Ooh La La! July at Words 2 Scrap By - Champs-Élysées diorama card

I'm thrilled that my entry was chosen as the winner of the Bloom Where You Are Planted challenge at Words 2 Scrap By. Not only did I win a crafty prize (thank you Bernadette!), I was asked to join their I-Team for their July Challenge, Ooh La La, in honor of Bastille Day (July 14). You can interpret the theme however you like.

This 5x7 card closes flat, secured with a ribbon and a brad I stamped/heat-embossed with part of a Viva Las VegasStamps rubber stamp. I used a fibrous, textured paper for the base, which has a nice faux-leather look and folds very nicely.

Ooh La La has two connotations, the one we English-speakers seem familiar with (Ooh la la), and the French version (Oh-là-là). I thought I'd play with the meanings of both in this project.
—Ooh, la, la, look at all the lovely ladies!
—Oh-là-là, I got coffee on my postcards!

The lovely ladies were fussy-cut from Graphic45 papers (mostly their A Ladies' Diary collection). All the postcard images, including the one on the front & the Arc de Triomphe postcard, are from The Graphics Fairy. She has such a wonderful collection of vintage images. I added a sepia tone to the postcard on the front and printed it on a beige paper. The other postcards were printed on regular white cardstock, and I added some distress ink to the two postcard backs.

The coffee-cup stains were made using a Tim Holtz template. This was my first time using the template, and of course I didn't practice first! I sponged on a ton of Antique Linen distress ink, and it really came out beautifully. The white base was cut from a linen-textured paper with the KutUps font on my Silhouette Cameo.

I used three accordion-folded pieces on each side of the pop-out, gluing a long base of a K&Company cardstock between each set. I decorated the inside and outside with diecuts from a QuicKutz set. I inked them with TH Peeled Paint distress ink and VersaMagic Key Lime chalk ink.

When I learned of the Words 2 Scrap By Ooh La La challenge, I immediately knew that I wanted to make a sort of diorama featuring the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We're American, but my parents worked in Europe so we were able to visit Paris several times when I was growing up. My mother had also visited there where she was a child, in the 1950s, and she remembers her father standing out in the middle of the Champs-Élysées trying to get a perfect shot of the Arc de Triomphe ... of course, taking a photo was a bit of chore back then and it's always been a very busy road, so she and her mom sat at a cafe and watched with a certain amount of horror as my grandfather got his tripod into place! I'm sure Mom has his slides somewhere. Anyway, we always made a point of visiting a cafe on the Champs-Élysées, even in later years when prices got out of control (and that was over 20 years ago now!), and I wanted to capture some of those great memories with this scene-in-a-card. 

Inspiration/Challenges:
Paper Shelter Challenge #164: Travel the World
The Pink Elephant Monday Card Challenge: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp: Anything goes (2nd Entry)
Stampin' For The Weekend: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Words 2 Scrap By,

One Stitch at a Time #101: Digi or Don't

I'm so honored and happy to share my very first project as part of the One Stitch at a Time Design Team! I'm looking forward to becoming more familiar with the StitchyBear Digital Stamps creators, and I'm already having a great time with my very talented teammates; Wait until you see their gorgeous projects!

This week's OSAAT Challenge theme is Digi or Don't: Either use a digi or don't use an image (no rubber stamps).

I decided to cheat a bit and use Walking The Dog Digital Die Cut File by Stitchy Stamps. I guess it counts as an image! I took the file into SCAL & kept making layers with increasing shadows widths, and then cut the pieces on my Cricut (Shh, don't tell ProvoCraft! Wish they had a Mac version of their software when I was buying!); I used the inverse pieces for the front and the reverse pieces for the "tunnel" element inside:

I used a Sizzix embossing folder & my Big Shot for rhe front black piece. The sentiment pieces are cut with a Spellbinders die. I stamped this sentiment from Verve Stamps and heat-embossed it in Recollections Red. I used white & black adhesive pearls around the sentiment (and for the corners on the inside, see below), but used Liquids Pearls for the frame. That's a little black pearl on her belt too.

This card features some of my favorite ribbons & fibers. The buttons on the front are actually brads from the Oriental Trading Co.

I made a "Book Card", but used the "Tunnel Book" technique:

I'm entering this project into the following challenges (thank you all!):
Allsorts Challenge #142 : Anything Goes
Crafty Ann's Challenge #59: Bold & Bright
Simply Create Too Challenge #7: Add Sunshine to Your Day
Pretty Little Ribbon Shop February Challenge #7: Anything goes...with ribbon (my second entry! My first is here)


Hope you'll join us for the Digi or Don't Challenge at One Stitch at a Time -- one lucky winner will receive a £10 UK gift certificate from Joanna Sheen! Wow!

Can't wait to see what you will create!