Three Challenges in One! JUGS167, rs42, CFC82

I took a little unplanned stamping vacation this week.  I went into my stamp room every night this week after I got home from work, but I couldn't get inspired to actually create anything.  I worked on some gift boxes a bit, but even those attempts were half-hearted.  I think I just needed a little mental break from creating.  I thought maybe Friday night I could get some things done, but then after the horrible events in Connecticut I really had no desire to try and be creative.  I just wanted to disconnect myself from the outside world altogether.  Today I thought I better get back into the swing of things before I forget everything I know.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, but I finally decided to combine the color challenge from Just Us Girls, with the sketch at retro sketches and the "even the score" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.

It looks like I got a whole lot of inspiration from the JUGS graphic, but it was all subconscious, I think.  When I'm checking out color challenges, I jot down the colors on my blotter and generally don't refer back to the challenge until I'm ready to post my card.  So imagine my surprise when I added this little color swatch (just now) and found my poinsettia on it!  I sure hope I don't get fired from the challenge for shamelessly ripping off their idea!

The pretty poinsettia is obviously a die (I like to fussy cut, but I'm not that good)  and the scoring challenge at CAS-ual Fridays gave me a good excuse to use my diagonal scoring plate from SU.  This was my first time using it and I was a little nervous that my stylus would jump out of the groove but I managed to get it all done with no problems.

Well thanks for staying with me while I rambled.  And although I don't know anyone personally who was affected by the tragedy yesterday, I'm thinking a lot about each and every person who's lives have changed so dramatically.  These are dark days indeed.