Birthday Girl Challenge #1!!

This week's challenge over at Sketches in Thyme is one that I KNOW you can do- it's an open challenge. And what exactly is an "open challenge" you may be asking? Well, it's a challenge that is OPEN for interpretation! If you're someone who needs a specific challenge to give you a boost in the scrappy direction, this might be tricky for you. Here's a sketch I decided to use that I found over at Lets Scrap:

 and here's my interpretation of that sketch:

Few little things to note on my layout....I printed the "take me out to the" letters onto a piece of ordinary lined notebook paper, and then cut out and attached to the layout. My "Ball Game" letters are thickers I found in a clearance bin an a lime green that did not AT ALL go with my layout. My solution? Emboss with black embossing powder. You'll note the "messiness" of the embossing powder all around the title, this is because I didn't get the brilliant idea to emboss until AFTER I adhered to the layout, and try as I might, those thickers were not going to budge without a fight! So, rather than tearing the cardstock, I embossed right on the layout- it adds a very "artsy" feel, dontcha think? (that's just something us creative types tell ourselves to make us feel better about the mess!) The 3 star brads are embossed in black as well. WARNING: if you're embossing metal brads, have tweezers on hand, those babies can conduct some serious heat!

Now...onto my Birthday Girl Challenge! My Bday is coming up on February 22, and to celebrate I'll be giving away an RAK of delicious little birthday goodies- paper, stickers, ribbon and other fun embellies. I will select one winner at random on 2/22/11 (the BIG day!!!), here's 3 different ways you can enter:

1-Become a follower, or comment letting me know you're a follower
2-Post a link to your interpretation of any-or all- of my Bday Girl Challenges (no limit on entries) in the comments section of appropriate blog post
3-Blog about my month-long Bday Girl Challenge on your blog, and be sure to post the link here!

Here's my first Birthday Girl Challenge for YOU: what about this blog post inspires you to get crafty? Is it the sketch? My messy embossing? Or perhaps the fun bingo cards I used as my background (yup, those are real bingo cards)... Become a follower of my blog (if you are not already) and post a link to your inspiration piece in the comments section by 2/22/11 (my bday!!!). I'd love to see what you're up to, and one lucky creative talent (chosen at random) will receive a little RAK from me! =) T