The Challenge #75

Hello and Happy Memorial Day to my US friends!  It's the 5th Monday of the month which means we have a wild card sketch for you this week at The Challenge.

For my card today I used some of my favorite stamps and dies from Concord & 9th.  To make the card base I stamped the flowers and berries from Wildflower on watercolor paper and colored with my Zig Clean Color watercolor pens.  I used a 4" doily (folded in half), as my semi-circle element, and wrapped some gold cord around the card just above that.  I cut the butterfly from Floral & Flutter Die from shiny gold card stock.  I also cut a butterfly from Reverse Confetti's Butterfly Dreams Confetti Cuts from vellum to place underneath the gold butterfly.  The word "beautiful", from the Beautiful You Dies, was also cut from shiny gold card stock.  "Be your own kind of" is from the stamp set Beautiful Words; I stamped it on black card stock and embossed in white.  I added 3 black sequins to finish my card.

I hope that you'll play along with this week's sketch.  This will be the last challenge at The Challenge until September, we're taking a summer vacation :)  Be sure to drop by Lesley's blog to see what the rest of the design team created!

The Challenge #74

Hello and thanks for stopping by today!  We have a masculine challenge for you this week at The Challenge.

When I saw this picture I realized I have NO farm related stamps whatsoever, YIKES!  What to do, what to do.  I decided I to design a card strictly based on the colors, and of course I used the masculine theme.

I decided to use the Hugs stamp set from Concord & 9th to make a "dad" card.  My husband's birthday is the 19th of June so in addition to Father's Day cards we also need birthday cards at the same time.  The hexagon shapes were cut using MFT dies, and the "dad" die is from Reverse Confetti.  I colored the bear and ground with Copic markers.  The washi tape is from Stampin Up and I made the tie for the bear with washi tape, isn't it cute?!

I hope you'll play along with us this week!  Be sure to visit Lesley's blog to see what all of the design team members and our guests have created to inspire you! 

The Challenge #73

Hello there!  It's Monday and that means it's time for a new challenge over at The Challenge!  Today we have some beautiful photo inspiration for you.

This photo, although lovely, was a bit of a "challenge" for me.  I always have an easier time working with bold, bright colors than I do earth tones, but if you look closely there certainly are a lot of interesting things you can pull from the photo!  I also used the current sketch from Reverse Confetti to help design my card.

 

To make my card I started with the striped panel which is actually from Reverse Confetti's Party Time Quick Card Panels.  I cut the panel to make it smaller, which is why the strip of ribbon is there, it covers up where I cut, although it's still a design element and works well there.  The rose (from Reverse Confetti Rose Garden) was stamped on pink polka dot paper and embossed in white.  All the leaves were cut from PTI Ripe Avocado card stock using Reverse Confetti Leafy Confetti Cuts.  Do you see the tiny butterfly in the inspiration photo?  I "almost" didn't see it, but when I did I decided to add a few little die cut butterflies to my card.  They were cut from polka dot vellum using Reverse Confetti Butterfly Dreams Confetti Cuts.  The sentiment, stamped with PTI Ripe Avocado ink, is from Rose Garden.  I added more of the ribbon at the top of my card and some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a finishing touch.

I hope you'll play along with us this week.  Whenever I have a harder time coming up with a card I'm always extra excited to see what others do.  I love being inspired by YOU!  Be sure to visit Lesley's blog to see what she and the rest of the design team created this week! 
    

The Challenge #72

Hello my friends!  I'm here today with a card for The Challenge.  We have a really gorgeous color challenge for you this week, I just LOVE this combo!

I'll also be entering my card in the current My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge.  It's been awhile since I've had time to play along with MFT and I'm thrilled I was able to work it in this week!

I started my card by stamping the flowers from MFT' Fall Florals using Wplus9 Bo Peep ink and Hero Arts Navy Shadow Ink.  I die cut some little yellow centers for the flowers using PTI Harvest Gold card stock and MFT Sequin Die-namics.  Next I stamped the hula girl from MFT Polynesian Paradise on white card stock and colored here with Copic markers.  The sentiment is also from Polynesian Paradise and I stamped with Versamark on black card stock and embossed in white.  I added a few leaves to my card die cut from MFT Leafy Greenery Die-namics, and a bit of twine.  I SO love how this turned out, these colors just make me happy :)

I hope you'll play along with us this week at The Challenge!  Be sure to visit Lesley's blog to see what she, the design team, and our guests have created to inspire you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

The Challenge #71

Well hello there!  So happy you stopped by today!  We have an awesome new sketch for you try over at The Challenge this week.

When I saw the large circle of the sketch the first thing I thought of was the circle medallion from Concord & 9th's Crazy Awesome stamp set.  I started my card by selecting my patterned papers, they're from Stampin Up's English Garden collection, and I based my color choices for the medallion on the colors of the paper.  I stamped the medallion using Hero Arts Navy Shadow ink, and the word "awesome" using Wplus9 Gala Red.  I stamped the things on either side of the word "awesome" (what ARE those things called, I have no idea lol!?) using Scattered Straw distress ink.  I colored the word "crazy" and the circle around the medallion using a Copic marker.  I fussy cut the medallion and used some foam tape to attach it to my card. 

I hope you'll play along with us at The Challenge this week.  Be sure to stop by Lesley's blog to see the awesome cards the rest of the DT and our guests have created!

The Challenge #70

Hello everyone, how are you?  I'm happy to be sharing my card today for a new masculine inspiration photo at The Challenge!

To make this card I started by cutting out a bunch of planes from Reverse Confetti's Here We Go Confetti Cuts from shiny silver card stock.  When I was a girl we lived near a small, local airport and every summer the Blue Angels would come to perform.  I arranged the planes to make them look like they are flying in formation as an homage to that :)  Next I cut a piece of light gray card stock slightly wider than the silver piece and used a die from Edge Essentials Confetti Cuts to cut the holes on each side.  The word "dad" was cut from black card stock using Tie-Rific Confetti Cuts.  I cut the flag banner from Tag Me Confetti Cuts and stamped the sentiment from Tie-Rific on it.  This card was fun to make, but difficult to photograph because of the shine.  I really wanted to use the silver and black from the inspiration photo, along with the plane, and I'm very happy with how this turned out!

You don't have to go with a plane theme for this challenge, you'll be amazed with the creative cards the design team girls came up with so be sure to visit Lesley's blog and be inspired!

The Challenge #69

Hello and happy Monday, folks!  So glad you stopped by today!  We have a new inspiration challenge for you today at The Challenge.

I don't know about you, but I LOVE me a rainbow, so I was excited to create a card based on this beautiful inspiration photo!

I used the Heart Board Fri-Dies from CAS-ual Friday stamps to cut my hearts in a rainbow of colors.  I interlinked some of the hearts, and popped a couple of them up with foam tape.  For the sentiment I used both Concord & 9th Sophisticated Script stamp set (to stamp the word "mom" in pink), and CAS-ual Friday's Hope Ribbon stamp set to stamp "you are loved" in black over top of "mom".  I added a few black sequins and a strip of patterned paper (from Stampin Up), to finish the card.

The design team has created some stunning cards this week, please be sure to hop over to Lesley's blog to take a look.  Hope you'll play along with us!

The Challenge #66

Greetings!  It's Monday and we have a new challenge for you at The Challenge!  This week it's a masculine inspiration challenge.

I don't have any nautical themed stamps or dies in my collection so I wasn't sure what I would do when I saw this inspiration photo, but then I remembered that I had some patterned paper from Webster's Pages that would work perfectly.  This card was super duper EASY to put together, I simply cut the patterned papers to size using zig zag stitch dies from Sugar Pea Designs and added the "happy birthday" sentiment from Practicing Creativity.  I think the paper is so pretty that it really doesn't need much of anything else to adorn it.

I hope that you'll join us this week at The Challenge.  The design team has created lots of inspiring cards, be sure to visit Lesley's blog and check them out!