Surrounded By Inspiration

I don't know about y'all, but I have a hard time keeping myself focused on the task at hand during the summer months.  And by 'task at hand' I mean work.  The season is so short lived here in the North East that we do all we can to take advantage of the warmer weather, and for me that means 'playing' all day with my girls and using the late evenings for business and chores.  It works for the most part but with only 24 hours in a day something has to give...sleep or 'me time'.

It was sleep this week.  ;)

I stopped by Mojo Monday's for their weekly sketch challenge and ended up on a 'me time' card making roll.  I created three in one night.

The design of the first card came immediately and was inspired by the loooong awaited arrival of TWO beautiful babies to my cousin.  These types of joyous cards are sometimes more difficult than the every day types.

I find that I second guess my creativity....are the colors right or the image proper... and no matter how many times I do and redo, they never feel quite 'right' enough.

I've said it a bazillion times and I'm going to pathetically say it again...I love the ocean!  It provides me with so much inspiration, but truth be told, it's too cold to swim in and I get sea sick on boats.

The image was one that I found while cleaning out my stash.  I'm not sure why I originally sealed it leaving brush marks, but I thought it worked nicely with the design of this card...almost like a painting.

The sentiment is simple yet says so much and can be used for almost any occasion.  Bonus:  It's a masculine design!

My last card was inspired by the same simple sentiment:  happy.  I wanted to create something that emanated that feeling and could also be used for any occasion.

I absolutely love this floral paper by Webster's...the colors are perfect and it wasn't hard to figure out that I wanted to use it for this card.  

Nothing but feminine here...with the vintage lace trim and glitter everywhere.  The border punch is Fiskars and honestly I forgot I had the darn thing until I was cleaning out some of my drawers.

All these cards will be listed in my Etsy shop soon, but for now I'm going to look for more inspiration while taking the girls on a hike this afternoon.  It's easy to find here in the beautiful state of Maine...we're surrounded by it.

Take some time for yourself today!

Enjoy...

M.