A fun challenge that I'm going to try for the month of March.  A photo a day.  Click here for a full description of the challenge if you're interested in joining.  The gist is you use the list below created by fat mum slim to take and post a daily picture.

I'm going to post my daily pics on Facebook but will also be posting them here.  I might condense my blog posting into every other day...we'll have to see how timing goes.  But if you're interested in playing a long be certain to let me know so I can either check out your pics on your blog or Facebook.  This should be lots of fun!

Sketch Challenge: AMYRS66

Mother's Day certainly sneaked up on me this year. I didn't remember it was around the corner until Monday...I was thinking it was in June, but that's Father's Day. duh!

As I was blog surfing this morning I found a sketch challenge at Prairie Paper & Ink. I don't normally participate in challenges because I'm usually two weeks or more behind getting to them, but as soon as I saw this sketch I knew what I was going to do.

The sketch is slightly different than my end product, I wanted three circles vs. four but the idea is still the same. I cut wholes on the card front and adhered the butterflies to the inside...you can see the dimension of the butterflies in the 2nd picture. I really need to set up my light box so the colors and pictures are more crisp.


elements:
cardstock: Papertrey Ink - kraft
patterned paper: Pebbles Inc - So Tweet Collection
paper punch: Martha Stewart
ink: Ranger Adirondack Earthtones Espresso
stamp: Stampendous

I won this tote!

Back in November I posted an entry in 3D Design Challenge's open box top challenge. My open top box was picked as the winner! woo hoo! And my prize arrived a few weeks ago...I'm a little late getting it photographed and posted.

Here is the box I created, if you're interested in looking. And here is the tote I won; it's from Daily Window Bags! This tote is great for so many reasons, but first off the lining is green and it's my favorite color! I'm pretty sure it's nylon so it cleans up easily and it's so roomy, great for throwing my 12x12 scrapbooking items when I'm headed to a crop. Or just for everyday when I'm running around with GQ...he usually has a million things he wants me to bring along him.

The front of the bag features a window that you can display most anything in. I had GQ's Santa picture for a while but now I have one of the cards that came with it displayed. I just might scrap a mini-page to put in there. I'm still undecided, but the possibilities are endless...



Thanks to 3D Design Challenge and Daily Window Bags for this awesome prize!

Some scraplings...

Are these little scraplings cute or what? They're smaller than they look, 1.25" x 4.25" to be exact. I first saw them on Hero Arts and Jennifer McGuire's blogs. They started as a way to use the scraps of paper left over after making a 4.25" square card.

Scraplings are on the small side and not really great for mailing; they'd almost get lost in a standard A2 envelope. I think I remember reading that some people included them in a birthday card as a little bonus gift and/or use them as gift bag tags to go along w/the card they just made.

Since I rarely make square cards, I rarely have that size scraps, but I did think of a great use for scraplings...Valentine's Day cards. You can make eight scraplings out of one 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock! So their economical, too. And a little bonus...the white on my scrapling is an address label. I printed the sentiment on my computer, then added my little touches and peeled off the backing to stick on my card. So simple! It would be a great project for you and your kiddos to put together!

These eight cards went together so quicly and everything but the address labels was made from my scrap stash. So I am going to challenge you to make some scraplings and show them off. They can be any theme, just be sure to post a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Can't wait to see your creations!

I won! I won!

I won the 3D Design Challenge Open Box Top Challenge! YAY! And I won a really great prize from Daily Window Products, too! The post below has pictures of my submission. I entered the contest for fun and never thought it a million years I'd win anything and what a great prize to win! Woo hoo! So excited!

Thanks for letting me brag a little!

Open Top Box @ 3D Design Challenge

I rarely do challenges that other blogs post. I guess I should say, I rarely link my creation back to any challenges I've done, because I always feel like I could have done better. But I decided to put on my big girl panties and actually participate in the challenge! yay!

This open top box was super simple. It's 4x4x4, so there was very little cutting to make the base, I just used a 12x12 piece of cardstock. A while back I bought this pretty preppy stripe ribbon that I've been wanting to use, so that sort of set the theme for my box. I think I'm going to make one more and maybe fill w/candies for our neighbors this holiday season.

If you're interested in the details of the challenge, head on over to 3D Design Challenges.

Counting Challenge

I made this quick card for a counting challenge on my friend Karie's site. It had to contain 1 stamped image, 2 flowers, 3 brads and 4 bling. Here is my interpretation...if you can't tell what the bling is, look in the patterned paper, you'll see four green stones.

Do you believe in Santa?

We're celebrating Christmas in July at Memory Book Inspirations. Last week a gift tag project was posted by Aleta. It's darling, you should check it out, it's a perfect way to recycle your soda-can tabs.

It's my turn to post a Christmas in July project and I'm using Aleta's tag idea and sticking it on a card. It's such a fun idea and it's an easy one to do with the kiddos. GQ helped me add the flocking to the bottom of Santa's coat. He lost interest after that, but the older ones would probably have the attention span for the entire project. And I'm sure your family and friends would be thrilled to get a holiday card in the mail that was handmade by you and/or your little ones.

If you're looking for some early holiday inspiration you should stop on over to MBI and check out their Christmas in July calendar of events. They're also hosting a Christmas in July Cyber Crop this weekend that will be full of games and challenges. The cyber crop will be then lead into our 12 Days of Christmas, there are some nice prizes involved here, so check it out. And while you're checking out all the Christmas in July festivities be sure to stop by the MBI Store, they have over 30 products on sale...anything red and green and Christmas themed is 30% off until July 31st!

Have a good one!

Christmas in July

Want to get a jump start on your Christmas cards this year? Or do you have pictures lying around from Christmas(s) past that your really want to get scrapped? It's Christmas in July at Memory Book Inspirations this month and they have a calendar of events planned to help inspire you to be creative each day.

Yesterday's Christmas in July challenge was to make a Christmas/Holiday card using non-traditional colors. The card I made also happened to fit a challenge that my friend, Karie, created for her Stamping and More board. It sort of killed two birds with one stone for me. I used a very easy design on this card so it could easily be done assembly-line style. And used minimal embellishments to avoid and additional postage charge. The ribbon is organdy and is perfect for cards that are going into the mail because they don't get bulky when you tie knots and poke out of the envelope. The buttons I used are flat backed so they adhered down nicely and shouldn't add to postage either.

Have a wonderful week!

Monkey Business

My wonderfully funny and talented friend, Karie, posted a sketch challenge on her blog today. And since I had all my paper scraps sitting out, nicely sorted by color, on the kitchen table I decided to give it a try. I'm sticking to my goal of only using paper scraps to make cards until my pile is widdled down to at least 3/4 of the size it is now. Other than the card base, the elements on these cards are all scraps! Don't know how easy it is to see on the pictures, but I made the monkeys fuzzy...they're too cute!

Thanks for the great challenge!

Kick-Stand Card

I really should be taking a shower and getting ready to head out on errands but wanted to post a quick little card I made. Took me two days to put together...been outside pretty much non-stop playing! No time for crafting according to GQ!

A couple challenges that I've completed

There are lots of little challenges going on over at MBI. I never really did challenges but I have to say that I've really been loving them and it's been a HUGE help in keeping me motivated to stay current with my scrapbooking and card making.

The first card I made for a challenge where we had to stamp on chipboard or grungeboard. I choose to use grungeboard. To start I painted the grungeboard stars yellow...about three coats. Then I stamped a heart on them using white pigment ink. I gave it a hit with my heat gun to make sure the inks and paint were all dry before working with. I really didn't know what I was going to do with them and then it hit me...a star is born. I just got a new K&Co paper pack that had the perfect baby paper to use. It all sort of fell together w/out much planning. I'm thrilled w/the way it came out! It's one of my favorite cards yet!

The second card is for an embossing party challenge. We had to do tone-on-tone heat embossing. I used the tone on tone on the yellow cardstock background. I did add some Stickles to the flames for a little extra pop and because I used lots of them up on the cake image. (If you don't know it by now, I heart Stickles!)

Hope you like...thanks for looking!

Black & White Card Challenge

I made this birthday card for a black and white card challenge over at Memory Book Inspirations The challenge was to use black and white only. You could add some color if you feel you needed it. I originally had black and white only but it needed something, so I used Stickles to add some sparkle and a touch of color.

The Bella Stamps image along w/the swirls on the background white cardstock were stamped w/VersaMark ink and then sprinkled w/black embossing powder. The scalloped oval is set up off the page with 3-D Glue Dots.

Hope you like!

Kick-Stand Challenge Card

Here my interpretation of a kick-stand card. I'm not 100% satisfied w/this baby, but all in all, I like it. I would like it a little more if I had used some coordinating patterned-paper to jazz it up a bit. Too late now, the glue is dry :)

If you'd like to see another cool kick-stand card take a look at Karie's blog, she has a great giraffe example. It's an awesome stamped-image and her coloring of it is amazing. Hopefully I'll get my coloring to be up to par w/her's eventually.

Challenge #1 Card

My friend, Karie, just started a yahoo group and invited me to join. She is going to post challenges for card making and we have 24 hours to post our interpretation.

This weeks challenge was to make a Christmas card using non-traditional colors. Red, Green, Blue, Silver weren't allowed. I had to use green, but I used a non-Christmas green. And I used another of my new penguin stamps.

Great challenge Karie! And way to get me working on my Christmas cards...it will be here before we all know it!