House of Cards April Challenge: Color/ Script

I was trying to think of a funny April Fool's story but couldn't come up with anything. Last year, I pulled a fast one on all you readers, but things like that only work once.  

Anywho, I am up in the Poconos with all bestie and other stamping buddies to go to the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Convention. The convention gets smaller every year but it is fun to get away with the girls for a weekend of stamping. The weather is suppose to be cold and rainy but it won't matter to us crafty gals!

This month's challnege at the House of Cards is either a colors, use script or both.


My first card while it isn't exactly script, I really liked it. I used to rather old but well loved stamps from PTI and Hero Arts.

My second card is more in keeping with the whole script thing and colors. It's just OK. Again I used all old stuff. The tulips is actually a wood stamp!!! I betcha there are new stampers out there who even wonder why you would use a wood stamp. They have become so old school.

Please play along with us this month at House of Cards and show us how our challenge inspires you!

Peace on Earth Online Card Class Homework

Please do not tell Dr. Ambrose that I have not been working on my final paper that is due in 2 weeks. I just can't get motivated when I would rather be doing my homework from the Holiday Online Card Class with Jennifer Maguire and Kristina Werner!

So, I gave myself permission to take this weekend off and play and I promise I will knuckle down next week. I watched a number of videos from class today. The funny thing was I really wanted to see how Laura Bassen made her winter wonderland scenic card, but it was Julie Ebersole's videos that stole the day for me.

My card today was combination of two cards she made and I really like the the subtle gold sparkle of the Delicata gold ink around the masked Martha Stewart dove punch. The saying is from the new brush stroke set from Papertrey Ink.

If you haven't taken any of the online card classes, you are really missing out on alot of fun and new techniques and ideas.

OK- gotta go more homework  to finish from class. Now I have to try that winter wonderland scene.

Comfort zones

Why do you do participate in challenges? I am sure there are a million reasons. For me, it is often about getting outside of my comfort zone. It's kinda funny, but when I was new to stamping, my motto was "try everything". Like a child I was very free in my creativity and just did what ever amused me. Now, as an "adult" stamper  I tend to stay within very prescribed boundaries and color themes. Challenges force me to step out of my box and comfort zone and to let my inner child stamper out. I hope this all makes sense to you.

Marisa's challenge at Just Us Girls is an inspiration photo. These are generally the most challenging to me for a number of reasons. one is I tend to get overwhelmed by all aspects of the photo and think I need to represent everything. Colors- often they are colors I would never use in my stamping.

I have really been checking out how others interpret photo challenges and see if I can find some help there. I discovered just focusing on one or two elements is the way to go. All this to say is I found I really liked this photo and you can see for yourself the two elements I grabbed onto. The colors- well I never would have used them on my own, but I REALLY like them together on my card.

I would love to hear from you about why you do challenges and what challenges you find the most  challenging.

Can't wait to see how YOU interpret this week's challenge at Just Us Girls!

Stamps used-

Simon Says Stamp- Flower Friend

Papertrey Ink- Ruby Rose

Bon Voyage!

This is Memorial Day weekend, the official start to the summer!! Yee haaa!!!! I thought it appropriate to make a Bon Voyage card and Simon Says Stamp cooperated by having a challenge that call for travel or vacation cards.

I am also entering this at Addicted to Stamps- where anything goes this week!

This card uses a very old but always well inked-Hero Arts vertical cloud. It is so old, I could only find it on e-bay. the bon voyage definition is also from Hero arts and the plane is a fav from Papertrey Ink.

Wishing all of you a happy start to your summer!!

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!

House of Cards Sketch Challenge Reminder

Hi Everyone- I am here with a reminder that there is still time to join us at for an awesome Sketch challenge at House of Cards!

Some bunny? Yes, the Easter bunny!

It's not like me to purchase something and then never use it. I always try to use what I buy within a month of the purchase. But this poor little bunny die from Papertrey Ink must have got put away and never saw my BigShot.

I was so happy to see that today's challenge at Simple Create Too was featuring bunnies! I saw this photo on Pinterest and there was my inspiration for today's card!  I immediately pulled this little guy out. I die cut him three times and using a new stencil from Memory Box- textured mini dots sponged some Eastery colors. The bunnies wee tails were die cut from felt and colored with orresponding copic colors.

What a fun clean and simple card! I think this will be the card I send out this year!!

I hope you will share your wonderful creations over at Simple Create Too! I love seeing what all of you do, it always inspires me!

Have a banner birthday!

Let's face it folks, if you are true to yourself, you will admit that guy cards can be some of the more difficult to make, more so then even a sympathy card. I mean with sympathy cards you can always use flowers, whereas not so much with guys. You can't use those cute little images that we love to copic color from various stamp companies- no teddies (except for my DH, who loves a good teddy card!) or bunnies, fairies or sweet little girls.

That is why this explosion of design element stamps from such companies as CASual Friday, Mama Elephant and Papertrey Ink have been awesome for the easily created guy card.

This week at Just Us Girls,  Lisa has given us a very cool photo inspiration challenge. There are so many ways to go with this one. As usual I take things literally and focused on the stripes of color on the top spool. I grabbed this set from Papertrey Ink and the card was quickly put together. I have a couple of guy birthdays coming up and this will certainly be in some lucky recipient's hand!

Please join us at Just Us Girls for this awesome photo challenge!

Spring Birthday Wishes

Today at House of Cards we are breathing in a bit of springtime with the color challenge. I am so ready  for spring and I am sure lots of you are too. There are rumors abounding that we will reach 50 degrees later this week. I am so hoping that is true!

I tend to take all these challenges literally, so my colors are not quite the pinks of my fellow designers. But what the hey, it just makes for a more vintagey feel to my clean and simple card. All my stamps are from Hero Arts except the sentiment which is Papertrey Ink.

I hope you will join us this week at House of Cards and contribute either a CAS (my specialty) or a Classic and elegant interpretation for this light and springy color challenge. 

In a word....

I am keeping with my resolution to participate in challenges other then my design team challenges. CAS-ual Friday always have totally inspiring challenges. This challenge "in a word" asks us to create a card. In their words:

Instead of a resolution, choose a word that describes what you hope for the new year.

maybe it's LOVE if you want to work on your relationships, or DO if you want to challenge yourself to something, or LAUGH if you want to lighten up, etc.

Originally I chose "relax" but "let it go" also resonated and they went together for me. This year I need to take more time to relax. I work FT and am in school FT and have hubby to care for. Thus the need to relax. I also need to "let it go".  I need to let others help me. I am nurse and it is hard to let others do for us. I also tend to be a grudge holder and I need to let go of any bad feelings I tend to harbor. 

This is all something my holistic nursing instructor tried to drill into us. We need to take care of ourselves so we can take care of others!

Soooo..... I need to RELAX AND LET IT GO.

I made  two cards but the husband felt the first invoked the feeling of relaxing and letting go. The second is more stylized feeling of relaxing and letting go.

Let it snow!

Last week we had our first hint of snow, snow showers on the way to work. Areas north of me received a dusting and yet today it was 60 degrees! I say enough is enough! I am ready for winter and I am ready for it to snow! Just in time for this week's sketch challenge at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.

I had fun with this challenge. I turned the sketch on its side, just so my sentiment would fit!! 

The background turned out gorgeous- looks like scrap book paper huh? It is a big background stamp from Impression Obsession-Snowflakes. I love this stamp and it inks so well. I won a challenge at Just Add Ink using it with red ink last year. 

Let this great sketch kick start your creativity and join us at TSOT this week!

Unconventional Christmas

Today at House of Cards we are having a color challenge. Wow, I just loved the color combo!! Gorgeous red oranges, apricots and  greens. Usually, I am moaning about the challenges, but this one spoke to me! During the summer I bought this holiday set from Papertrey Ink called Snowflake Flurries. It didn't necessarily read holiday to me, which made it really useful. 

This is the first set I grabbed, after spending some fun time going through all my inks to find ones that matched the challenge. I thought about popping some of the flakes up, but it just looked too busy. While the colors are unconventional for the holidays this card just says Christmas to me. A bit of bling and this CAS card was finished.

Please join us for this great color challenge at the House of Cards!

Life is Beautiful

The theme to go with the sketch this week at Try Stampin' on Tuesday is vintage. Yikes! This has never been anything that I dabbled in. In fact I really had to go through my stamps and papers to find stamps that might work. Plus I had to do a bit of research on the net. 

I will let all of you be the judge of what I created. Is it "vintagey" enough? 

I started with the "lace border" from Papertrey Ink's Love and Marriage set in distress ink colors, victorian velvet and bundled sage. I built the card from this stamp and colors. I added the dogwood stamp from Hero Arts colored in matching colors with copic markers. I used some vintage rose paper that I distressed and the Memory Box trellis die. The card is finished off with this great saying from Papertrey Ink's Meadow Greens set.

While this was "fun" and it really stretched me- let me get back to what I enjoy and am good at- CAS with a cute and whimsical bend.

Please show me how it is done, by joining us in the challenge at Try Stampin' on Tuesday!

Spooky Spiders

Having computer issues is like having your car break down. It's so frustrating, especially when you have some place to be, or like me blog postings and design team challenges to do.

My DH spent the day completely redoing my computer and he is still not done. I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to complete this blog, because all my pics are in I-photo and he hasn't reinstalled my programs yet.

It is a testament to how much I have learned about the computer that I figured out how to get my pictures from my camera (Thank God I hadn't deleted them!) to the blogs without I-photo.

Halloween is just around the corner and the theme for this week's sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday is spooky. I thought this sketch was a no-brainer until I realized that the circle is where the sentiment goes. I had to rethink my whole plan. I am much happier with what I came up with though.

Please join us and show us what you created using this sketch and the theme spooky.

Sue T.

Embrace the sketch!

When I first saw this sketch for our CAS challenge this month at House of Cards, I thought holy cow, how can I do this as a clean and simple card?!!? I was ready to throw in the towel and tell my fearless leader Myn, that I just can't do it, it won't work and she is gonna have to find another CAS gal to inspire others, clearly I wasn't the one!

But are we quitters?!!? Nooooo, when the going gets tough, the tough go through every stamp they own and find something that works! Soooo, that is what I did, and while I was going through way to many stamps, the idea came to me! As usual, I over thinking it and trying to be to literal. The sketch is only a jumping off point.

Generally this time of year I am only making Halloween and Thanksgiving cards, but a great guy birthday card can always come in handy. I grabbed two stamp sets- Papertrey Ink's Sketched Shapes and My Favorite Thing's Document it, Rock on and I was off to the races and race I did, once the idea was formulated in my head, I had this card banged out in about 20 minutes!

Don't be like me, don't be afraid of the sketch, embrace it and your CAS style. I cannot wait to see what all of you come up with, please join us in the fun at the CAS challenge at House of Cards!

Boo

Sunday seems to be my CAS(E) this Sketch day. 

 

The sketch this week took a bit of thought and several ideas were whirling around, but this cute "boo" card won out. Besides it gave me the opportunity to use  this new set from Papertrey Ink- Polka Dot Parade #7.

Halloween is a common theme lately at many of the challenge sites. I am also entering this card at Addicted to Stamps and More for their "anything goes" challenge. Simply Create Too is looking for Halloween entries. The Friday Mashup is looking for anything spooky.

Sometimes the best cards are the most CAS. I came across some cards I made about 10 years ago and at the time I thought I was a great stamper. All I can see now is how busy they were, with to many even layers and techniques! While I can't bear to throw them away, I am not sure what to do with them.

Todays card is more my style these days. 

Hope you enjoy and feel inspired by today's card.

Ghostly Greetings

Today at Just Us Girls we are having a technique challenge. My personal favorite type of challenge. The challenge is based on this video by Jennifer Maguire called Die Cut Inlays. It seems a bit complicated but it doesn't have to be and you get two cards for the price of one- always a beautiful thing! As you can see from my cards, I went all out and instead of strips of paper, I did chevron strips.

Here is the video so you can join in the fun and challenge yourself!

An easier version of this card is just to create your own striped paper with markers and do the same technique.

Please join us in the fun over at JUGS!