CAS16, A Make-Over Challenge

The Clean and Simple Challenge #16 is posted. This is my last week on the Design Team, and it's been so much fun working with Carolina, Angela, and Jen to get the CAS challenge off the ground and running strong! My heartfelt thanks to Jen for starting the challenge in the first place, and to every person who has posted their CAS cards. CAS is good, very good, and it's so gratifying to see it celebrated by so many people.

Good luck to all who threw their cards in the ring for the next DT. Every one of you deserves to be on the team!

Here are my cards for this challenge, which was a make-over challenge. It's been a very weird week that left little for creative play, but I like the way these two cards turned out. Both are cleaner and simpler than their original versions.

Let's start with the tree card. I like the way I matted the original, but it has five layers. I did not particularly like how I stamped the tree (in Ancient Page Azalea ink). That was easy, and the waterproof ink allowed me to use stickles without smearing and looking icky. But without pretty matting, the card needed a strong and interesting focal point, so I used markers to ink it up, huffed, and then stamped. I like the more natural look much better.

And rhinestones just make a girl happy, you know?






















The bamboo card original made me singularly unhappy. I couldn't and still can't pinpoint what I don't like, so I decided to rethink the layout completely. I needed a thank you card, and Artfully Asian's sentiment works well with the bamboo stamp. Eliminating layers and the circle made this version much cleaner. You might recognize the layout as a variation from my previous challenge card here. The stickles on the dragonfly doesn't really show up in the photo but looks very nice IRL. It's not an exciting card, to be sure, but it is balanced and rather zen in its serenity and peacefulness. I need a little zen in my life this week!



























I hope you'll play along with the challenge at SCS. I'll be checking back in the CAS16 gallery there regularly for inspiration!