All Spruced Up

I found this cute Winter Sprig digi at MelJen's Designs, and just had to use it right away for their "No Patterned Paper" challenge. Of course, in retrospect I hope that stamping onto the plain paper counts as not patterned... Anyhoo, I decided to use the digi for the Fancy Shmancy Challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.


The idea is to use a new-to-you folding technique, so I chose a Free Standing Pop-Up Card, which is one of their suggestions as well as something I've been wanting to try since seeing it on the Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Cardmaking Group discussion board (SDSS). It really is easy.

Speaking of SDSS, I'm hosting a "Shrink Plastic" theme for the Off the Page group, so I just had to try the printable shrink plastic I bought (Huzzah for the 50% coupon!). I printed the heart at 3x the size of my original, punched and hole in the top and colored it after shrinking with my heat tool. The twine is glued atop the main image, but the charm used swing a bit.

Inspiration:
MelJen's Designs Challenge #74: No Patterned Paper
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long: Fancy Shmancy (try a new folding technique)
Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Cardmaking Group

Free Standing Pop-Up Card tutorial: Splitcoast Stampers

Stamps: Winter Sprig digi by MelJen's Designs, Tim Holtz, Stampin' Up!
Paper: Recollections, Hammermill
Tools: Crop-O-Dile, SCAL & Cricut, EK Success corner punch, Marvy heat tool
Other: ZipDry glue, Stampendous embossing powder, Versamark & Tim Holtz inks, Celebrate It! ribbon, We R Memory Keepers baker's twine, stash brad & eyelet, shrink plastis
Copics: 100, B0000, B00, BG10, R37, R27

Happy 100th ColourQ Challenge

Oooh, wait 'til you see the ridiculously gorgeous projects for the 100th ColourQ Challenge. We get to pick our favorite color combo from past challenges (tough choice!), and match it with a sketch from Clean&Simple Stamping.

I chose the combo of bravo burgundy, really rust, taken with teal, old olive + white. These butterflies may look familiar to my readers...I'm loving my new Stampin' Up set!

The base card is a burgundy Core'dinations piece, with the flat side on the outside and the textured side on the inside. The top teal piece is also Core'dinations, but with the textured side facing out. I punched the flowers with a Martha Stewart border/corner punch set, and punched out a butterfly on the bottom with the SU punch. I put a "cajun craze" piece of stash cardstock into the butterfly cut-out. The front piece is backed with olive-colored cardstock, which I trimmed to fit.

The white punched-out butterflies are stamped in olive, "cajun craze", and teal and backed with their corresponding cardstocks. The sentiment (from the same SU set) is heat-embossed in white, as is the butterfly on the inside of the card.

Thank you ColourQ for 100 fantastic challenges, and many more!

Inspiration:
colourQ #4: bravo burgundy, really rust, taken with teal, old olive + neutral
Fall-to Layout #155 by clean&simple


Hey, I have a question for you dear reader: I try to include the sketches and color combos that I use on my blog posts, because most challenge sites seem to like it. However, I was just asked to take down a sketch for a challenge. What're your thoughts? Only include the images if asked in the rules, and otherwise not? I just like folks to know all the inspiration I've found.

Good luck Black Cat

This card was created and blogged in 40 minutes. I made the deadline for Halloween Cardmaking Challenge #8 by 6 minutes!

Everything Nice

A craft-y friend recently had her second child, a beautiful little girl, just the excuse I needed to participate in Really Reasonable Ribbons' I Got You Babe Challenge. I was so intrigued by this week's Triplicate Trials Tuesday Challenge (TT) that I had to use it as well.

The TTT theme is Fun & Games, so I chose a "Candyland" theme. I don't much about kids but I know I played "Candyland" a scant kagillion times with my niece. I was partly drawn to this sketch because I wanted to use three of my favorite Mo Manning images. The other thing I know about kids is that they love tutus (even the boys, if they're allowed to)!

Inspiration:
Really Reasonable Ribbons Challenge #31: I Got You Babe
Triplicate Trials Tuesday Challenge #7

Stamps: Two Tasha, Done! & Kiesha's Curtain Call by Mo Manning, Candyland background, Fiskars, sentiment created with Euphorigenic typeface
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections
Tools: Fiskars papercutter & punch, MS scissors, Marvy heat tool, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: Tacky glue, Glossy Accents, red tape, tulle, Recollections  embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink, Offray ribbon,
Copics: BV08, V17, BV02, E13, E31, E33, E51, R37, R29, RV29, RV02, RV11, YG03, FY1, YR12, E50

Happy Wishes with Birthday Sundaes and DP2

I made this card pretty quickly since it's for a friend who's birthday was yesterday! Whoops!

Inspiration:
Birthday Sundaes Challenge #24: Inspiration photo (left)
DP2 Challenge #98: Sketch (right)

Stamps: Done! by Mo Manning, Bunting by  Ellephantastic (thank you!) Studio G, Fiskars, SP & Company
Paper: Hammermill, Core'dinations, Recollections, stash DP
Tools: Fiskars papercutter & punch, MS scissors, Marvy punch & heat tool, Cricut & SCAL, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: Tacky glue, red tape, Pink Paisley twine, Recollections & Stampendous embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink, stash brads
Copics: BG10, B00, B23, Y02, Y06, Y17, YR01, E13, RV04, E35, E37