Thank Fall

The current challenge at the Card Concept is a photo challenge with the theme of "thank fall". Clever huh- "thank fall"? I love it- so fun. Besides I need ideas for my Thanksgiving cards and the theme and photo inspired me. 

I have only three challenges left on the Wild card team at the Card Concept and for the last three we get to pick our styles. Naturally, I drift towards the CAS categories.

One of my oft used techniques is to stamp or place images over top of a text stamp. It just creates such an interesting CAS look. For this card I had to go back to my older but well inked stamps. The text stamp from Hero Arts "Dictionary Greetings, I use ALL the time for this technique. I was pleasantly surprised to still see you could buy this set of stamps. I highly recommend it! The pumpkins are from A Muse. Looks like this set is only available on e-bay. The branch is StampinUp- unknown set.

Here is another look for the same idea using a new stamp from Great Impressions.

I wasn't as happy with this. I shoulda used four pumpkins instead of three. They look too squashed in. What do you think?

This works with this week's challenge at Just Us Girls so I am entering it there also.

Please join us this week at the Card Concept with your interpretation of this weeks challenge!

Halloween fun

Halloween is quickly approaching and usually I have had several varieties of cards made. Not so this year. I have been way to busy with work and school. It just isn't right that they interfere with my valuable crafting time!!. Last Sunday I had a pocket of time and quickly made this set of cards to send out. 

I am entering theses cards in two challenges. At Addicted to Stamps they are having a holiday challenge and while many folks entered Christmas themed cards I am clearly going for a spooky holiday. Be sure to check out the challenge and see the card Cornelia posted- it is so stinking clever!!

Over at Shopping Our Stash it is clearly a Halloween challenge. My cards are totally from stash items- black card stock that I have had fore ten or more years, washi tape that I have hoarded, those little googly eyes that I have been waiting for just the right moment to use and all kinds of Halloween paper scraps.

I have discovered a new challenge that these cards totally fit for called the Male Room for masculine based cards- what a great idea! This weeks challenge is Halloween.

Lastly another new challenge for me to enter. AAACards is another CAS challenge with a Halloween theme this week.

Here are all three cards together- what's that sticking in the middle of the cards? Any guesses? 

Sunflower hello

This week's challenge at the Card Concept is a photo challenge with a theme of country and sunflowers. My challenge as a wild card member was clean and graphic. Ardyth is the queen of CAG, so if you aren't sure what that means- check out her blog.

I originally did this card white on white, but it just didn't have the same punch as the white on black. 

 What do you think? I am hoping my good buddy the "beautiful Lydia" liked it. She loves all things sunflower, so I had to send her this card for her birthday!!

Please check out the Card Concept and show me how you would interpret the challenge.

Candy cane ombre

It's looking a lot like Christmas! Wait!! I haven't even started my Halloween cards!! Yikes!

This week I am hosting the trend challenge at Just Us Girls. The trend is one of my favs- ombre.
You see it everywhere from fashion to hair color to furniture. No surprise it is everywhere in paper crafting too.

I had such fun! I created a series of candy cane ombre cards using Papertrey Ink's "ombre builder" stamp set. The ink pads I used were  Memento- angel pink, Distress ink- worn lipstick, Hero Arts- mid-tone pale tomato and Impress ink- poppy red. Remember it's not rocket science, take what ever inks you have and play with them until you get the graded tones you like.

Now on a sad note and with a heavy heart, I have stepped down as a designer for JUGs. As the saying goes "life just got in the way", what with a new FT nurse coordinator job and graduated school. I will be checking out what our designers are creating and hope to play along myself when time permits. It has been a great year and the JUG girls are an awesome group to work with!

Brilliant!

I have a confession to make, unlike most women, I happen to find very smart guys sexy. There is something about intelligence that just grabs me. It was one of the first things I noticed about my husband. Although it didn't hurt that he was 6'2, blond and handsome too.

So when I saw this set from Mama Elephant- Lights Out and My Sunshine, I knew I had to make a card for my brilliant hubby.

This month at House of Cards, the challenge is to use a die or a punch. That certainly makes it wide open huh? No excuses everyone, come on over and play along!

The word is celebrate- World Card Making Day!

Happy World Card Making Day! The best day of the year next to my birthday!! Even my husband gets into the action, by getting me flowers!

So this is why the challenge word by Sharyn this week at Just Us Girls is perfect- CELEBRATE! Celebrate anything- the sky is the limit with this challenge!

The challenge today gave me an opportunity to use a new Mama Elephant set- Soiree.  It is always fun to crack open a new stamp and get it all inky!

This week we are introducing our new team members- say hello to Ina and Chris! Please give them a big welcome by playing along with our challenge this week at Just Us Girls. It is so good to not be the new kid on the block!

So celebrate World Card Making Day by being creative!!

Ghoul friends

Today's card challenge at the Card Concept is a color challenge. I sure screams Halloween doesn't it?

My challenge this week was clean and layered. I thought this would be easy, but not so much. I had it in my mind that I was going to use the dancing ghoul stamp from the now defunct stamp company Picture Show. So I had to work everything around the image and make the layers work.

How do you start a card? Do you start with a particular stamp or a layout and the stamps to fit that layout?

The fun thing about this card is I took sticky back paper and cut my own flame stencil and sponged the flames onto the card. The flames are all the same orange ink, I just try to lighten the sponging towards the bottom to create shade.

I hope you will join us at the Card Concept for this awesome color challenge!