Popping in With a Few Challenge Cards

 Hey Friends!!! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

I am popping in with a few cards I created for some challenges. One of my New Year's goals was to create more cards for challenges so here I am!!!

My first card I created for two challenges. I used the colors from The Color Throwdown #725 and the TGIF Challenges #403.

The Color Throwdown  was to use the colors red, green and brown on a project. 

The TGIF Challenge this week was a sketch challenge, which I decided to make it portrait angle.

For my card, I used a Stampin Up! embossing folder, a Simon Says Stamp die cut and a Kat Scrappiness leaf.

I added some clear sparkle pen inside the Copic colored flowers and Glossy Accents.

One of my other goals is to use products that I already have colored in, die cut or stamped. I have sixteen small drawers where I put these "extras" as I call them and my goal is to use them up.

For my second card, I created with my extras.

Instead of a white background, I used embossed a piece of red cardstock. I used the same Simon Says Stamp! flower die and a leaf from Kat Scrappiness.

The sentiment is from The Ton.

For my next card, I created for the Global Design Team Project challenge.

The challenge was to CASE the image below.

I used some white embossing ink on a Tim Holtz Alterations embossing folder and embossed a piece of purple cardstock. 

The intricate flower die is from Altenew and the butterfly is from Pinkfresh Studio. Everything, besides the embossed background, was from my "extra" drawer.

Well, that is all from me today!!! I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Have a FABULOUS day!!

Nora

Some Challenge Cards

Hey everyone!! Happy Sunday!!

Just popping in with a couple of cards for some challenges. I have been busy making cards for relaxation and not blogging lately. Just too tired to do both.

My first card is for the Inspired By challenge.

I was inspired by multiple things on the image below. I combined the deer, the greenery, the hoop, a tree...I think you get the picture!!

I used Hello Bluebird's "Frosty Friends" images for the tree and the deer, and some presents I had stamped for something else that I am not sure where they are from.

The embossing folder is a Richard Garay folder I had from last year. The greenery is from Simon Says Stamp.

I adore how this card came out!!! However, I think the deer is a bit dark. I will use different colors next time I color him in.

I used a bit of Nuvo Glitter drops over a bunch of areas on this card. This has become my new favorite thing to use!!

I am also going to enter this into Just Us Girls Challenge #516-Anything Goes and this weeks Time Out Challenges#150-Merry and Cheerful.

 

My second card I created for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches #414.

I kind of flipped it? Instead of the element strip at the bottom, substituting a little spray of pine cones and branches. I always hesitate when I do things like this because I don't know if I am supposed to go by the LETTER of the law or what inspires me?

I decided to use some of my Christmas pattern paper that I have TONS of in my stash, though this from this year and is Prima "Christmas in the Country" collection.

I combined and Echo Park die cut with the MFT sentiment. That sentiment looks wonky close up but IRL if it even!!

The pine cones, branches and leaves are from Stampin Up!! I coated the pine cones and branches with Nuvo "White Blizzard" glitter drops for some shine.

I really like how this card came out as it was kind of out of the box for me.

On another note, yesterday we decided to give our dog a bath and groom him a bit. We are trying to save money on going to the groomers, which is good. The clippers and Dremel have already paid for themselves after just two cuts at home!! However, it did take both Chris AND I to do it. Zack did not like the cutting part, though doesn't mind the bath or the blow dry.

I am pretty happy with how it came out, actually. Better than our last attempt!! However, our kitchen floor was COVERED with hair, as was I. I think I will be finding it for days-though we did use a huge sheet to try to contain the mess on the floor.

Well, that is all from me today. I thank you for stopping by and I will be back with a post tomorrow to with some more Christmas cards!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!

A couple cards for CASE This Sketch #252, Time Out Challenges and Merry Monday #269

Hello everyone!! Today I am just posting quick.

I created two Christmas cards for some challenges.

First, the layout of the card was inspired by the sketch below from CASE this Sketch:

(sketch #215)

Instead of the circle, I used the poinsettia as the focal point on both cards, along with some pine boughs and mistletoe.

The colors that I was inspired by came from two sources. One is the image from TIME OUT Challenge #98and the second is three colors from the Merry Monday image #269. I think you can see what inspired me from both.

 

Here is a close up of both. I used the same poinsettia that I used on yesterdays card. I die cut a few to get rid of some scraps.

I also used two different sentiments on each card but both were heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

That is all from me today!! I thank you for stopping by. Have a FABULOUS day!!

Supplies: 

(Affiliate links are used when possible at no extra cost to you.)

Paper-PaperTrey Ink-Rustic White, Parakeet, Pure Poppy, and Linen card stock, Paper Studios Kraft, Crate Paper "Bundled Up" patterned paper, Bazzill Sugar Cookie
Dies-Sizzix Thinlits Die (Pillow Box and Poinsettia), Stampin Up! Pretty Pine Dies
Ink-Vintage Photo Ink and Versamark
Stamps-Mama Elephant Merry Greetings and Uniko Most Wonderful
Other-Darice Sequins, Gold Stickles, Pink Fresh December Days Stickers, Foam Adhesive, Ranger Multi Matte Adhesive, Scotch Dot Adhesive, Sizzix Big Shot, Wagner Heat Gun, Ranger Gold Embossing Powder

Flash Back Friday

Happy Friday everyone!! This week is finally over!!

A few things that I did this week was to see "Pitch Perfect 2" with Charlotte, my niece and my nephew. I have to admit that I liked it but thought it would be a bit better then it was. It was fun to go to the movies, though, something I love to do.

On Wednesday I went on a field trip to NYC with work. The kids got to attend some great work shops for acting. I attended the "Stage-Combat" workshop (this was the class my student chose to attend). It was fabulous! So interesting to learn that a lot of what is seen is really the "victim" moving the physical action rather then the aggressor. We then went to see "Les Miserables" on Broadway. It was a LONG but really enjoyable day.

Today I am posting a card that I created for someone that I work with. Their instructions were to make it "really girly." I chose to use the dress stamp from the retired Stampin Up! set "Haute Couture" as the inspiration for my card.

I stamped it in Momento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it in using Copic Markers. (RV04, RV06, RV09 and RV13) I love the vibrant pink!! I then stamped the sentiment with the same black ink and added some "Glam Pink" Stickles glitter glue onto the dress to give it a bit of sparkle.

I took these photos at night so the glitter really shows up but in real life, it is more of an accent and it matches the pink of the Copic markers almost exactly. I set the panel aside to work on the card base.

I used a piece of Paper Trey Ink's Raspberry Patterned paper for the pink on the left side. I used a Lawn Fawn Scalloped Border die to die cut a piece of black pattered paper that I had as a scrap. I then layered these pieces with the stamped image onto the card. It needed something after I assembled it so I added a piece of black ribbon at the top.

My friend LOVED this card but if he didn't, I would have kept it. I really like how it turned out. I think I will be using this design to make a few more for my stash.

I am entering this into Simon Says Stamps "Anything Goes" Wednesday Challenge.

I thank you for stopping by today. Have a great weekend!!

Supplies:
Stamps-Altenew Persion Motifs (sentiment), Stampin Up! "Haute Couture" (retired)
Paper-Paper Trey Ink (white and raspberry), We R Memory Keepers (black)
Copic Markers-RV04, RV06, RV09, RV13
Other-Big Shot, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Stickles "Glam Pink," Lawn Fawn Stitched Borders, Black Ribbon

Throwback Back Thursday

Yesterday felt like a Thursday so today was a disappointment to me!! Not really but it was LOONNNGGG. I am so ready for school to be out and summer to kick in.

Chris was away until last night so I watched the Kurt Cobain documentary "Montage of Heck" on Monday night. It was really interesting but disturbing at the same time. It was an intimate portrait of the MAN Kurt was and how he got there. As I was listening to his parents speak of his childhood and the things that went on, all I could think of was why did they not get him some professional help? He so needed some guidance and maybe his drug use or his tragic death could have been prevented. It was very clear that his parents did not know what to do. It was just so sad and I have been thinking about it for the last two days. I do not usually ruminate on things like this either. I just hate drug use, and heroin in particular. No matter how crappy life is, taking drugs does not make the crap go away. In fact, it makes it worse. The stuff is still there when you come down. Perhaps it is because I am a control freak and being "high" has never really appealed to me that I feel this way. The whole movie just made me sad.

On that lovely note, today I am sharing a card I created using an extremely OLD Stampin Up! stamp set called "Spring Bouquet." I made this card to go into the set of cards my friend bought for her mother.

I used watercolors to color the image in and then die cut it into a square. I mounted the square onto a "Soft Stone" background and then used strips of colored card stock on the top and bottom.

The whole design was really simple. I often have a hard time when I color images like these to know what to do with the panels. I rarely make a one layer card when I watercolor because I always make a mistake and do not want to have to throw the whole thing out.

That is all for now. I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a great day!1

Stampin Up! Holiday Home Cards

It is Sunday here in blog land. I will be going over my sister's shortly to say good bye to my brother. He was here for Thanksgiving and to attend a wedding. I was able to have lunch with him on Saturday and it was nice to talk to him. I am sad he lives so far away.

I also did a little shopping at Michael's yesterday. What great sales they had!! I was only in there for a  about ten minutes and wish I had a bit more time to browse but Chris was waiting for me in the car. He is pretty good about letting me look around but we were on a time deadline and had to be home so I could be on time for lunch. I did get adhesive which was 40% off. That almost NEVER goes on sale so I bought quite a bit. They also had a coupon to get 25% sale AND clearance items. I bought a few Heidi Swapp stencils that were on clearance, as well as some ribbon.

Today I am sharing two cards that I created with Stampin Up!'s "Holiday Home" stamp set. I borrowed this set from my friend this weekend and think I am going to have to borrow it again another day. I LOVE it.

The first card I created for my friend who just moved into her new house on Friday. This card was a total CASE of a card I saw somewhere on the web. I know I pinned it but I have pinned so many darn cards that I couldn't find it to link up. Anyway, I stamped three houses in gray on a white card base and a street light image in black. I then die cut the white panel and mounted it on a red hot card stock base.

Next I stamped a fourth house in black, colored it in with Copic markers and then die cut it out. I colored it in yellow because my friend's new house is yellow. Hmm...I just noticed that this house should have been on the opposite card! I meant to put a different house on this one! Ugh!!!

I mounted the yellow house onto the card with foam adhesive and used Ranger Glossy Accents on the windows to make them reflect.

The last step was to stamp the sentiment in black, the heart in red and then to cover the heart in red Stickles. I really love how this came out. You can see how the glossy accents shines in the photo above.

The second card I created in the same way but flipped the card so that it was 5 1/2" by 4 1/4".

On this card, I stamped four houses in gray and then die cut a fifth that I had stamped in black on another sheet of white card stock. Instead of yellow, I chose to color this house in with red. I am obsessed with red!!

This house was also adhered to the card using foam adhesive. Like the first house, the windows on this one got a treatment of Glossy Accents.

I think that I am going to try to stamp these houses with white on Kraft card stock next and use colored pencils to color one of them in. I really love how this came out!!

That is all for today. Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Supplies:

Stampin Up!-Holiday Home stamps and dies

InLinkz.com