"oh, deer!"

spoiler alert: next week's challenge at shopping our stash is... wellllll... challenging. at least, it was to me. which is probably why i was fixated enough upon it to have somehow decided it was this week's challenge, and to "get started early" on my card. the "early" part turned out to be crucial, because it meant that when i realized i'd made the wrong card, i still had time to make the one i was meant to be making in the first place. the good news? this week's challenge, "forest friends" is entirely straightforward, you just need to make a card or project with a deer, fox, bear, bird, fish, skunk, beaver, chipmunk or any other woodland creature on it. easy, peasy!

vintage bits from my stash; patterned paper: basic grey, little yellow bicycle; leaf dies: cuttlebug/provocraft; leaf brad: eyelet outlet; ink: prima; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, so, any time we need to make something quickly, i suspect we all snap immediately into our comfort zone, right? which for me is vintage paper collage. especially if i need a specific type of image, because i know in my collage stash i have loads of illustrations from falling-apart old books i've rescued at various library sales. in this case, i chose the (torn and creased) cover of a little book about mammals, because it had not only the beautiful deer, but also the sweet bunny and that gorgeous stand of pine trees. if you're wondering how i choose the *other* elements for this (or any other) collage, i'm not sure i can explain it in any way that makes sense. there's always a little file (and sometimes also a little pile) of partial pages of text paper and other bits that i considered for past collages but didn't use, and i often start there; in this case the piece with the numbers and the torn graph paper came from that. the diecut leaves were in a baggie of leftovers from a class last autumn. the (ancient) bits of patterned paper were chosen by color. and everything else just sort of happened. i was lucky enough to find the current paper play sketch:

so the shapes in the sketch (especially the strong intersecting vertical and horizonal pieces) helped me choose the paint chip and computer punch card. you can see that i flipped the sketch horizontally in order that the very handsome deer could be staring into the center of the card instead of right off the edge.

need a little more forest friend inspiration? check out the glorious projects made by the amazing SOS design team! ♥