Summerthyme Studio Designs: Our Craft Lounge Friday Sketch Challenge-OCLDT03

Thank GOODNESS it's Friday! It's just been one of those very VERY long weeks that seemed would never come to an end. Due to some policy changes in my "real" job, my position has me travelling more to various environments. Normally, I am one to embrace change and see it as an opportunity to learn, grow and get to know the peers that I usually only see at meetings and trainings. Needless to say, I've had some adjustment issues to my current environment. Nothing scathing and intense, but rather semantics that i've taken for granted over my years of employ.

For example on Wednesday for some reason, the classroom was about 30 degrees c. Not to bad if you're laying on a tropical beach, but not so great when you're in a smallish room with 13 other people! Holy Heatwave!!! Anyway I am usually not a negative person and was telling my guy that I would really have to do some self talk so that I could try to challenge my thinking and feelings to put myself in a better head space.......and of course, a wardrobe adjustment was in order!!

So as I was getting ready for work yesterday, working through my power of positive thinking mantras and donning my summer weight blouse (I actually considered crop pants and sandals) I was almost convinced that the day would be much better!!!...........It definitely helps to get your day off to a better start in that frame of mind. Anyway......got into work.........went through my usual routine and off to the classroom. Great Scott!!!! The Temperature? SUB ZERO~~~ yep......almost could see my breath coming out in little puffs as I began to hyperventilate.....lol. You can't win for losing.......I started to think some negative thoughts, but then stopped myself and was thankful that I didn't wear sandals and could don my winter coat atop my pretty summer shirt!!!! Lesson learned for next week (yep a long weekend for me!) Layers! Lots and Lots of Layers..........tshirt, heavier weight shirt a sweater and if all else fails, a parka!!!!

Basically though, in the big scheme of things, I'm thankful to have a job that for the most part I love, thankful to be working at all when I'm aware of a lot of people that have been layed off due to the state of the economy and most thankful that the things that have been bugging me this week really are superficial and it just takes a minute to step back and look at the big picture to put it all into perspective! There's ALWAYS someone out there who is worse of than me and sometimes you have to think about why you are letting trivial things get under your skin when there is always bigger fish to fry!

Ohhhh did you want to hear about the Card??? Our Craft Lounge Designers host a fabulous Sketch Challenge each Friday in The Lounge.......even cooler is they have spotlights each week where they feature various stamp sets and themes! There's something fun in The Lounge every day~This week I'm following the sketch, which you can view in the Lounge along with how to win some cool OCL Swag and featuring what I believe is one of the first sets released by OCL and one of my long time favourites, L'il Peanut! The Sketch was cased by a fabulous card designed by OCL Designer, Val. I coloured Peanut with Copics, adding some grass and some sponging on the interior of the nesties template. DP is from Archivers and Dots from Doodlebug Designs.

Stamped and Snipped the Balloons, attaching some fine wire behind and mounting on dimensional tape to create the pop up look. I stamped the Birthday Hat accessory stamp to the front and inside of the cardstock tone on tone to add a little dimension.

A little more decorating for the INSIDE~~~~ I've been seeing this more and more on blogs and thought why not!!!! At least I'll have some use for all the extra DP that sits around forever in the unending pile 'o scraps!! If you want to play along, please add your card to the OCL blog via Mr. Linky! Keyword if you're loading into SCS is OCLDT03