So it is a nice, cool, rainy Sunday morning here in San Diego, and I’m here in a sweater and fuzzy socks sipping my coffee.  Frankly, life is sweet.  I am not a native Californian, so this perfect weather thing year round that San Diego is known for is gets old for me.  (I know, I’m whining about perfect weather.)  I grew up in North Texas and spent many years in the heartland of Indiana, so i got so used to, you know, seasons, and storms, and well nature.

So on the rare occasion that we have rain pouring down from the sky here, I feel like I’m back home again.  It is strangely peaceful for me.

And I can use the peaceful environment this morning, because today is the day I have been waiting for, for over a month.  Today is the day I take my art world one step further.  No spoilers yet, but tonight the official announcement will erupt.  (There should be pictures too)  I am one part excited and two parts nervous.  But that is enough of a tease for now, onto the Sunday card challenges.

I am still building my cards of love, but I should have a few change ups for people who do not like valentines day.  I am also going to try something new for a while on my paper piecing post, where I talk less about what I used and talk more of why I do what I did.  If anyone wants to know what a product is, just ask, I’ll be happy to tell you.  I just think it is important to talk about the why I do something instead of product names.

---

First up this morning is a masculine theme (there is more than one today) from the designers over at Always playing with paper‘s The Challenge.  I love the collection of masculine colors and old antique beat up truck picture.  And I love that

The Challenge is pushing masculine cards one week a month.  I think we all in the paper crafting world need to work more masculine more often.

So I tried something totally new with this card, and sewed embossing thread through the holes on the circle and create a fun cool pattern.  I don’t know if the weaving of the thread made the card masculine in the end, but I love the home spun feeling.  There is some stamping here and lots of Distress Ink Blending, but for me the whole cards says that this is the threads of our life together.  I am not happy with how the stitched stamping on the continent came out, but maybe if it was too neat and perfect it wouldn’t work.

---

Up next is a color challenge from the queens of color over at Colour Q.  This week they have given us the color of chocolate chip, wisteria wonder, old olive, daffodil delight, and white.  They have also show this great inspiration picture of the beautiful acrylic bracelet with a floral inlay.

So floral it will be, because after looking at those gorgeous

flowers, how could you not.  I pulled out one of my few stamp and die sets that match up (My Favorite Things Forget Me Not) and went to town with them and my distress inks.  I also created the background papers.  The first one with the words was nothing but continuous stamping the the word stamp.  The brown paper is distress ink applied straight to the card stock and then a stencil laid over it and a wet wiped used to pull the color back up.  I layered them over each other and added the flowers and stems and stamped the sentiment using two colors on the same stamp at the same time.

I love this card.  I love that it is flirty and feminine, and yet done in nontraditional girly colors.

---

Rounding the bend of our cards today is not only another masculine card theme, but another color challenge from the gurus of color over at Color Throwdown.  This week they were asking for kraft, gray, and yellow to round out the card.

So I was still in need of a valentines card for my little guy who’s ten and a boy, and thinks flowers are for girls, but loves to get cards.  it

can be so hard to design cards for him (I so need to expand my boy stamps).  But when I saw the gray in the throwdown, I knew my little elephant momma and baby stamp would make a perfect little card for my little man.  I used my alcohol markers to color them in and focused on my shading (something I am really working on at the moment).  Recently a friend who discovered I a) didn’t have one, and b) had never used one gifted me a brayer.  So I figured it was time to break it out (I know what you are thinking, a card may not be the ideal place to use a brayer for the first time, but you know me, i work outside the box) and rolled on some yellow distress paint.  I also mushed some yellow distress onto the white card stock.

I know the card is simple, but sometimes I think simple works the best when we are dealing with cards for the boys.

---

Next up we have maybe the simplest CAS sketch I’ve ever seen (making it also the hardest to work with) from the girls over at Freshly Made Sketches.  No, it really wasn’t that hard, but the sketch allowed for the designer to truly do what ever they wanted.

Recently, I joined the band wagon and got a 12 pack of

Brusho watercolor powder.  By they way, this stuff is awesome and does some really amazing effects.  Now, the key for me here was to figure out how to use the powder and still have a clean and simple card.  I figured if I did proper cutting, it might just pass.  I clear embossed the stamps on the watercolor paper, and I used large amounts of Brusho.  Then I cut and adhered the paper to the card.  I hope this counts as almost CAS, cause I love how it came out.

---

Last, but certainly not least today, we have the designers over at Friday Mashup with a real doozy of a challenge this week.  This week they are asking us to mashup both a monkey (or zoo animal) and funky folding.  Now I don’t know how to funky fold cards, so thank you you tube for breaking that one down for me.  I totally stole and idea from an old Jennifer McGuire video post and revamped it for me and this

challenge.

Now I folded the card and half cut the circle die so when I folded the card back the circle stayed.  Then I added my monkey friend and turtle observer after coloring them with alcohol markers.  I stamped out the vine and started to fussy cut it out, but realized if I left the corner on, it would add another fun layer and dimension to the card.  And if you can’t read the sentiment, it says “always stay positive, learn to swerve.”  I’m sure that doesn’t actually make any since, but what you gonna do.  I did however learn a new technique which is always fun, and I will so be doing this fun fold again.

---

That’s all for today.  I hope you enjoyed seeing the cards I made.  I’m off to the shower because this post is only the beginning to what will be a fun, but long day for me.  Stay tuned to the next phase of my artwork later today, and until then, stay creative.  Make something fun for someone you love.