par.

So, I'm happily creating cards for my design team who have been encouraging to me during this ordeal. I needed a bit of a jumpstart for this card. I had some simpler ideas in my head, but a visit to Belle Papier and Julia Stainton,  got my juices flowing and I came up with this. I stamped a BG stamp from Impressions Obsessions called Cover-a-Card, Newsprint. I have been looking for a stamp image like this for almost a year. This stamp gives great coverage over the entire A2 card, and then some. I cut it down and matted it on a piece of SU real red cs. Then using a home-made template, I sponged the red stripes on using SU real red ink. For the stars, I used a retired SU set called The Free and the Brave. I liked the distressed look of them. I used Broken China Ranger distress ink. It may appear that the word "Free" is stamped, but it is actually Cuttlebug alphabet letters  diecut in a blue cs from my stash and then glued on with my Quickie Glue pen. The corners are punched with an SU corner punch which has just retired. The card base is Gina K's heavy base weight white cs.

I have another simple card up for the challenge at SCT  too. It's not as detailed as this, so I won't bother to give the deets.

 If you have some time this weekend, please go play in our latest challenge at Simply Create Too.  Our design team leader has a design team call post this week. We're a small tight-knit group who understand the demands that family life often puts on us, so our group is low pressure. Give us a try.

Have a super safe 4th of July in whatever country you call home.

There's just no place like it...take it from me.

Blessings,

Erica