Cartwheels In My Mind: Readers Digest Books Revisited

Happy Friday Everyone! We are getting ready for my parents to arrive this evening to spend the weekend with us...which means that this week went by at a little slower pace than usual. It seems like whenever we finally get company it makes each day seem like an entire week on it's own. But we're here now (and by HERE, I mean it's 5am and I'm way too excited to sleep!:D) and I thought it would be fun to do a little challenge for this weekend since we haven't had one for awhile.

First of all, let me just start by asking that you please pardon the quality of the images I'm sharing today. My Photoshop needs a little tune-up so I used my iPhone to capture and edit the images. I think you can get the idea, though.

Ok, so onto the challenge...Do you remember when they used to have readers digest hardback books to buy? Yes? No? Yeah, me neither. :D Actually, I can't even guarantee that they don't still have them coming out to this day. All I know is that when I was moving into my house in Ohio 3 years ago, My mom and I were cleaning out some of the storage in the garage and came upon probably 50 or more of them. And I kept every single one. Let me tell you why: because whenever I find a good black & white/cream scrapbook paper I tend to buy like 10 sheets. Because nothing is more inspiring to me than a great color popping against a black and white accent print. I just love that almost any photo or embellishment can work with the right sheet. So tonight when I wanted to do a few quick cards to send out, I immediately thought of sharing different ways to use pages torn from the RD books. Best part? You can find an old book for no more than 25cents at any thrift store and you'll probably never run out in your lifetime since alot of them have hundreds of pages. I'm trying, though. I actually have three completed projects using them at the moment that I need to photograph and share very soon. But I digress...let's get on with what we came here to do today, shall we?

The challenge, essentially, is to use a page torn from a book on at least 2 different projects in 2 ways.

First up, I made this little owl card in less than 10 minutes using the RD page as the tree. I basically kind of let the first embellishments that caught my eye (the owl sticker {Hambly} and word bubble post-it {Kikkerland} guide me as far as where I took the design. The tree branch that the owl is perched on made a tree trunk the obvious direction to go, and the hot pink letters {Joann's} added a pop of color.

This next card is my favorite by far and took the longest (about 30 minutes total) but it is for my sister-in-law who is due with her forth child but found out for the first time the sex of the baby before her delivery. For this one I just cut the RD page into a square and let it be the backdrop for the nursery rhyme. I love that the typed words give the illusion of a much more complex project without taking away from the main embellishments.

(Caterpillar & Snail: Sassafrass; Blue Letter Stickers: Making Memories; & sticker: K&Co; Mushroom Rubons: Heidi Grace.)

For this next one I decided to try out the cream printed page against white cardstock for a subtle effect. Less subtly, I wanted to represent something really happy in an effort to show just how sorry I was...and the happiest thing I could think of was butterflies and flowers mixed together to make a new species that I invented called butterflowers. Not to be mistaken for a higher calorie version of cauliflower. ;)

(Butterflies: Hambly; Patterned Paper: Scenic Route)

This last one is just a collage style card using the book paper for the balloon and random bits and pieces from my scrap container.

(Butterfly Stickers: Hambly; Blue/Green Contact paper: Vintage; Lined Blue Sticker: Studio Calico; Red Letter Sticker: Joanns)

That's all I've got for you today, my friends! All this card making has me in the mood for some serious scrapping...but alas I'll have to wait till next week because we've got company coming. Anyways, I really hope that you join me in the challenge this week. If you do, please make sure you share it in the Cartwheels Flickr Gallery so I can share it here on the site. I hope you all have as great of a weekend as I know mine is going to be! :)

xoxo, Cheryl

RANDOM CHERYL FACT: I am right now obsessed with the circus. I have never been to one in my life, but I just finished watching the 6-hour mini-series CIRCUS from PBS (on Netflix) and am in awe of the talent, work ethic and the gypsy lifestyle. Not to mention the costumes and bright colors. I am dying to do some circus inspired art!