Another Boys Will Be Boys

This is my DT card for our bi-weekly challenge at Creative Memories, with the theme Monochromatic. This card was to go along with a Star Wars Lego gift, so the black, grey and orange colour scheme was a perfect match for the set we gave him :) I really love how this set has a decent age range of toys.

Other Challenges I Used:

I heart sketches - (see sketch below)
Fantasy Stampers - Spots and Stripes
CAS on Sunday - Embossing
Amusing Challenge - ATG
Incy Wincy Designs - Spots and Dots

Boys Will Be Boys

This card is for my nephew's second birthday, and I hope it's as cute and fun as he is :) This is my DT card for the Creative Moments challenge, Wet or Dry Embossing. (I actually had a different, amazing card planned in my head, but extenuating circumstances squashed it). I love the new Cherry On Top color scheme and this Boys Will Be Boys stamp set has been dying to be inked for months!!! I also pulled an old button from my hoard to work with both the Button challenge and the "shop your stash" challenge. This card was quick and easy, but has a great impact.

Other Challenges I Used:

Creative Blooms - (see sketch and palette below)



Creative Craft Cottage - Spots or Stripes
CCC Digi - Not Quite Straight
Shopping Our Stash - For the Boys
Through the Purple Haze - Use Bright Colours
Word Art Wednesday - ATG/Family Friendly

Watercolor Wings

I LOVE the new butterfly stamp sets and dies in the new catalogue, and how they coordinate with the ones we already had. And of course the Flutterby folder is equally awesome... I'm a sucker for anything butterfly, and I raved about the new size format in my previous post :) I'm also finding that while "mint" has never been a favourite colour of mine, and at times I've really disliked shades of it, this new Mint Macaron is moving up the ranks quickly for me. In fact, I've used it twice in a row now, and it's been perfect for both cards. Especially in this card I made for my sister's birthday...

Challenges I Used:

Inspired By Stamping - (see sketch below)
ColourQ - (see palette below)
Addicted to CAS - Butterfly
Just Us Girls - Stacked Diecuts
Seize the Birthday - Animals
Sisterhood of Crafters - Goin' Buggy
Everybody Art Challenge - Card for a Girl
Inky Chicks - Butterflies
AUD Sentiments - Bingo plus Sentiment (Bingo line - diecut, embossing, 3D item which is the vellum wings)

Retro Man Cave

Here's my first Father's Day card of the year, done for my design team challenge at Creative Moments. I used the new Brick folder, and I have to say I love the new size, so I can have the design go whichever direction I need. It was always so frustrating when I wanted, for instance a full background of clouds for a portrait orientation card, but the folder only did a full layer in landscape orientation. I hope all the new folders will be this way :)

Other Challenges I Used:

Bugaboo Stamps - (see sketch below)
Inspired By Stamping - (see palette below)
Pile It On - Father/Man
Polkadoodles - Father's Day
Left of Center - For the Boys
KittyBee Designs - Masculine
Jo's Scrap Shack - Father's Day
Splendiferous Creations - For the Guys
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - D is for Dudes

Bokeh Landscape, with Sprinkles of Life

Sprinkles of Life, and the coordinating punch are my FAVOURITE things in the new catalogue... there is SO much versatility!!! Ice cream cone, ice cream dish, cupcake, flower basket, leaf basket, cloud, tree with leaves, flowers or bushy top, plus all the accents and sentiments to match. I will never get tired of this one!

Here's my first take(s) on a Bokeh card, with a sponged background...

Challenges I Used:

Mojo Monday - (see sketch below)

Monday Mood Board - (see inspiration below)

Crafty Sentiments - For Teacher

Vintage Stamping - Hot Sunny Colours

Suzy Bee's - Bright and Colourful

Penny Black - Trees or Nature

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Punch Art

This was my design team card for Creative Moments challenge on Wednesday, but I forgot to post it here... oops! I also forgot to get a picture of the inside before giving it away :( As for this card, my original plan was to use the sponsors digital images from his video game themed collection, as this was for a kid who's big into video games and was having a video game party. Sadly though, my printer is having connection issues and I couldn't use a digi image, so I went with another favourite them for him. Punch art is NOT my strong suit, so this is not an original to me idea, but I did tweak it a bit using the Triangle embossing folder for the background, since it resembles a man hole cover.

Other Challenges I Used:

Addicted To CAS - Animal
AAA Cards - For the Guys
Send A Smile 4 Kids - ATG 4 Kids
Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes

Sprinkles of Life with 2015-2017 In Colors

The first thing I do when I get my new catalogue pre-order, is make a card for club, using all five colours, each inked on the corresponding cardstock and then also on white, so we can see how they look in different forms. And of course, this amazing and super versatile Sprinkles of Life stamp set and the coordinating Tree Builder punch, was PERFECT!! I also used a border stamp from Chalk Lines, a die from the Circle Card Thinlits and the new Envelope Paper in the Watermelon Wonder.

Challenges I Used:

Retro Sketches - (see below)
Penny Black - Dies and Punches
Live & Love Crafts - Ice Cream
Die Cut Divas - Something Yummy to Eat
Come and Get It - Tic Tac Toe (Designer Paper, Sentiment, 2 or more layers)
Allsorts - Happy Birthday
Crafting for All Seasons - Birthday with 4 of something (ice cream scoops)

Rev It Up!

This is my Design Team card for the Teen challenge at Creative Moments...

Other Challenges I Used:

Simply Papercrafts - ATG/CAS
Crafty Catz - CAS
Glitter and Sparkle - Embossing
Lacy Sunshine - Monochromatic
AAA Cards - Birthday
Creative Card Crew - Embossing

Sunburst for Mom

I have always loved the look of the sunburst cards, but it looked scary to try, until I found out to cut the triangles, I just needed to halve rectangles... so simple it never occurred to me! I'm still clueless to how I would attempt an asymmetrical version, but I'm happy I at least got this one under my belt :)

Challenges I Used:

Die Cuttin' Divas: (see sketch below)

Creative Colors Challenge: (see palette below)

Pile It On: Mother's Day/For a Lady

A Rare CAS

I did a true Clean And Simple card for club this week, and still managed to work in a versatile technique. This window background can be done with a punch or die, and with stripes of ribbon, washi or papers, as well as ink techniques like watercolors, bokeh, baby wipes, stamps or spritzing. SO many options!!! And I really love the Build A Bouquet stamp set, including this beautiful sentiment, which is PERFECT for Mother's Day!!! So glad this one is coming back in the new catalogue!!! Sadly, the arrow/chevron stamp isn't, but at least I have it, and the punch already, as they'll come in handy for scrapbooking, especially when done Project Life style! Get them before they're gone...

Challenges I Used:

Just Add Ink - (see sketch below)

AAA Cards - There's a Hole in my Card
(I have more challenges to add, but need to go to bed and have to get this in before JAI closes... will update tomorrow)

Something to Perk You Up

Here is a Design Team card I made for Creative Moments. This week's challenge was a color palette, shown at the bottom. This card is for a friend of mine who's on bed rest right now, so the inside will say, "Something to Perk You Up!". I colored the image with the closest colour alcohol markers I had, and then found some retired Hostess paper that matched great, and paired it with the beautiful Blackberry Bliss, on a Chocolate Chip base to tie in the cinnamon stick. For the final touch, I used my Versamarker and iridescent embossing powder on the whipped cream.

Other Challenges I Used:

Atlantic Hearts: (see sketch below)
Whimsy Stamps: Colour an image
Simon Says: Anything Goes
Crafter's Cafe: Food and/or Drink

Invisible Dimensions... You Amaze Me!

Okay, so I don't know what this technique is actually called, but invisible dimensions seems to fit. And I'm obsessed with it!!! I see so much potential, with various words, shapes and backgrounds. For this one, I wanted to use all 5 retiring In Colors together for one last blast, and I think it's my favourite card with the whole colour suite I've done yet. I used the Perpetual Birthday Calendar set for the background and the Crazy About You/Hello You bundle for the sentiment. This technique is done by stamping the background first, (minus the AMAZE ME, for placement purposes). Then die cut the YOU, exactly where you want it to be. Cut the same die out twice more on thicker-than-cardstock paper, (I used the support backing that comes in a pack of Stampin' Up's DSP), to make the equivalent of a chipboard. Carefully glue the layers together with Tombo Multi-purpose glue (the green top), and then glue the word into place, followed by tiny inside bits, to fill the holes back in and complete the image. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, this is my second card as a Design Team member for Creative Moments, and I really hope you join our Spring/Easter Challenge :)

Other Challenges I Used:

Lawnscaping - Dimension

AAA Cards - It's Springtime! (see below)

The Pink Elephant - Inspiration image (see below)

The Kraft Journal - Take Your Pick (blue, coral, baker's twine and chipboard equivalent)

Spring has Sprung!!

I am so excited to announce that I have been invited to join the Creative Moments challenge blog as a design team member!! This is my first card for them, and I'm looking forward to joining them for a long time to come.

It may still be "winter" here, but it's been feeling very much like Spring for most of the last weeks, so I thought this image, combined with our challenge, would be perfect for my niece's upcoming birthday. Here is our challenge, please come join us in the fun...

Challenge 64 Anything Goes/Gift, Tag Or Card for a Special Lady/Mum

Other Challenges I Used:

Your Next Stamp - (see sketch and palette below)
The House that Stamps Built - (see photo inspiration below, very similar to the above, but more green shades)
Simon Says - Spring Pinterest Inspiration (see collection below)
Fab n' Funky - Spring Into Colour
Crafter's Cafe - What Season are You In?
Pile It On - Use 3 of Something (flowers... one in the image and two punches stacked in the sentiment)

You're a Star!

Thanks to a defective stamp, I had to design and prep a second card for club, totally from scratch, in under an hour and a half... phew! It isn't the stunner that I had planned, but for a super simple card, I think it came out alright :)

Challenges I used:

CAS Colours and Sketches - (see sketch below)

Cosmic Strawberry - (see palette below)

Crafty Cardmakers - Stripes

Pile It On - Adhesive Elements (the epoxy star sticker on my star punch)

Sparkles - One for the Boys

Sweet Stampin - All or Nothing

Celebrate Today

I love designer papers, but there is something so satisfying about creating my own background papers... this cloud one is SO easy, using just a couple of Cupcake punch frostings, a sponge and a Soft Sky ink pad :)

And these balloons turned out so great... I love how the white embossing powder looks so much like the puffy white "ink" they use on real balloons!

As it sometimes happens, I started with a sketch and a specific idea in my head, but then as I started piecing things together, it evolved and doesn't have all the sketch elements I had planned on using, but it still turned out great.

Challenges I used:

Try Stampin on Tuesday - (see sketch below)
ColourQ - (see palette below)
Crafty Catz - Use your Dies/Punches

What February SHOULD Look Like ;)

I'm going to have a LOT of fun with this stamp set :) For now though, I'll use it to create some snow, since I doubt I'll be seeing any this year... 

Challenges I Used:

Paper Sweeties - (see palette below)
Sentimental Sunday - Happy Valentine's Day
Stamplorations - Stamp & Hearts
Wedodoobadoo - Hearts and Flowers (my hearts ARE the flowers ;) )
Penny Black - Hearts

Glad You're In My School

While I occasionally look at other's cards for new techniques or borrow an element here and there, I almost NEVER CASE (copy and share evereything) other people's cards. But I am not a natural when it comes to shading, so when I broke out the Blendabilities for this card I did a google image search to see how others had shaded this image. I saw one with this paper, the amazing coloring and the Crystal Effects and couldn't resist!!! I did my own design of course, based on the challenges I used, and didn't color my image exactly the same, but it's more copying than I'm used to. So thank you to Janine Tinklenberg for the inspiration :)

Challenges I Used:

Deconstructing Jen - (see sketch below)
Creative Moments - Anything Goes/Love
4 Crafty Chicks - Valentine's
Simon Says - All Creatures Great and Small
Hanna and Friends - Embossing (and always with cute, "living" creatures)

Hey, Valentine! Arrrgh!

This year my kids used the Hey, Valentine set for their school valentines. I stamped and cut the number needed of the Pirate for one kid, and the school of fish for the other and then let them color them all, while I made a fancier version of each for the teachers :)

Here's the first:

Challenges I used:

Stamplorations - (see sketch below)
Colour Q - (see palette below)
The Male Room - Valentine
Inky Impressions - Valentine/Love
Crafty Ribbons - Nautical

A REAL Challenge!!!

My son's Grade 4 teacher invited me to lead the class in making a Valentine's Day card for their parents. I was thrilled, and immediately made a list of the fairly basic techniques that would still WOW a group of young newbies. Some of these, I ruled out for time factors, others for lack of material on hand and limited time. The ones that stuck were a punch, an embossing folder and the three-in-one of heat emboss/resist/spritz. Then I had to redesign my overall design multiple times, keeping in mind that I didn't want to use any of my newer foam pads, as I feared it wouldn't stand up to 25 kids the way a classic linen pad would, and finally realizing that aside from a mini glue dot under the punched heart, the kids would only have glue sticks and/or white glue, so the layers needed to be flat and easy to adhere, for example, using the embossing side of the hearts, rather than the slightly more fun debossing side.

While this may not be my most impressive card, we had a blast, and most of them went off with only some minor hitches :D

Challenges I used:

I heart Sketches - (see sketch below)
The Paper Players - (see palette below)
Sparkle and Sprinkle - glitter and embossing powder (in one... iridescent!)
Penny Black - ATG except digi

Wishing for Spring

I love how fun and bright this card turned out, while still remaining soft... that's a hard balance to find! I found a lot of great new challenges to work with and of course I pulled out some Sale-A-Bration papers, ribbon and button :) I was originally planning to do the flower with a rock 'n roll technique with Crushed Curry in the center and Calypso Coral on the edge, to more closely resemble the inspiration picture, but when I decided to use the button, I changed the center color to Crisp Cantaloupe.

PS. I know that until this week, it has been a LONG time since I posted, which was mainly due to the extreme frustration and time involved doing a simple post with our ancient computer. Now that we have a new one, it's SO much faster, so I will be able to keep up with posting new things, and as I have some extra time, will be catching up on the many things I didn't post since last Spring/Summer... stay tuned!!!

Challenges I used:

Mojo Monday - (see sketch below)
Cupcake Inspirations - (see inspiration/palette below)
Stampotique Designers Challenge - Citrus Colours
Moving Along With The Times - Pastels
Simon Says - All Things Bright and Beautiful
Fab 'n Funky - Hearts and/or Flowers
Our Creative Corner - Bingo (Die Cuts, Stamps, Embossing Folder

Love you...

I started this card with the sketch shown below, but as I assembled it, the butterfly (which was the oval in the sketch), decided to fly away from the center ;) For the make your own background challenge, I stamped the I Love Lace background stamp in Sahara Sand on the Whisper White, and then did the tissue paper linen silk on top. The rest of the challenges are pretty self explanatory, so here's my card...

Challenges I used:

Sketch Saturday: (see sketch below)
The Crafter's Cafe: Make your own Background
Just Add Ink: (see palette below)
Crafting for All Seasons: Things with Wings