Lantern Bear

 Hello, everyone!  Here is a mid-challenge reminder for our "Flora or Fauna" challenge over on the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  You still have almost 2 weeks to play along with us.  Our fabulous sponsor is Polkadoodles.  Here is my card:

As you can see, I chose both Fauna and Flora for this card.  I used the adorable "Lantern Bear" image from Polkadoodles and dressed him up with some gorgeous patterned papers and ephemera from Not 2 Shabby.  (Both were part of a prize I won last month.)  I printed the bear image rather large so I used the "Out of the Box" die cutting technique letting bits of the image hang outside the circle I die cut.  It's such a fun touch and it makes the image take up less room over all.  I finished everything off with a small sentiment and some red pearls.

Remember, you still have almost 2 weeks to play.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:

Stamps: Polkadoodles" Lantern Bear" digi; Papertrey Ink "Just Sentiments: Be Merry"

Dies: Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A"

Challenges:

Sparkles #158--plaid or tartan (I have a pink/tan plaid layer just under the image panel)

Pattie's Creations Challenge #216--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Cheerful Sketches--sketch (I used my poinsettias as the square corner elements)

Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes

Creative Inspirations--anything goes

Paper Funday--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #253--anything goes

613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamond or pearl

Peace on Earth #60--anything goes with the optional twist mood board

NBUS #60--never before used schtuff (papers and ephemera just received last week)

MFT Christmas--anything Christmas goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #226--anything goes

Shopping Our Stash #517--round and round

Word Art Wednesday #640--anything goes with uplifting sentiment

Penny's Challenge #567--anything goes

A Gem of a Challenge--anything goes

300th Challenge!!

 Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: "Happy Birthday" as we are celebrating our 300th challenge!!  That is quite the milestone!

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I almost always start my cards with a sketch--it just gives me direction (and I guess it is taking the easy way out because I don't have to do the thinking!)  Sometimes a sketch really catches my eye and I just HAVE to try it out.  This is one of those sketches; it's so interesting and fun!

This is going to be for my father's birthday, so I went with some beautiful sea inspired papers from Stampin' Up (I have no idea what they are called as I won them last year some time).  It was a bit challenging to create those wonky panels, but it was totally worth it; I love how it turned out!  I started with a very pale gray cardstock for my card base and used an Ocean Tides cardstock (from Papertrey Ink) to frame the sentiment.  The dark blue papers have a beautiful shimmer and shine in their patterns, almost like a foil.  You can see it better in the photo below:

I die cut the gray cardstock with a stitched rectangle and then adhered my wonky panels and die cut it all again using the same die so the stitching would border the entire panel.  After adding the sentiment, I finished is off with some chrome rhinestones for a little bit of sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:

Stamps: MFT "Essential Sentiments"

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 25" stitched rectangle and "Blueprints 13" stitched banner

Challenges:

Cards Galore Challenge #121--anything goes

Unicorn Challenge #96--for the boys/men

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Creative Inspirations--anything goes

Paper Funday Challenge--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #253--anything goes

613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamond or pearls (I chose diamonds)

Incy Wincy Designs--birthday AND/OR funny/humorous

Creative Fingers #273--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #226--anything goes

The Paper Shelter #488--for the boys

Sketch Saturday #746--sketch

Spring poppies

 Hello, everyone!  It's time for a new challenge from the Creative Moments Challenge blog.  The theme is: Flora or Fauna.  I am using an image from our fabulous sponsor: Polkadoodles and I chose to use both flora and fauna.

 Here is my card:

Now, I know that these flowers are poppies, and in the Northeast, at least, poppies are not spring flowers.  But I colored them up in a light pink, and we can pretend they are a spring flower.  The little fox is wearing his spring scarf, because it can still be chilly here in the spring.  This image is really large and I wanted to show off some of the patterned paper, so I die some out of the box die cutting, allowing the flowers to stand tall but keeping the image panel much smaller.  All the papers where from a paper pack I have had for AGES and it was sitting on my desk since my daughter had just given it back to me.  Last week I decided to have a little fun and try to use some of the stuff that was on my desk before putting them away.  I added a little bit of die cut grass to the bottom of the image and some silver stickles to the centers of the flowers for some sparkle.  I finished it all off with a die cut "Hello" that I die cut twice and layered together, and then added some light pink pearls.

You have all month to play along.  So, get inky and link up your creation; I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies:

Stamps: Polkadoodles "Poppy Flowers--Autumn Fox" digi

Dies: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps grass border die; MFT smartphone die "hello" and "Blueprints 12" square (I used it for the outside the box technique and then trimmed the square down further with my trimmer)

Challenges:

Fab n Funky Challenge #590--favorite colors (pink and green are not my favorite colors, but for some reason, they are my favorite colors to use when making cards.  I think it's because they go so well together in nature.)

Penny's Challenge #566--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #225--anything goes

Cards Galore #121--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #216--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 #274--sketch

613 Avenue Create--anything goes with the optional twist: diamonds or pearls

Beautiful Blossoms--anything goes

Triple B Challenge--anything goes with birds, butterflies, or blooms

The Paper Shelter #586--in the garden

Craft Rocket #112--for the girls

Paper Funday #63--anything goes with the optional twist: the DIES have it

Winter doesn't last

  Happy Friday!!!  It's time for a new challenge from the Cut It Up Challenge Blog.  This week, the challenge is: Use Spring Colors

Here is my card for your inspiration:

I was looking through my many digital images, hoping to find a crocus to use for this challenge, when I came across this beautiful parrot tulip image from Fred She Said.  I never found a crocus (don't even know if I have one of them as a digi), but the tulip does the job just as well!  The yellow paper was part of a paper pack that was sitting on my desk waiting to be put away and it became the color inspiration for the card.  I die cut the paper with a stitched rectangle die and then ran it through in an embossing folder to give some beautiful texture.  I remembered that I had some ribbons that had originally come with the paper pack as part of a card making kit many, many, many years ago, so I pulled them out and found this matching yellow ribbon.  I did a fun "out of the box" die cutting technique which allows the leaf of the image to pop outside the die cut rectangle.  I finished it off with an encouraging sentiment and some clear dew drops.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you will hop over to the Cut It Up blog for the full details of the challenge and to see what the rest of the Design Team has created. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Fred She Said "Parrot Tulip" digi; Verve "Beautiful You" sentiment

Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle and Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics A" rectangle

Cuttlebug embossing folder

Challenges:

Penny's Challenge #566--anything goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #323--anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday--bright & cheerful

Cards Galore #121--anything goes

Pattie's Creations #216--anything goes

Sheepski Designs #84--anything goes

Die Cut Divas--anything goes

Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 #273--sketch

Paper Shelter #586--in the garden

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--add a sentiment

Double D--first signs of spring