The challenge over at SCS tonight, was to try a new technique called embossed shimmer. I was a little intimidated by it at first, but I am glad that I gave it a try.

I started out by taking acetate and painting it with lumiere mixed with turquoise pearl-ex. Afterwards, I dabbed extra pearl-ex over the whole thing, making the color really rich. The hardest part was waiting for it to dry (I took advantage of the time, and went and worked out, yay me). Once it was dry, I embossed it with my paisley cuttlebug folder. I id the reverse side, and love how that turned out. I was not sure what image I wanted to use, I wanted something that would still show the background pretty well. Finally, I came across she’s all that, and it was just right. I punched out the flowers in the silver and turquiose and added the diamond dots flowers to the centers. I popped some of them up and layered them on. I think it is just enough, it does not take away from the background, which is really the whole point of the challenge.

Supplies

Paper: Tempting Turquoise (SU), Basic Black (SU), Brushed Silver (SU), Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Black Stazon
Stamps: She’s All That
Other: Diamond Dots Stickers (Stampendous), Stampin Up Flower Punches, Silver Brads (SU), Lumiere, Pearl-Ex, Paisley Cuttlebug Folder

Our sweetheart friend, Karen, used to run the Inspiration Challenge over st splitcoast, but she hasn’t in a while now. We still occasionally bug her to give us inspirational challenges (because she is SO good at it) and she occasionally gives in and does so. She gave us this really neat picture of a candle this time, and right away I noticed the polka dots and stripes. I looked through my paper (I went stright for my folder of retro paper), and what do you know, I came across this matching piece of polka dot paper, and stripe paper. It’s not the same colors, but that’s ok, you just need to be inspired.

I liked the blue and redish color stripes, so I went with night of navy and rose red to match those colors and then added in so saffron to match the yellow. I stamped the bella on the polka-dot paper, and paper pieced her dress. I paper pieced the hearts in the rose red and then covered them in glitter to make them sparkle. Going with the circle-y theme, I did the scalloped circle and other circles for my sentiment. I added the gold rhinestones and I love how it turned out. Thanks for inspiring us yet again Karen!!!

Supplies

Paper: Night of Navy (SU), Rose Red (SU), So Saffron (SU), Boy Circles and Dots (The Paper Studio), Boy Stripes (The Paper Studio)
Ink: Black Stazon
Stamps: Ballonabella (Stamping Bella)
Other: Rhinestone Stickers, Stampin Up Circle and Scallop Circle Punches, White Rub on Letters (Doodlebug Design)

Tonight’s challenge over at SCS is to use your specialty papers.  This really is a challenge for me because while I have a lot of specialty papers to choose from, it would require actually cutting them up, and that is really hard to do, hehe. 

I love love love this flocked spider paper, and knew right away that I wanted to make a card using it. The fun part about this type of paper, is that there really is not much more to do once you use it, it really can be such a focal point. I cut out the frame using my cricut, and popped up the green part. I stamped the spider and them embossed him with white embosing powder. I added the sparkly brads at the last minute, but I think it looks neat. Add a black ribbon, and there you have it, a perfectly flocked spider card.

Supplies

Paper: Basic Black (SU), Old Olive (SU), Flocked Spider Designer Paper (K&Company)
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Booglie Eyes (SU)
Other: Ribbon, Shimmer Brads, Accent Essentials Cricut Cartdrige

This card is for the sketch challenge over at SCS. I think that the sketch challenges have been my favorite lately, because sometimes they really get me thinking in a new way. Okay, I can say that about all the challenges, and do, hehe. I used to do the challenges daily, but lately, it seems like I’ve not had the time. I was determined to get one done tonight though.

I have not inked up my stampscape stamps lately, in a long while actually. I decided to pull them out and play with them tonight, and I am glad I did. I forgot how hard it is to get them to look nice with the coloring and stuff, but once you get it to a good place, it is really pretty. Sometimes I don’t know when to stop and go overboard, and I started heading that way tonight, but I got myself under control just in time.

I am not really sure about the buttons, but once I got everything else in place, it looked so empty in that area.  The colors match, it is the same line as the paper and ribbon, but I am not sure it works.  I am going to just go with it though.  Maybe it will grow on me.

Supplies

Paper: Basic Black (SU), Whisper White (SU), “Mellow” Designer Paper (Basic Grey)
Ink: Various Shades of Adirondack Inks
Stamps: Various Stampscape Stamps
Other: Ribbon (Mellow, Basic Grey), Buttons (Mellow, Basic Grey)

This week’s challenge over at Our Creative Corner was to do a birthday card. Good timing, as I need a birthday card on Tuesday for a friend. As I said earlier in the week, I really wanted to try another bookmark card so I knew right away what I wanted to do. This can be a little time consuming, but I think it’s totally worth it.

I got out the cricut again, and started cutting out Minnie. Can I just say that I just love the Mickey and Friends cartridge.  There are so many different poses for Mickey, Minnie and Friends, as well as items that match with them.  I took the colors for the card from the colors in Minnie’s outfit.

I thought that the flower made a really cute bookmark, and wanted to add the flowers in elsewhere too.  I chose to put the flowers along the panel where the bookmark is attached. One of the things that I really love about these cards is that the bookmark is a little gift in itself.  The challenge wowever is to try to make sure that the card looks good still once the bookmark is removed.

Supplies

Paper: Basic Black (SU), Whisper White (SU), Pretty in PInk (SU), Barely Banana (SU), Brocade Blue (SU)
Ink: None
Stamps: None
Other: Jumbo Paperclip, Disney Mickey and Friends Cricut Cartridge, Ribbon SU), Rhinestone Brads (SU)

Another of the VSN challenges, was to try this Brayered Batik technique (you can find the tutorial for this technique here at splitcoast).  It is such a fun technique, one that  I had not tried before.  It’s perfect for animal (safari) type of cards, as well as for just beautiful backgrounds.

Supplies

Paper: Chocolate Chip (SU), Close to Cocoa (SU), Watercolor Paper (SU)
Ink: Basic Black (SU)
Stamps: Zoofari (SU)
Other: Ribbon, Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug Embossing Folder , Shimmer Brads, Photo Corners Punch (SU)

Another of the VSN challenges was to use a stamp set which was getting dusty, otherwise sitting around not being used.  I have a lot to chose from in that category, lol, but that is a whole other story.  I chose this stamp set because it was at the bottom of the drawer and I decided to just reach in and grab something (hey, it works when you are in a hurry).  Sometimes the best cards come out of that method.

Supplies

• Paper:  Soft Sky Textured (SU), Whisper White (SU), Purely Pomegranate (SU), Wild Wasabi (SU)
• Ink:  Wild Wasabi (SU), Purely Pomegranate (SU)
• Stamps:  Infinite Goodness (SU)
• Other:  Rhinestones, Stampin Dimensionals (SU), Blender Pen (SU)

I decided to make this a square card and went with 4×4 as my final size.  I stamped the flowers on whisper white cardstock and then colored them in using the blender pen and the ink.  I cut them out and attached them to the card with dimensionals.  I added the rhinestones in the middle of each flower for some bling. Again, for the sake of time, I kept the background rather plain, just adding the panel of designer paper (I need to look up which one it is).  It was quick and easy, but I think it turned out pretty nice.

So this past weekend was VSN over at splitcoast.  And this particular round, I coordinated with my good friend peggysue (working on getting her a blog).  We had so many wonderful challenges, and I am going to post some of the cards that I made for these challenges.  I will start with one of my favorite cards that I made.  The challenge was to make a bookmark card, and the bookmark on this card is the mickey hand.  It is fully removable, so whomever I send it to can take it off and use it.  I used my cricut to cut everything out and am already planning on making matching Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy ones.  It would be fun to give the kids bookmarks like this.

Supplies

• Paper:  Basic Black (SU), Whisper White (SU), Real Red (SU), Summer Sun (SU)
• Ink:  None
• Stamps:  Hi & Hello (SU)
• Other:  Jumbo Paperclip, Staples, Disney Mickey and Friends Cricut Cartridge, Ribbon (SU)

The base is basic black cardstock, I added a layer of whisper white and another of real red.  I added the smaller strip and stapled it down on the sides.  It is not attached in the middle so that you can slide the bookmark over it.  I added mickey but just glued him down in the middle so that the bookmark can also slide underneath him. The bookmark is made by gluing the mickey hand onto a jumbo paperclip, which you can get from any office store.  During VSN there is a 45 minute time limit, otherwise I would have added something on the background paper.  I think I will fancy it up a bit when I do the next one.