Serendipity

I am very excited and honored to be the Guest Designer this month for the Path of Positivity Challenge Blog.  I discovered this challenge blog a couple months ago and absolutely love their focus.  The tag line below their blog header says, "A unique challenge blog designed to inspire, nurture and provide support for the soul by creating a positive path to follow, one project or post at a time!"  You can find out more about the how's and why's of the blog's origin by visiting this Introduction page.  There is a theme word each month and when linking up your project they like you to include how your project goes along with the theme.  It doesn't have to be a long explanation, just a sentence or so to help make the connection.

The theme word for this month is Serendipity.  Serendipity means "fortunate happenstance" or a "pleasant surprise" (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity) or luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for. (source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serendipity).  As a Christian that does not believe in luck (I believe God is in sovereign control of even the minute details of our lives), I'm approaching this theme from the standpoint of "a pleasant surprise."  One of the most pleasant surprises I ever received was the night a college group from the college I was attending came to sing at the church my dad pastored as part of their summer tour.  At dinner, my best friend arranged it so that I sat across the table from this handsome bass from Kentucky.  By the end of the evening, I was asking the Lord to have the handsome singer ask me out when we got back to college and less than a year later I was engaged to him.  We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this past December.  I didn't know when I went to church that night that it would be a night that changed the rest of my life.  Definitely a VERY pleasant surprise.

We have two great sponsors this month for the challenge:  Lunagirl and Sami Stamps.  You can find all the details on the prizes that can be won on the Path of Positivity Challenge blog.  Lunagirl generously provided a collage sheet for me to play with for today's card.   I used one of the eight images from the Vintage Romance #1 digital collage sheet.  The vintage style and I are still working out our relationship (ha!) but this image and these papers just seemed to go together and made it easy for me.    I added some pretty die cuts, pearls, ribbon, dry embossing and lots of layers and the front was done.

I kept the interior pretty simple and just printed a digi sentiment and matted it. 

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections, Bazzill, Georgia Pacific (for image)
Patterned Paper:  My Mind's Eye
Stamps: Luna Girl, Sweet 'n Sassy digis (Love Sentiments, Valentine's Sentiments)
Tools/Embellishments:  Michael's ribbon, Queen & Co. pearls, Spellbinders dies (Classic Ovals Large and Small, Lacey Ovals, Floral Ovals), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Victoria)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge #216 - Lots of Layers
Digi Choosday Week 8 - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments Challenbge #126 - Bingo (I used the bottom row - two pattern papers, glitter or bling (I chose bling-pearls), embossing)
Craft Your Passion Challenge #251 - Anything Goes
Doodle Pantry Digital Challenge #3 - Anything Goes (must use digital stamps)
Get Creative Challenge #9 - Embossing (I used dry embossing on both patterned paper panels)

Thanks for visiting today.  Please be sure to check out all the details on the challenge at the Path of Positivity Challenge blog and also visit our sponsors Lunagirl and Sami Stamps.