Hello everyone from Saturday…  So apparently this week is just one of those week since I have been a day late all week.  To my credit the kids had Monday off, so I sort of feel like I have been a day behind all week.  But to cut to the chase, here is Friday’s card challenges, here on Saturday.

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First up we have a little decadence from our friends over at Cupcake Inspirations who have fun little international cupcakes this week.  This week they are asking for us to create cards that come from around the world.

Well, I am still in deep making cards for those I love, but don’t

necessarily tell everyday, so I had to come up with a card the at a global theme and a message of love.  It wasn’t hard to achieve with my Avery Elle Love Notes stamp pack.  (I know I have been using it a lot lately, just deal, there are lots of cool little stamps with it.)  I pulled out the globe stamp and proceeded to stamp it out repetitively in Archival Jet Black ink.  I then blended so Distress Ink in tumble glass around the

edges to give a hit of blue.  I stamped the hearts out from worn lipstick, scattered straw and festive berry Distress ink for no other reason, then they were on my desk when I grabbed the hearts.  I stamped out the sentiment from the same stamp pack in cornflower blue Archival Ink onto a scrape of paper, and adhered it with some dimensional tape.  Really nothing special happened in the making of this card, however, I think the card came out rather special.

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Next up we have a sweet little vintage inspired challenge from the girls over at Always Playing with Paper‘s The Challenge.  Each week of the month they have a different style challenge and this week was their photo inspiration challenge.  And boy let me tell you how excited I was.  I so rarely get to tap into my grunge vintage style when card making, but this photo just screamed for it.

I stamped out a rose from Docrafts Papermania Birthday Rose and colored it in with my watercolor pencils.  I tried to keep everything soft and grungy (an oxymoron maybe, but that was the goal).  I then pulled out a bunch of random pieces of ephemera from different Tim Holtz collections and figured out how to college them around the paper.  Everything, including the sheet of kraft that everything was adhered to got a distressing of vintage photo Distress Ink to age things.  The stamped out flower was added with dimensional tape and a scrape of white card stock was cut out into a banner, distressed and stamped with the sentiment in Archival ink tree branch.  I realize not everyone likes the grunge look, but for me, this so speaks to and soothes my soul.

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Now we have a color challenge from the color gurus over at Color Throwdown.  They are asking for shades of aqua, pink, kraft and white.  I liked using these colors so much I may have accidentally on purpose made two cards for this set up.  Well, what are you going to do.  Don’t worry I will only link up one of them to the challenge blog, but I will share both of them with you here.

The first card was a redesign of a card I did over the holidays for another card group, but I liked the idea so much I transferred the concept from a Christmas or winter holiday theme to a love theme.  I was a little weird finding stamps that would stamp out on craft in a shade that I liked(I do not have much pigment ink, so I had to find a dye ink that would work), but I finally found it in Distress ink broken china, and pickled raspberry.  Not colors I would have used if I was working on white, but on kraft it became

the shades I needed.  The embossed tree was from Darice Leafing Tree.  So the little dangling colors are suppose to be hearts and in real life you can see that, but in photos the stupid bows that I should not have added makes it look just like color blobs.

The card I did link up however, was a little different from the first one.  I pulled out Paper Smooches Whirligigs and clear embossed them onto a piece of white card stock.  I should have used watercolor paper, but I was not thinking clearly apparently.  I mushed in so Distress Ink in worn lipstick and tumbled glass (which is not normally an aqua color but mushed it came out that way).  I added a strip of craft and stamped out the sentiment from a My Favorite Things stamp pack.  To polish off things I added a strip of aqua paper and called the card done.

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So if the group above are the gurus of color this group is certainly the queens of color, and this week Colour Q had an absolutely royal color scheme.  This week they wanted the colors of crumb cake, raspberry ripple, primrose petal, so saffron, and white.  Totally royal colors.

So I have to admit as sad little secret.  I have become slightly obsessed with Periscope.  I like seeing people work in real time, with real mistakes, and real corrections.  But I have been watching it just enough that

the little hearts might have become infused on my brain.  So needless to say, I had to make a card this week with Periscope hearts.  I stamped them out using Distress Ink in scattered straw, vintage photo, fired brick, and worn lipstick.  I pulled out some Post-it tape and make little cut outs over the hearts so I could layer them.  I think it almost worked as a Periscope salute.  To finished off the card I pulled out from the old piles of paper a sheet of yellow that matched the theme perfectly and adhered it.  I couple of strip of kraft paper on top and on bottom grounded the card.  I then stamped an old rubber stamp that says ‘When you come right down to it, the secret to having it all is believing you do’.  I was gonna leave it at that, but the card seemed a little sad and lonely.  I pulled out this wood butterfly and it finished off things for me nicely.

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Finally we have a sketch challenge from the ladies over at Freshly Made Sketches who host a sketch and CAS challenge each week.  This week feel like a truly fresh sketch idea and I was excited to work on it.  It also gave me a chance to pull out my new favorite stamp and die set, the retiring Avery Elle Alice and Friends.

So while I am in the zone of confessing deep dark secrets, I am finally going to admit I have a huge thing for Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (original

books, not disney movie).  Since the first time I read them as a little girl, those book have been an obsession of mine.  I even took a semester long advanced literature course in college about the books, and I wasn’t an English major.  When I finally got good enough at painting that I could be proud of my canvases, I started a collection of Alice inspired canvases.  (like I said obsessed)  Anyway, the point, I now have a new Alice stamp set, so brace yourself (heads up, this is not my only alice stamp collection).

I took the hatters hat and four symbols to a deck of cards and stamped them out in the sketch’s design.  I had to pull out a .1 pen and add a few details to the hat so it wasn’t a flat grey blob.  Then I stamped out Alice in Memento tuxedo black ink and colored her in with both my Spectrum Noir and Copic alcohol markers.  Simple and hopefully clean.  And I LOVE it.

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So I hope everyone has a great Saturday and I’ll see you tomorrow with another collection of challenge cards.