Challenge: "Anything Goes!"

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for June 25, 2015, was another "Anything Goes": "let your imagination run wild and create whatever takes your fancy!"

WEll, two things took my fancy yesterday: the arrival of "inky mail" with dies I've been craving for some time now, and the three week road trip we too this month. One of the dies was the Sizzix Thinlit - "United States" (660228) and it fit right in with that trip... once I managed to fid the right combination fo die cut machines and cutting plate sandwiches to make it cut (Note: the RIGHT combination for me and my Big Kick was the magnetic platform and two cutting plates. This combination did NOT work on my Cuttlebug, nor did any number of plate combinations using the solo plate and cardstock shims  on either machine.)

So, using black cardstock, I cut out the eastern half of the US, discarded the states and reserved the frame, which I glued to a card front using the Ranger Collage Glue Stick:

I then ran the die through five more times, using different colors of card stock and reserving only the states we spent any significant amount of time in (Drive time through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, 2 days; Florida - 7 days; Georgia - 4 days; Drive time through South Carolina and stay in North Carolina - 1 day; Drive time through North Carolina, Virgina - 1 day, West Virginia - 4 days; drive time through West Virginia and Ohio - one day. Yes, we clipped Maryland and Pennsylvania on the way home too, but I forgot until the card was done. If you want to see photos of some of these places, see my stitchery blog, Carol Stitches.). I placed the state shapes in the spaces in the black frame and added Hero Hues Gems (Smooth Clear - #Ch153) to all the places we stayed (roughly--- I am slightly geographically challenged since the demise of paper maps).

(I don't know why this photo came out bluish while the others came out yellowish. Same camera. Same lighting conditions...It's a puzzlement, because the card is actually Ivory so the yellowish version is more accurate)

Another run through the Big Kick with the Sizzix Thinlit "Adventure" (6660224) in black, a date stamped using a numbers from the Pixie Press Magentic Stamp set - Romantic Font, and an Idea-ology "Small Talk" sticker (TH 93193) completed the card.

As for who I would send such a card to? Maybe as a Thank-you to our hosts (but making up two more of these would be horrid and I don't have two more of that Small Chat sticker... Besides, I already sent out thank-yous Monday.

Maybe it will bet cut up and used as a cover for a small album about the trip...

We shall see.