October Challenge

Donna gave us what seemed to be a pretty straight forward challenge for October. Create a gift bag and make a tag or card to go with it. The bag could be made or purchased and it could be any size. The only stipulation was that your challenge project must contain at least 1 stamped image. Simple enough right? Apparently not, we all had difficulty with this one. Not that the completed challenges were gorgeous, we just didn't love our individual efforts for a variety of reasons.


First is Jacqui's project. Jacqui recently discovered House Mouse Designs and she used this adorable image for her tag which she has coloured with pencil crayons and blended with gamasol. She has found gamasol to be a better blending medium.

On a simple kraft bag she wrapped a large image (coloured in the same manner as the tag) but first she did some machine stitching to create a border. So cute!!!!






Next is Donna's contribution. She created a beautiful layered tag by first stamping and embossing on vellum. I am guessing she cut the vellum to match the tag underneath. I thought at first she had used a die to cut both elements but further inspection says no.

Next she clear embossed some small flower images and created a resist using distress inks on a simple kraft tag purchased from the dollar store.



On her pretty purple bag she used a stamp from Stampin' Up, which she stamped in purple and clear embossed. She inked the panel and distressed the edges of the stamped image. She used a corner rounder to chomp out the corners and added gems. The mat layers are cut using decorative scissors.

For my project I dug out an old PSX ornament stamp that I stamped all over the bag with Brilliance ink. I cut the tag and bag medallion from a Spellbinder die. The bag medallion I put through a CB folder. I stamped the reverse of the acrylic tag with the same PSX stamp in brown Staz On but I thought it looked boring, so through the xyron it went and a shot of glitter added some zip.



Tomorrow I will add the bags and card from the remaining ladies.

Card Class

Nikki & I along with Donna & Lauralee took a class at another local store. The class was advertised as a Tim Holtz inspired scrapbook page. We admittedly are not scrapbookers but took the class to learn more about the Tim Holtz products this class was offering. Not only did we get the chance to play with Tim Holtz products but Tattered Angels stuff as well. These products although produced by different companies co-ordinate so well.

This first card was made by Nikki. She used a Tattered Angel stamp to produce the mariner's compass, then she used a co-ordinating stencil and Glimmer Mist to highlight the stamp. Our instructor provided the Eiffel tower stamp and I can't remember the company it came from. Nikki used the glimmer mist to colour her flowers which she attached with brads. A few gems around the compass complete the card.

This is the card I created using many of the same products and techniques. I added the Tim Holtz birdcage, a Nestibility Large Label and an unknown sentiment. (I really should make better notes.)

Nikki's second card made full use of the embellishments we were given. All layered over an office supply store tag that she had stamped, sprayed and distressed.

My second cards also features the same tag. As you may have notice I really liked the Tattered Angel music background stamp. A simple card but in reality it took a fair bit of time to complete.

I really enjoyed the time to try these products. I learned a lot, especially about adding colour to my projects. Is this something I would do often? Probably not. The scrapbook page our instructor had made as a reference was beautiful but for my taste very busy when you consider all of the elements we used on our 2 cards were used on one 12x12 scrapbook page.

Sept Cards - Continued

Cassie used a photograph she took at Algonquin last year, cut it into the nine patch and layered onto cardstock. Very simple but extremely effective. Man it was cold in Algonquin last year but still so very beautiful.

I used an Outline stamp for my background. On a separate sheet of white cardstock I punched a deocrative edge with a MS deco edge punch. Some ribbon, a dollar store silk flower, a black gem and piece of stunning black cardstock for layering finished my card.

Jacqui's card is simply adorable. I will share a secret here, Jacqui is our non-stamper. Can you tell by her card? I didn't think so. Jacqui used a Stampendous clear stamp for the snow man, cut him apart and layered him onto black cardstock. I love how she set him slightly off the card. I'm not sure what stamp she used to create the bottom border. The hat stamp is from the same cleart set she coloured and layered onto black cardstock. I don't think I believe Jacqui is a non-stamper anymore.

July Challenge Cards - continued

Lauralee's card is understated elegance. The grass stamp is from Hero Arts stamped and embossed with Tim Holtz distress inks and clear embossing powder. The decorative border is handmade paper distressed and inked with Peeled Paint. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Lauralee uses a distresser on many of her cards and she put it to good use on this one. All of the elements have been distressed. She also often uses a corner rounder on her cards. So cute and something I hadn't thought of doing until I saw her cards.

As I have said before, I love Penny Black!!! For this card I dug through my stacks of designer paper to find colours that would coordinate. The decorative element is hand made paper cut with the decal edge blade on my paper cutter. The stamped image is coloured with copics. I think the sentiment is from a clear Hero Arts set. Wow now that I see the picture of my card I can see just how crooked I set the elements down. Not my strong suit, that is something I will have to take more care in finishing!

Cassie used Nestibility Large Label to create her layering pieces from designer paper. The flower stamp is from Technique Tuesday with a black gem added to the center. Cassie originally had a sentiment in the upper left hand corner but wasn't thrilled with the look. She decided to stamp a second outline flower from the same set. She added dollar store paper flower and another gem to finish. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set.



Jacqui is our resident non-card maker. Very difficult to tell from the cards she has been making. Barb tells us she makes beautiful cards and then throws them out because she doesn't like them. She water coloured this wonderful Penny Black stamp and layered to her hearts content. The butterfly in the upper left is from Rosewood and I have misplaced my notes, so I don't know who the sentiment is from. Jacqui should be proud of this card. It is so gorgeous.

June Card Challenge - Continued

I thought I had better finish posting the June challenge cards before I get the August challenge cards in my hand. Geesh, I can get behind in a hurry!

Jess' card makes great use of some beautiful vellum we had stashed. She cut the shapes with Nestibility dies and layered them onto the base. In hindsight and with a bit more time, we should have added another element in the bottom right corner. Jess is a teenager and pulled this card together the night before the cards were due. Sigh, like most of her homework....

This is the first visualization I had for this challenge. The minute I saw the sketch I thought of a tri-fold hold. In my mind I thought it would work but then I started second guessing the design and made the second card shown. I used a Nestibility die to cut the hearts, MS butterfly punch, a Fiskars heart punch and some dollar store bling. The bling by the way was gorgeous in the package but was somewhat challenging to apply neatly to the card.

The second card is a gate fold card that uses a bunch of different papers to make up the layered hearts. This card seemed to demand a tone on tone colour palette and I am sure you will notice the slightly squished bling and the nip out of the corner of the heart. Yes, I messed it up a bit but it serve as a reference for me. The other girls got nearly perfect cards.



Barb has used her Cricuit to full advantage for this card. Every time I see her cards I think about making the leap to ownership a little more. She added some bling and used some of her paper stash to complete this card. A beautiful card.

Barb made this bonus card, using her Sesame Street Cricuit cartridge. Who doesn't love the Cookie Monster. A really cute card that completes the elements of the sketch.


Cassie's card replicated the challenge sketch almost perfectly. She stamped a Rosewood heart with Brilliance (for shimmer). The Nestibility hearts were given a good work out for this challenge. Since Cassie chose to position the hearts near the bottom of the card, the addition of ribbon was necessary. We don't own that much ribbon so Cassie took a white polka dotted ribbon and coloured it with a Bic Mark It, instantly co-ordinating ribbon.

Jacqui's card was absolutley stunning. She used a beautiful Magenta stamp for her central image., which she had purchased the previous month after play day. Then she used her Cricuit to cut a little blue bird, the branch and the word "love". (I love that script!). A perfect card stock for the base, some ribbon and she layered the images to create this wonderful card.

May Challenge - Continued.

Jacqui's May card creation is first up today. Jacqui made good use of her Cricuit to make this shades of pink card. She stamped the Rosewood Calla Lillies in a a pale pink to make an all over background on her base card. The shaped elements are all Cricuit and the cute little bunnies are popped into the medallion. NOTE: the "m's" on the bottom of Jacqui's card are part of the frog I used to hold the card and are not part of her design. I do like the look though but not for her card.

For my challenge card, green chose me. I intended to make a blue card but somehow green spoke to me for this challenge. The base card is stamped with an old Magenta stamp. (I just can't get past a plain base card. It just looks naked.) I found some old tags, sponged them green inks to create the medallion. The sentiment is Obsession Impression and Distress Stickles Peeled Paint was added to highlight the oval. I distressed the edge of the designer paper with Memories Soft Leaf. I cut the bracket from Tim Holtz Hanging Sign diecut and trimmed it to fit the card then sprayed the brackets with Smooch Vanilla Shimmer.

And now for our May challenge mistress. Lauralee had two cards in mind with the challenge and sent them both for us to see. Since Lauralee has already posted how she made her cards on her blog. I will send you to her blog to get the instructions.



This is the worst photo of Lauralee's butterflies in flight. White is so hard to really photograph well for an amateur photographer such as myself. I intend to try again this afternoon when the sunshine isn't so bright and hopefully I can get a pic that will do her card justice. The instructions for this card are lengthy but not complicated and again I am sending you to Lauralee's blog

These card challenges are so much fun and really do stretch the creative limits. Cassie has chosen June's Challenge which I will share later.

April Challenge Cards

The April Challenge was selected by Darlene this month shown here.
These sketches are really challenging for us.

Barb asked if she could join our challenges and this is the card she created. Barb has a Cricuit and used it to cut the images as well as the word "love" which she cut and layered to give dimension. My photo really doesn't do Barb's card justice.



It was Jess' turn to participate in the challenge this month and she made this rather quick card. The bows are from dollar store hair ribbons as is the bling. The sentiment is Inkadinkadoo stamped on a Spellbinder tag which was popped onto the base card.



Laurilee's card was beautiful as always, although she said this challenge was really difficult for her. She cut the 3 scalloped circles with a punch and ran it through Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and layered onto some gorgeous Bo Bunny paper. Then she used the Martha Stewart butterfly (her favourite punch all time the note says) from the same paper and added glitter. Co-ordinating ribbon was attached under the punched strip. The tag is a Nestibility stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink and edged with Martha Steward pink ink. Laurilee always send great instructions with her cards.





The front of my card was embossed with the Sizzix Floral Flourish folder. The images from Inkadinkadoo Round Frames set were stamped 6 times; one set was cut out and popped over the bottom 3 images. The edges dragged with Memories Midnight blue and layered onto blue cardstock.



Darlene's card this month is quite different from her previous cards. The images are cut from her Cricuit and embossed with gold. She also embossed the edges of the green paper she used underneath the images. The stamped sentiment is Rosewood stamps also embossed in gold. Darlene used the most interesting wood grained paper layered onto her white base card. I will have to ask her exactly how she did the embossing on this card when I see her next.



The card Donna finally settled on turned out beautifully. She cut the butterflies from a Spellbinder Shapeability. She layered them onto the brown ribbon and added dollar store bling. The sentiment is Hero Arts.



Cassie decided she wanted to make this challenge as well. Her card made use of a Martha Stewart edge punch and a Spellbinder Nestibility Scalloped Cicle. She alternated the circles over a piece of ribbon and added a sticker to the centre circle.



I guess I will have to show the results of next month challenge brought to us by Laurilee in 2 posts next month. If you would like to join our challenge, let me know and I will let you know where to send your images. I will post the May challenge tomorrow.

March Card Challenge

I chose this sketch for our March card challenge and as I said in my previous post, Donna & I found it more challenging than we thought it would be to follow a sketch.



Cassie joined our card challenge this month and her card used some beautiful paper that has a hand-made look. A Nestibility die was used for the layered medallion. She added a bit of bright ribbon, dollar store paper flowers and a gem to finish her card. Cassie did realize she had cut her smaller squares a bit too small and remade her card but gave it away before I could get a copy.



Donna's card features a cute stamped puppy from Inkadinkadoo. The puppy is layered onto Nestibility frames. She then added a beautiful ribbon and some doggie themed brads to complete the layout.




I tried hard to avoid the black & white featured in the sketch but in the end just couldn't resist. There is a sentiment stamped on the Nestibility frame but it is simply the wrong colour and I will restamp in a darker colour. I added some dollar store paper flowers with gem centres and a piece of ribbon.



Darlene used her Fiskars Shapeboss to add dimension to her card. The flowers and film strip are dry embossed and glittered. She used her Cricuit to cut the tag and stamped the lady on the tag. Darlene chose to round the corners of her upper squares and managed to create a perfect copy of the sketch in an A2 size. On the inside of the card she has stamped "Out of the way of a woman working." and unfortunately I don't know who makes that stamp.



And once again Lauri has created a stunning card. Lauri has used inks from Stampin' Up to create a perfectly coordinated card. The grass stamp is from Stampin' Up and she didn't mention where the sentiment stamp is from. The sentiment is layered onto blue cardstock, roughed up with a distressing tool and the edges softened with dark blue ink. Lauri created a large stamped image that she cut to replicated the sketch.





Darlene has chosen this month's challenge. Since she enjoyed the sketch challenge we will be making our cards based on this sketch for April.

Card Challenges

Donna & I have talked for awhile about getting together for what we call play days. During the winter months we decided to meet at the store with our friend Darlene to make cards and generally chat about where ever our conversations lead us. One thing for sure there is always lots of laughter. The idea of a card challenge was born one night while Donna was talking to her cousin, Lauri. Unfortunately Lauri lives much too far from us to join us on play day but she always sends a card to Donna for our challenges. Donna chose our first challenge of red and white cards in honour of Valentine's day.



My card relied heavily on some gorgeous paper that looks handmade. The sentiment is a Cuttlebug die. The scalloped layering elements are Nestibility dies. The all over background is Hero Arts, Four Leaf Grid.



Lauri's card blew us away. She stamped the flowers on vellum and added a bit of colour to the reverse for interest. The Nestibility tag is stamped, distressed and attached with a leather strapping. The beauiful silver charm was the perfect finishing touch. (Sorry Lauri I misplaced your notes on the stamps used for this card)



Donna is an animal lover and she has always been fond of these Rosewood Teddies. She added black gems for the eyes and nose. She then added red flock to the pads of their feets. The red layering piece has been run through the Cuttlebug folder, Heart Blocks. The sentiment is Rosewood.



Darlene is a glitter girl. The double heart is a Rosewood stamp. The "ink well"(upper left), "just a note"(lower right), "hi there" and the centre band are all Cuttlebug folders. The raised parts of the Cuttlebug embossed images are hit with glue and embellished with glitter. Darlene's card is a gate fold of sorts, "hi there" creates a tab to open the card.


It was a lot of fun to see how everyone interpreted the requirements of the challenge. For March Liz chose a card sketch, seen here. As soon as Donna gets Lauri's card, I will show you the cards we came up with.