Project 141: Oval sketch thank you challenge

I have been taking a bit of a break from too many blog challenges but there were three that caught my eye this week and I thought they would work well together.

I needed to create a few special thank you cards this week and I thought the colors in Color Throwdown 285 would be perfect for the card:

Moving Along with the Times had a hilarious challenge - use a member of the DT's first card as a sketch:

 

I love revisiting my old cards and thinking, seriously? We put a lot of effort into this?! Every day I learn something new and love to see the progress. So in honor of Red from MAWTT sharing this card, I will share one of my first attempts at the end of this post.

The final challenge I entered was CAS-ual Friday's Oval challenge.

I stamped my greeting onto a green oval so that it would stand out from the busy paper. I used an oval label die cut to bring in the pink and espresso colors from the Color Throwdown. I added grey paper strips to get the diagonal over the damask paper. I added pink oval bling to give it a bit more elegance and then before I went too nuts adding candies and other stuff, I just stopped and walked away. Sometimes you just have to know when to stop!  I have two people I need to thank for special things they've done for me, I will have to think long and hard about who should have this one.

Now for the oldie (but not necessarily goodie) from my crafting past:

I was making cards and crafts and bits and bobs long before I started blogging, but this is from one of the earliest blogs I published. I had just been introduced to 3 new tools/techniques here and I was just so happy with it at the time:

• Coloring peel-offs with sharpie markers to get the color you want (instead of generic silver or gold) 
• Border embossing folders 
• Scallop punches 

I used the scallop to make a flower - I think? - and topped it with a button. I mean, I still love a button but really? This is all I had for a central feature?? Neither the peel-offs nor the ribbon tape are even put on straight (those peel-offs are so fiddly, they are super thin and delicate, I hardly use them now) and the embossing folder is almost impossible to see.

What makes me even sadder is I loved that checked paper - that is from a Martha Stewart punch pad - and I rationed it like crazy, so the fact that this card made the "use it" list is just tragic!

So that's my early card nomination, all in all I'm very happy with my crafting progress!