July's Creative Crew Challenges Cont'd

July's Creative Crew holiday-focus challenge is to create a national spirit project. Express what your country mean to you.

I ended up with a couple holiday-focus cards, because my first card below used retired stamps. I try to avoid that, but I really wanted to express what my country means to me... wide open spaces. I grew up in the midwest, riding my horse across open farm fields. Big sky and the freedom feeling of just riding across open space is really my definition of America.

I wanted to try a brayer card in sepia. ColorQ challenge #88 started me down this path, so I thought I would stay with those colors.

I also drew inspiration from 'Ocicat' on SCS.

Stamps: Wanted, Le Jardin Botanique; Paper: Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White; Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede marker; Accessories: Sponges, Brayer, Post-it notes, Circle punch.

My other project is a Fourth of July celebration tree. Weird?

I find Independence Day cards/projects to be difficult, but this one works... I think anyway. I added some bling to help make the holiday sparkle.

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Something to Celebrate, Happiness BG; Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP, Nautical Expedition DSP; Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark; Accessories: White embossing powder, Itty Bitty punch pack, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Button Latte, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Rhinestone jewels, Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain ribbon, Sewing machine, Thread.

I haven't had a chance to play with the scrapbook-focus challenge, focus on family. I've got a page in my head, and I hope to catch up with that in the coming days.

ETA (7/30/11): I finally got my family-focused scrapbook page done. This is the tail end of our France trip last year with the in-laws, visiting the city of Eze and Monaco.

I wanted to use bright blues and greens, because all the colors in Monaco are so bright and vibrant. This is only the first page I've gotten done from this trip. Many more waiting to be created. This is page 36 of Project 52.

MDS Elements: Urban Oasis DSP, Summer Home embellishments.

Make sure you head over to the demo side of Splitcoast and play along with us! Thanks for stopping by!