VMAA - Passport to Europe

I'm back with my card for the Michelle's VMAA challenge - Passport to Europe! The challenge was to make a card inspired by this photo:


I love the colors in the photo and instantly locked on to the window as the element I wanted to use on my card (below).
I've been playing with different ways of editing my card photos, so let me know how it looks. My laptop monitor makes it hard to tell if the photo is bright enough and clear. Ok, so anyway - more info on my card below!



I've seen a few designs out there where stampers made shutters that open - similar to how I did the door on my lift-the-flap card a while back. So I stamped the window from the Simple Wishes clear set and then inked only the top part of the window and stamped that portion on the sides to make the shutters! Then I trimmed the whole thing and scored the edge of the window so I could bend the shutters a bit. The awning was super easy with Orange Crush even stripe Pretty Little Papers and my Marvy Paper Trimming Buddy setup with the scallop blade. I forgot to time myself (and was interrupted at least once), but I think I came pretty close to the 30 minutes that we have for each challenge. It's amazing how fast a design can come together when you have a clear vision in your mind (and know how to achieve it), while other designs seem to take forever! If I had more time, I might have tried to incorporate the bicycle in here too but I love the way the window turned out!
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Images and notecards by A Muse. Brilliance graphite black ink, Scor-Pal, Marvy Paper Trimming Buddy and scallop blade, Copic markers: lipstick red, W2, W4, Cool Shadow, Tahitan blue, and Grass Green.