Sweet Stop and JUGS combined

This week I decided to use the JUGS challenge to make something using a template and combine it with the Sweet Stop sketch of the week to create a gift for a friend. It might be a birthday present or a just thinking of you kind of thing--we'll see. Combining challenges is a good way to use supplies on multiple projects as you can see from how I used both negative and positive images from chipboard (check out the "F" on both items). The green card stock is from PTI (spring moss, I think), the blue is from SU as are the jeweled brads and navy ribbon, the "friends" paper is from DCWV. The quarter medallion is from fiskars and the "friend" stamp (used on the chipboard letters) is also from SU! I created my template from a food product box from a Christmas gift basket (see the final picture)--you never know how something is going to come in useful!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

This card is a combination of Our Daily Bread Designs challenge to "Think Spring and New Life"; JUGS challenge to use a color combination of light brown, light blue, yellow and light green; and the Sweet Stop sketch challenge with a spin--"fuzzy wuzzy." My "fuzz" is the yellow fleece I used to make the flower. And my little yellow chick would be fuzzy in real life. Enjoy!

Our Daily Bread challenge: silver/gold

Today's card is a combination of the Our Daily Bread Designs challenge for their Anniversary celebration to use silver or gold, the JUGS challenge to create a flap card, and the Sweet Stop sketch of the week. I have been trying to combine challenges since I started a couple weeks ago, but this is the first card that I have actually been able to do it! What fun. For the silver: silver shimmer paper from Hot Off The Press (the lilac floral paper is also from them) which I embossed with the cuttlebug dots embossing folder, silver ink from Martha Stewart, silver ribbon and a silver and lilac square brad in the center of the flower. The damask stamp is from Fiskars, "love" and the inside stamp are both from SU! I copied the idea to paper pierce around the "upper crest" punch from someone's blog, but can't remember who it was. If it was you, thank you for the fabulous idea!

Our Daily Bread Challenge: China

Today's Our Daily Bread Challenge is to use China (fine dishes not the country) as an inspiration. I have a beautiful teapot with pansies on it that was my inspiration for this card. It is hard to see, but after stamping the pansies (the stamp is from SU!--individual flower and leaf that I masked and stamped together in a cluster) I stamped the whole image with versamark and embossed with clear powder. I did this three times to get a nice smooth glossy surface. Then I stamped the same scene again, also using the versamark and clear embossing powder, cut it into "tiles" and adhered them to a cardstock strip to imitate a mosaic using broken china pieces. The bottom picture is a little blurry, but it gives a better view of the mosaic piece.

Our Daily Bread Challenge: Cotton

The Our Daily Bread Challenge for today was to use cotton in some way on our cards. I started with this awesome jean-look paper (I think from DCWV) on a top fold cardstock base. The cotton comes in with the flowers, leaves and "ribbon" strip at the bottom. I tore the cotton fabric into a long strip, tied it around the bottom of the card and added a pink button. The flowers and leaves were made by adhering (spray adhesive) the fabric to cardstock to give it a bit more stability. Then I freehand cut out three circles for each flower, inked the edges and hot-glued the layers together. The large flower center is a button and the two smaller flowers have pink heart brads in their centers. I never would have thought of doing this, but I really like how they turned out. Thanks Our Daily Bread designs.

ODBDSCL5

These three colors (chocolate, melon, and cream) are not my usual go-to colors, but today as I was thinking about the Our Daily Bread challenge sketch I opened my mail and found a catalog from JCPenny with a bedding ensemble in these colors and knew it was perfect. I really like how it came out. The background stamp and sentiment is from my favorite stamp set: Damask Designs by PTI and the focal image is from Flourishes by Fiskars. I stamped it off first to lighten it so the words would be able to stand out. The chocolate paper and ribbon are from SU! and the melon is from PTI.

Sweet Stop Challenge 46

Here is my entry for this week's Sweet Stop Challenge. The focal image on this card was dry embossed with a brass stencil using my wizard die-cutter. I love that machine! I just got the charm kit which you are supposed to need to do the embossing, but ended up just using the regular "sandwich" for embossing. Anyway, it came out beautifully and took less than a minute! After embossing it, I used the stencil to chalk the stems green and the colored the flowers with my clear stardust pen. As you can see it is really sparkly. Now that I have given it a try, I might dust off some of the other brass stencils I have and put them to good use.

JUGS23

For this JUGS challenge, I tried to go very simple, but elegant. One layer and three strands of fiber. All three strands are from the same fiber, I just tied knots in the two outer ones. The sentiment is from Damask Designs by PTI and the other samps are from a new set I just got: Flourishes by Fiskars. The center "medallion" is actually a corner stamp that I stamped twice to make a semi-circle. I wanted to do a full circle, but it was way too large. This card is an example of how errors can turn into something nice. I had to add the dark blue medallions to cover up a smudge and I had planned to use the Happy Birthday stamp at the bottom of the card, but had to place it in the center to cover up a pencil mark that would NOT erase. So, there is hope for every little slip.

ODBDSLC4

This is my first entry in a Our Daily Bread challenge. The challenge was to make a card basically in any shape other than a rectangle. Lately, I have been experimenting with square cards, so this was not as difficult as it would have been a few weeks ago. My daughter's 4th birthday is coming up this month, so I decided it was a good time to make her a card. I all ready had this paper combo out for another challenge and really liked how they went together. The main image is from All In The Family from SU!, the sentiment is from Damask Designs by PTI and the balloon image on the card base is from Inkadinkado. I used another balloon stamp by SU! to create a template to cut out the four balloons and tied metallic floss around them and into a bundle in the girl's hand. I even did my first paper piercing on the girl's dress--not so hard after all. : ) The images on the card base were stamped with versamark ink and embossed with clear powder. This card is so cute, it just makes me smile. Hope you enjoyed it too.

Sweet Stop 45 and JUGS 23 challenges

I am posting my projects for these two challenges together, because I created a gift and a matching card for my friend's birthday. The JUGS challenge for the week was to create something using a template. I made this purse using Lauren Meader's All Boxed Up template from PTI. I discovered this awesome woven looking paper from DCWV that I have had in my stash for years and now I can't believe I never used it before. It was perfect. The flowers were made with two different punches and were inspired by a purse I own. The ribbon is from SU! Inside there are two pockets which are designed (I think) to hold cards and envelopes. I made a set of monogramed note cards for my friend, following Nicole Heady's project shown here. Since I loved the woven paper so much and needed a birthday card to go with the gift, I used matching elements on both purse and card. You can find the sketch for the Sweet Stop challenge here. The stamp is from SU! I have had it for a couple years and have been waiting for the perfect time to use it.