Pun Ahoy!

[My stop on the Dude Time Doodles New Release Blog Leap is HERE]

I'm really enjoying everyone's projects this week inspired by the "Pun" challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. I do love a bad pun! It was difficult for me not to come up with my own, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use this pun-tastic wordart offered by Create with TLC on Talk like a Pirate Day.

I'm taking a stab at using up my never-ending collection of scraps, and I found this just-the -right-size scrap of compass-themed DP. The card itself is made from a scrap too; I just folded it in half and voilà. I simply printed the sentiment onto glassine paper.

Cards for Men Challenge #5

Inspiration/Challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #41: Jest for the Pun of it(Dang I missed the deadline!)

Cards for Men Challenge #5: Sketch

Less is More Week 56: Don't Scrap It

Party Time Tuesday Challenge #57: Anything Goes

BINGO Challenge at Dude Time Doodles

This week at the Dude Time Doodles challenge blog we're playing BINGO!

I chose the right-to-left diagonal row: twine, step card & brads.

Wait till you see the DT cards...Wowza! Hope you'll join us. One lucky winner will receive Two images from Pattie's Creations.

I made this card with the Rodeo Randy set from Dude Time Doodles, for my husband to give to his brother on the occasion of the birth of his son (my husband's nephew)!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #59: No Floral Embellishments

One Stitch at a Time Challenge #96: Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar January Challenge: New News
Cards for Men: Boys & their Toys
Pattie's Creations Design Challenge: Fancy Folds

Stamps: Rodeo Randy set from Dude Time Doodles

Paper: DP from stash, Recollections

Tools: Zip Dry glue, glue dots, Fiskars papercutter & finger knife, MS detail scissors, HP printer & ink, hole punch

Embellishments: Recollections embossing powders, stash eyelets, watercolor pencils, Sakura gel pens, Copics for edging, bakers twine, Recollections brads

Goin' Wild...again

I totally fell for the stamp sale at Michaels this weekend, and one of the sets I bought came with a pretty flower that goes well with some tropical DP I have. So I whipped together this bright card!

Before we look at the card, I want to remind you:

• Dude Time Doodles November New Release Blog Hop
  You'll laugh the whole hop through! Through November 1.
  
• Pile It On Challenge #43: Be Happy
  Another fabulous challenge at Pile It On, sponsored by JellyPark. Through November 29.
  

Here's my card for the following challenges:

Cards for Men Challenge #22: Animals

Stamps R Us Challenge: Nature's Gifts

Designed2Delight Saturday Challenge: Cute Critters

Musically inclined

Dawn left a a lovely comment on my card for for the Link Up for Pink, and she also suggested I submit it into this week's Think Pink Dude Time Doodles challenge. What a compliment, thank you! I ended up making a different card for the challenge, with Marlooney images. I love Marlene's humor & her hilarious freebies, and once the freebie time ends her images are available at the Dude Time Doodles/Bonibleaux Designs shop.

I decided to make a set of cards, with my Dude Time Doodles card matched with one for the Make Us Laugh challenge at Cards for Men. Both cards are based on the Week 127 sketch at Sketch Saturdays. For the In Stitches challenge at Sweet Stamping, I added hand-stitching on the mats and machine-stitching on the backgrounds.

Here's the card for Cards for Men:

Inspiration:

Cards for Men Challenge #21: Make Us Laugh plus DT call

Sketch Saturday Week #127

Sweet Stamping: In Stitches

Here's the card for Dude Time Doodles:

Inspiration:

Dude Time Doodles Challenge: Think Pink

Sketch Saturday Week #127

Sweet Stamping: In Stitches

Supplies for both:

Digi stamps: Marlooney (thank you!), Fonts for WordArt: Platinum Hub Caps Solid & Folkard

Paper: DCWV, Paper Pizazz, Hammermill, Core'dinations, Recollections, China Blue Eyes Linen Finish Card Stock from Mark's Finest Papers

Tools: Fiskars papercutter, HP printer & ink, InDesign, MS detailing scissors, Marvy heat tool & punches, sewing machine

Other: tulle from WalMart, ZipDry glue, Simplicity thread, Scotch foam tape, baker's twine from Pink Paislee & stash

Copics: YG03, YG63, YG67, BG10, E11, YR00, E17, E000, RV04, RV02, 100


Update: My card made the Top 3 for the Think Pink Dude Time Doodles Challenge. Thank you!

Nature Boy

Ever since participating in their Banksy challenge, I'm hooked on Daring Cardmakers! This week's challenge is Krafty: use kraft paper as well as 3 natural items. I also adore Cards for Men, and chose Ground for their "G is for..." challenge. I used the decidedly hip swirl stamps from the Raisin Boat Make a Splash set. The star of this show, of course, is Skate Board Edward from Tellen's Place Designs. Love this guy! He reminds me of summer.

For my "natural items" I grabbed a couple of small leaves from the yard (Hurricane Irene made that easy; I think they're Maple & Mulberry), put them in the freezer for a few hours (to kill bugs), dried them out with my heat tool (with only some burning), then sprayed them with hairspray to set. I made the cork button by slicing up one of my long-hoarded wine corks, adding holes & eyelets with my Crop-O-Dile. I sewed it on with baker's twine, which I'm hoping was made with "natural" cotton and dyes (I'd've used hemp twine if I'd had it)!

Inspiration:
Daring Cardmakers: Feeling Krafty (plus 3 natural items)
Cards for Men Challenge #18: G is for... (Ground)

Stamps: SB Edward 2 by Tellen's Place Designs, Make a Splash set from Raisin Boat
Paper: Recollections, Hammermill
Tools: Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, Martha Stewart scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, hole punch, Marvy heat tool & punch, Crop-O-Dile
Other: Versamark & Memento inks, ZipDry & Tacky glues, stash eyelet, stash baker's twine, Recollections embossing powders, Sutter Home cork, stash eyelets, leaves, hairspray
Copic markers: RV11, E13, E33, E11, E31, E35, E47, C-1, C-5, C-7, BG49, BG15, BG10, FYG1

Bottle Cap Robots

One of my favorite creative things to do is to combine several challenges to create one card. My only problem is making the deadlines, as I tend to overthink these sorts of projects!
I just had to try this week's PaperWorks Co. (PWCO) Sunday Sketch; I liked the idea of making a "skinny" card. Then I saw the Circles Challenge at Cards for Men, and decided it was the perfect opportunity to use my new $1 circle-background stamp. Hmm, I always forget how difficult it is to line up rubber stamps...the border took me a few tries. Of course I wanted to heat-emboss it, so I stamped it in watermark ink, which meant that it was also invisible, which didn't help the lining-up problem.

Somewhere in there I discovered the Bottletops Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers (love the new look, ladies!) and decided it was fate: a chance to use some of those bottlecaps I save! I pulled three bronze-and-black caps (Monteith's beer...I don't remember when we had that! Luckily I'm very good at popping off tops without bending the cap; I never manage to buy screw-off tops!) and worked around that color scheme.

To pop the images, I cut up a cork (one of those non-cork plastic ones, which which like a dream), and glued it in after putting a hole in the cap with my Crop-O-Dile punch. Because I like things to move, I included brads so that the caps move together like gears.

I made this card with my best friend from college in mind; his favorite color is orange, and I've found that it always makes a good "splash" color.

Thanks everyone for the inspiration: I had tons of fun making this!

Inspiration:
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenge: Bottletops
Cards for Men Challenge #9: Circles
PWCO Challenge: Sunday Sketch #79

Supplies: StudioG rubber stamps, Stampendous embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink, Marvy heat tool, MS detailing scissors, Recollections cardstock, ZipDry glue

Bunnies ain't fakin', a-whole lotta shakin' goin' on.

Easy now.
Shake, Baby, shake!
I'm entering this card into the Anything Goes/DT challenge at Aud Sentiments. Oh how I'd love to be a part of their team!

I also made this card for the following challenges, and I thank everyone for such great inspiration. I took each challenge very seriously, and enjoyed seeing how all the different ideas worked together. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

PaperWorks Co. Recipe Tuesday: Easter image, 2 papers, a bow
Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge: Sketch
Cards for Men Challenge #8: Easter

The movement lines on this image really made me want to make a shaker card. I really like the result, but it took me 8 tries to get a complete, smudge-free stamp on the plastic. Thank to StazOn ink remover, however, I was able to clean the plastic to reuse. For the "shaking stuff", I used the multi-colored pile of scraps from this week's border-punching. I like how it sticks to the edges, but still shake really well.

For the sentiment, there was no question: TLC Creations! I'm so glad I bought her $10 sentiment license. She's always posting freebies like this one that I grabbed (with a thank-you, it's only fair) just knowing it would come in handy.

I added a green overlay to the sentiment image, made a banner with a yellow stroke in InDesign, and printed it at "Best" onto vellum. Then I heat-embossed it with transluscent yellow. For the inside sentiment, I hand-stamped it in green and embossed it with the same powder.

I found myself stuck with how to color this stamp, as it's so full of possibilities. So I asked my editor (and husband) and he said, They're Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail going to Sunday School. I never would have thought to color them like actual bunnies! Somehow he always knows the direction I really want to take, when I'm too busy looking in all directions.

The PaperWorks Co. "recipe" calls for only two [designer] papers, so I chose a stripe-embossed white paper and a busy black-and-white polka-dot paper. I liked how they contrasted with the bright spring colors. I also liked that I could have the stripes going one way behind the rabbits, and the other way for the card itself.

I cut the frame with SCAL & Cricut, adhered it to foam tape and then lined the the whole thing with ribbon. I think it adds a quiet touch of color, and was certainly easy to do.

Hope you'll consider entering some of these fun challenges, and thank you so much for visiting!
*
Bunny Hop stamp: The Peddler's Pack Stampworks
What's Shakin' sentiment digi stamp: TLC Creations
Happy Spring sentiment stamp: StudioG

Copic markers:
Rabbits: E35, RV21, E51, E33, E31, E000
Blues: B39, BG10, BG15, BG49, B23, B32, B05
Reds: R27, R59, R02, R29, RV29, E000, E02, RV23, RV21
Yellows: YO4, Y000, Y06, YR12, Y17, Y02, Y08, Y13

Update 5/2/11: This card made the Top 3 for the Cards for Men Easter Challenge.