Dating Myself?

Aloha, all!

     When I initiated a scheduled design challenge on one of my online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator websites recently, one of my fellow demonstrators, Maria Pobre, called me to task for showing my age.  I entitled the challenge, "Be There and Be Square," a slight deviation from the apparently really old saying, "Be There or Be Square."  After a bit of research on that, I did indeed date myself with that – except that the younger demonstrators would probably have not had a clue that it was an old saying!

     But then there was the whole point of the challenge – everything was supposed to be square!  I'll share the challenge sketch with you in a minute, but I'd first like to share why I decided on a square, and how I ended up using this Designer Series Paper for the card.

     One of the cards that I received in my 2011 Stampin' Up! Convention swaps was a standard shaped card (fits in an A2 envelope) with a piece of designer paper cut into 1" squares.  The paper was one of the florals from the Hostess Designer Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  While it was a cute card, I wondered what the effect would be if I cut out a piece of designer paper that had a large image on it.  And then I wondered if the whole effect would be enhanced if the little squares were on a square card.  So, for this card, I ended up using a sheet from the paper set, Paisley Petals, and I really like the whole effect.  So did the people who participated in the challenge!

     To set off the print, I used card stock in three of the colors featured in this set:  Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze, and Always Artichoke.  I stamped the Thank You greeting (from the stamp set, Pretty Postage) using Always Artichoke ink on Baja Breeze Card Stock, matted with an Always Artichoke "stamp" punched with the Postage Stamp Punch from Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.

     One bit of warning about cutting up a piece of paper such as this one:  Keep the pieces lined up while you're cutting them or you're going to find yourself with a puzzle to be solved!  It took me 10 minutes to put these pieces back together in the right order.  And even then I managed to adhere one 90 degrees from the direction it should have been (fixed it before I took the photo, though).

     As I do like to do, I tied the whole design together with some ribbon, in this case Always Artichoke Seam Binding.  So easy to tie a bow using this ribbon!

     Here is today's sketch.  A card cut with these measurements will fit in the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope.  One of my fellow demonstrators said this would be fun for a scrapbook page, and even fun using a photograph!  I hope you find something fun to do with it!!