berry much, thank you!

Oh those  small sweet, sweet strawberries! Have you ever noticed that the sweetest berries are the tiny ones, not those supersized genitically modified ones.

Today's card is inspired by- yes the Inspired By challenge. Another new one to me. I am thanking Michelle at "I Card Everyone" for turning me on to some cool new challenges.

I had to dig deep into my stamp stash to find a strawberry stamp. I found the very first Papertrey Ink set I ever bought. "Green Thumb". Gotta be about a 100 years ago!! Needless to say, it is no longer available.

I kept my card super simple. I loved the rows of berries. Very clean and graphic. Ardyth would be proud!

Head over to Inspired By and check what the DT has come up with and play along. 

What?!!!???

Happy Easter everyone! Since I am not hosting Easter and I am caught up on school work, I decided to join in the fun at a few challenges with this extremely CAS and graphic card. And what the heck is going on?!!? Not one stamp inked in the making of this card!!!! Holy cow!!! This is way out of my comfort zone. I wanted to add an embellishment or a stamped image, but I resisted (and it was so hard!!). This is a card worthy of the queen of graphic cards- Ardyth at MASKerade. 

I was inspired by these three challenges.

Addicted to Stamps and More. They are having a photo challenge .

 

 My old teamies at Just Us Girls are hosting a CAS challenge.

 Lastly, Shopping Our Stash is asking you not to use any ink.

Check out the challenges and join in the fun- just after youput down those jelly beans and  wipe that chocolate off your face!!

The Male Room Challenge: Neon

I am going out on a limb with this card and that you all aren't getting grossed out by my card. It is a bit of a pun and I hope you get it.

This week at The Male Room challenge is to use neon colors. For a change I knew exactly what I was going to do. I had an unusual assortment of insect stamps for an insect board book I made for a friend. Guys don't want a cutesy flowery get well card. They are tough and can take something creepy and crawly.

For my neon colors, I used all the Hero Arts neon inks. I don't get to use them very often, so this was a great opportunity to dust the pads off and ink some stamps up.

Soooooo....... pull out your neon inks, markers, pencils or paints. dust them off and get your neon on!

Show us how you neon at The Male Room!

Mid Challenge reminder for the Male Room

 Hi all! I am pooping in with a reminder to join the fun over at the Male Room. Challenge #15 is all about "spots and stripes".

I had so much fun with this challenge that I made several cards. See this post for my other entries.


 Thank you cards can be tough for guys.  I mean do men really expect thank you cards? is it a "girly" thing.  What are your thoughts?

I suppose there are times when you need to send a thank you card to a guy. I always send the docs I work with thank yous for my Christmas gift.

This graphic black and white card card is perfect for a guy. But what do you think of this interpretation of the same card?

Does this one work for a guy or is it more feminine? May be it straddles the fence- male and female.

Anyway, whatever you think, be sure to join in the fun at the Male Room!!

Krafty Christmas

Only two more challenges and I will be done my  term as a wild card designer at the Card Concept.  Trying different styles of card making has certainly been an eye opener. I realize that I can embrace other styles as well. Today the challenge at the Card Concept is a "krafty christmas" with a photo inspiration.

Today, I went for a clean and graphic look. This stamp from Hero Arts just lent itself to that style.
I stamped it with khaki ink from Simon Says Stamp. I glittered the whole tree and added a glittered wood star for the top of the tree.  The saying is a combo of a very old Hero Arts christmas sentiment set and a die cut "merry from the new Papertrey Ink- wet paint holiday. I die cut the merry with red card stock to make it pop.

This isn't in my comfort zone, but I am so pleased with the results, this will definitely be massed produced to send out for the holidays.

Please join us for this great challenge at the Card Concept!

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.

You are my sunshine!

CAS-ual Friday is hosting a very fun challenge that fit right in with a new stamp I recently got. The theme is "summer lovin'". 

I used sunburst from Neat and Tangled. The rest just fell into place for this CAS graphic card. 

This may be the last challenge I can enter, unfortunately vacation is over and it is back to work. :(

Thanks for stopping by!

Time to celebrate!

I know it is only June, but July will be here before you know it and I have several male birthdays to plan for in July. Usually I am scrambling at the last minute to make a card. That is NOT the best time to create! Nancy at Just Us Girls has a sketch challenge this week that is the perfect inspiration for a male card.

Since I have been trying to enter other challenges, I decided to make the same card using the challenge colors over at The Card Concept under the clean and layered category. The twine I used on this card is hand made. I show how here on this blog posting.  I never buy twine any more, I make my own!!

So, head on over to Just Us Girls the other designers take on the sketch. Be sure to show us your creations!

Stamps used: Make A Wish

                     Casual Fridays: Bold Wishes

A very graphic birthday

I just love it when something just comes together effortlessly and I sure wasn't planning for that to happen when I sawVicki's photo inspiration for Just Us Girls this week. It seemed somehow daunting. I think all photo inspirations are daunting though!  Anyway, all that black and white! Yikes! I like lots of color!

I examined the image and an idea took place! I love acetate so the glass coffee table was my starting point. the rest just fell together. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the results! (not to toot my own horn but yeah!!) The card has that clean and graphic feel the Arydeth inspires.

 Here is another view.

This view was by accident. I had the card sitting up on a pile of other cards. It was evening and the light was on in my studio. I saw this oh so cool shadow effect on the card. I just love it!! 

Please join us this week at Just Us Girls for this very graphic and cool photo challenge!