TRUCKS AND DIGGERS

I do love a challenge. That's when the Paper Seedlings are planted really deep. I get to THINK and really PLAN! And it is so much fun to watch those Seedlings grow and develop!

I especially love it when someone hands me a challenge that is quite outside my personal box. Those are the projects that really help me grow as a creative person.

When a friend discovered that I had in my possession some bright yellow tissue paper with Caterpillars (the kind of Caterpillars used in road construction) she got very excited. Oh?

She proposed to me that I make a birthday card for her son using that tissue because "he is in construction! He would love that!" I immediately agreed. But . . .

. . . when I got down to my Creation Station and looked at the tissue once again, I discovered that the Caterpillars were several inches apart. With the usual size of a card being 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", I would be able to fit maybe two-and-a-half Caterpillars on a card front. Real impressive, huh?

I fixed that problem by ripping out the Caterpillars with a bit of yellow tissue around each one. I then collaged the pieces onto a piece of cardstock, overlapping as needed. It turned out pretty cool. And, the ruggedness of the torn edges further added to the construction site look of the card!

Being a mother of girls, I had no construction-type stamps in my stash. So, I went gladly to my old buddy MDS (My Digital Studio). I knew I had something in there that would work perfectly.

I created my trucks and a few traffic signs in MDS, printed them, then cut them out with wiggly borders around each image. For a dirt/sand look, I tore some handmade sandy-colored paper into a couple pieces upon which the trucks could be grrrrrr-ing.

My sentiment was also created in MDS, then printed and cut out.

Here is the final result:

I must report that when I delivered the card to her yesterday, she was delighted and knew he would love it too. Happy Birthday to Gus!

Are you ever presented with a challenge, maybe more than you think you're capable of? Did/Do you pursue it to the end? Or did you give up before you even started? How about discovering that it wasn't working out quite the way you had planned/hoped? Did you give up then? Or are you always ready for a continuing challenge -- that of rethinking and possibly ditching your original plans? 

Sometimes when I'm trying to figure something out and it is just not going right no matter what I do, I step away from it for the rest of the day and come back to it later. Often I will discover that it wasn't nearly the disaster I had originally thought it was, and was able to pick up where I had left off and finish it up. And be happy with the result. At other times I'll come back, take one look at what I had walked away from and realized that I was right to have done so. I rarely throw something away completely. I am usually able to rescue at least part of the project, and proceed from there. I will never call a project finished until I am completely satisfied.

Please share some of your challenging experiences with us?

Constructive

Smiles.