Fall Color Chicka Challenge

Another week begins...I'm so glad I made it through Monday. Yesterday I got together with my good friend Carla, and we played all day! She wanted to try out my Cricut and Slice machines, and boy did she have fun! Provo Craft and Making Memories should pay me a commission for getting them a new convert!

Anyway, this week's Chicka Challenge was to make a card using fall colors. I picked up some items from the new Making Memories Autumn Splendor collection at Michaels a few weeks back. The designer papers were my inspiration for these two cards, along with some newer Hero Arts stamps. I love the pumpkin with the flourish-y stem. I got the taller pumpkin companion in the mail today, so I'll have to make another card using the two pumpkins together.


As always, thanks for looking! Have a good week!

Cards details: Pumpkin, apple stamps by Hero Arts; harvest sentiment stamp by Studio G; note cards and ribbon by A Muse; Making Memories designer paper; Basic Grey pumpkin glazed brad; Jilly Bean Soup felt flower and leaves; Copic markers; Memento and Papertrey Ink inks; Fiskars apron lace border punch; Circle punches by EK Success and SU!; Corner Chomper.

CASE A Chicka Challenge, with Inspiration from Julie

Man! I am so frustrated right now. I've taken at least six different photos of this card, and I can't find one that I'm happy with. I have a light box, my camera is decent--a Sony Cyber-shot 5 megapixels, and I use PhotoShop Elements, but I'm just not happy with how my photos are turning out lately. If anyone has any good tips to share, I would love to hear them!

On to my card. The Japanese kokeshi dolls have been popular this year, and Hero Arts recently released a holiday doll set. I thought they were very sweet, and so I picked up a set. I'd been mulling over creating a card with the doll in the snowflake hat using light blue and pink colors (that's a pretty big stretch for me, as I'm drawn to more rich vibrant colors and most of my cards reflect that). This week's Chicka Challenge is to CASE (copy and share with everyone) a card made by a friend or even someone you don't know. I remembered Julie had done this cute card awhile back with A Muse's kokeshi doll. So, her layout was the inspiration for my card (I did change it a bit though, and added the ribbon at the top to my card).

The snowflake embellishment is covered in Frosted Lace Stickles, which has more of a matte glitter look to it. In hindsight, I wish I'd used one that had more sparkle to it, like a real snowflake. The snowflake is attached with a pink crystal brad, hard to see because of the poor photo. I also went over the snowflakes on the doll's hat and coat with a clear Spica pen, and added white gel pen dots to the dots in between the snowflakes. I made the tag with my Making Memories tag maker, a tool I bought several years ago and probably had only used twice. I actually had it in my giveaway bin, because I didn't think I'd ever use it again. Ha! What do I know? It came in handy for this card, so I'll probably keep it now. Two more items that I hadn't used before--the blue polka dot ribbon and the blue Juliette paper, both from A Muse. Love them both!

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!

Card details:
Holiday doll from Hero Arts; Got Snow sentiment, ribbon and cardstock from A Muse; snowflake embellishment, crystal brad, tag rim and Tag Maker tool from Making Memories; SU! word window punch; Memento and Colorbox Chalk inks; Copic markers; Spica glitter marker; Inksenntials white gel pen; Stickles.

No Coloring Zone & Calendar Time!

This month's challenge on the A Muse Lounge is to make a card without using any coloring method (pencils, pens, paint, etc.). At first, I was having a heck of a time trying to come up with anything. I'm so used to coloring in my stamped images. Then, I ended up making a card that fit the challenge without even trying! This idea popped into my head to cut up a mod dot square note card, use a strip of three circles and stamp three related images in them (in this case, things associated with Seattle). The To Go cup image was a scrap I had leftover from another project I did not long ago--hee hee, using up those scraps again! And I paper pieced the umbrella image to give it more of a pop. I was tickled with how this turned out, and it really took no time at all to make. Love that! It will be fun to come up with other ideas for this layout.

Speaking of A Muse, it's calendar time again! Many of you know that I was honored during last year's calendar fundraiser while I was battling cancer. The project raised over $5,500 and benefitted the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the charity I selected. This year, the calendar proceeds will go to Water1st. To learn more about this organization and the calendars, please visit the A Muse blog here. I will be making my donation shortly, and of course I will share my calendar with you once it's complete.

Hope you're having a great week!

Card details: Note card, paper and stamp images all by A Muse; ink by Memento.

Tracy's Sketch Challenge #52

Congratulations to Tracy on a year of sketch challenges! If she gets 52 entries this week, one lucky person is going to get an amazing prize! Check out her blog for more details. This is my interpretation of her sketch. My card is a non-traditional size; it's actually a 5 1/2" x 2 1/2 " card scrap left over from some kraft cardstock I cut and scored for another card base. It was fun to make an alternative size, and yet another great way to use up those scraps!

Card details:
Basic Grey paper; A Muse stamps; Koh-I-Noor pencils; Memento ink; Marvy punches.

Chicka Challenge #3

This week's Chicka Challenge is to create a card using both ribbon and brads--uh oh, I see that's brads, not a brad. Well, I'm too lazy to redo my card! I seem to be on this kick lately to use up scraps from my stash. Every piece of paper on the card with the exception of the card base was a scrap. Ever since I joined the Copic marker bandwagon, my color pencils have been rather neglected. I decided it was time to break them out again. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to use the Prismacolor pencils, so I'm going to try not to neglect them so much from now on.

Have a great week!

Card details:
Kraft cardstock from PaperTrey Ink; candy backgroun paper, pumpkin bucket and jack o' lantern face stamps by Memory Box; sentiment by The Cat's Pajamas; striped paper by Making Memories; ribbon by The Paper Studio; brad by Queen & Co.; Prismacolor pencils; Stampin Up! scalloped border punch; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

Using up scraps

I had quite a few scraps left over after I made these two cards for Dawn's challenge last week, so I decided I would try to use them all up without cutting up any more cardstock. It got tough there in the end, but I managed to follow through.

This first card is my favorite of the bunch. It was one of those where I really didn't have a specific plan for it when I started, it just sort of took on a life of its own, and I'm really happy with the end result.

Card details: Cardstock, designer paper, ink and sentiment by PaperTrey Ink; pumpkin image by Rubber Soul; ribbon unknown source; Copic markers. Marvy circle punches.

At first I thought this teapot card was a bit busy, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. It's very cheery. My mom told me she loved the color combination as it reminds of her a set of dishes her grandmother had.

My supply of PaperTrey buttons is rather limited, but fortunately I was able to find close color matches with some Making Memories buttons I had on hand. That brown polka dot paper is from a collection of Stampin' Up paper featured last year. Again, it was a scrap I had on hand, so I didn't have to cut a fresh sheet!

Card details: Stamps, cardstock, ink, ribbon by PaperTrey Ink; buttons by Making Memories; SU! word window punch; SU! scalloped border punch; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.


This flower and butterfly card was the last one I made. By this point, my scraps were very limited once I used the biggest piece of yellow cardstock as my card base. I was lucky I had enough to get the flower and butterflies punched out. I covered the butterflies with a yellow Spica glitter pen, but it's hard to see them sparkle in the photo.

Card details:
Cardstock, ink by PaperTrey Ink; Sentiment by Hero Arts; Spica glitter pen; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; EK Success flower and circle punches; Making Memories buttons; SU! scalloped border punch; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

Thanks for looking! Hope you're having a good week!

Chicka Challenge #2

This week Dawn and Jane's challenge is to create a card with a distressed look. I have a few of Ranger's distress crackle paints, and decided to pull out Dried Marigold, which is a color I hadn't used before. The color made me think of fall and pumpkins and Halloween, so I decided to make my first Halloween card for the year. I ran a scrap piece of thicker craft cardstock through my Cuttlebug with the swirl embossing folder, then painted over the top of it with the crackle paint. After it dried, I used a sanding block to sand some of the paint off and expose more of the embossed design. I think my technique needs practice, but it turned out okay for the first attempt.

I haven't purchased anything from the new A Muse Halloween release yet (I'm trying to be good and limit my spending, and also use what I already have), so I dug into my collection and found this great candy apple stamp from Hero Arts that I bought several years ago. I don't think I've ever used it. I added Diamond Glaze over the caramel after I'd colored it to give it that realistic shine.

Card Details: Lime note card, red cardstock, sentiment from A Muse; ribbon from unknown source; star button embellishment from Making Memories; candy apple stamp by Hero Arts; Cuttlebug embossing folder; Copics, Memento ink; Diamond Glaze; Ranger distress paint

Thread Your Day with Happiness

I thought I'd share one more card I made recently. The color combination and scraps from today's card inspired me to create this card that I posted earlier this week. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, and one I purchased recently. I just thought it was so cheerful and could be used for many occasions. I was really pleased with how this card turned out. It's very cheery, and just what we need when it's gray and raining outside (like today).

I was just thinking how more and more companies are making things so easy for crafters by designing full product lines that coordinate--paper, ribbon, ink, stamps, embellishments. I do like the convenience of being able to use just one company's products to pull together a card and know that everything coordinates, but I find I get even more satisfaction when I can mix things up and see what interesting creations result from a variety of different brands. I think that's what I like best about being a crafter.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy the holiday weekend, and I hope you get lots of time to craft!

Card Details: Cardstock, ribbon, designer paper, button, ink by PaperTrey Ink; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; glitter glue by PSX; sentiment by Hero Arts.

Playing Along with Dawn's Color Challenge

This time I made two cards for Dawn's Color Challenge. I made the "Hello Sunshine" one first, and since I still had all of my scraps out, I decided to make another one, so pulled out the Tea for Two set. I think I like the tea one best, but they were both fun to make, and challenged me to use a color combination I normally wouldn't think to use.

Cards Details:
Cardstock, Text Style designer paper, stamps, ink and ribbon by PaperTrey Ink; buttons by Making Memories; Fiskars Apron Lace border punch; We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper; SU! Word Window Punch.

Tracy's Sketch Challenge with PTI

I'm having so much fun with sketch challenges lately that I decided to do a couple more. I will post my other card tomorrow, but today I'm showing the card I made for Tracy's sketch challenge featuring PaperTrey Ink stamps, paper and ink. My color combination and image were inspired by Nichole's card on this post, with a little bit of Summer Sunrise designer paper thrown in. I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I altered Tracy's sketch a bit by adding the extra layer behind the scalloped square.

Thanks for looking! Happy September!

Card Details: Stamps, ink, cardstock and Text Style designer papers by PaperTrey Ink; Copic markers; Nestabilities square scallop die.