It has been such a long week this week.  Not a bad week, just a long week.  I was in the school on Tuesday helping kinders learn to paper piece (it was cool, but they are exhausting).  Both the choirs (after school volunteer work I do at the school) are starting to take off, but it can be draining (what were we thinking putting on musicals?).  Some cool art work can out of me this week.  And last but not least, I’ve had a kid under the weather, which is always not fun on multiple fronts.

So a good week (with the exception of the sick kiddo), but I am sure glad Friday is here.  I am trying to revamp some things art wise, so bare with me while I figure out some stuff.  I’ll however not stop my fun card challenges, so don’t worry about that.

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First up in the card front this week is a fun tic-tac-toe board challenge from the gals over at The Paper Players.  These are always fun, since you figure out which line of three items you are going to work with.  I personally went across the middle horizontally and choose to make a girly, pink card with die cuts.

I’m sort of on a alcohol maker kick right now, so I pulled a stamp from CC Designs that I could color with my

markers.  To push myself, I pulled out the bright pink markers which I avoid most of the time cause they are so bright and went crazy with them for once.  I can’t believe how pink she came out, and she is so not my normal style, but she was so stinking cute.  Then I grabbed my Big Shot Die cut machine and pulled out a circle die cut set from Little B that has the options of just cutting the little circles out, and went to town, and maybe a little crazy with it.  I added some gems to girl up the whole thing, and put some great rose paper behind the white die cut card stock.  I added the sentiment, and quickly regretted it, but I couldn’t pull it back up without ruining the card.  I do like the sentiment (which says ‘you bring me great joy’), but I hate the paper I put it on.

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Next up is a color challenge from the designing sleuths over at Can You Case It?.  This week they were looking for a card with black, red and white or neutrals.  And I was so excited about the red and black theme, cause together those colors are so striking.

I pulled out some red and black card stock, and tried to figure out a way to make the whole thing interesting, so I grabbed a stitched die cutting machine and went nuts with dashed lines.  I placed it over the black card stock, and embossed a sentiment.  Then on some black and red paper I die cut and stamped out one of the crazy birds.  He got lots of Distress Ink on him to give him some dimension.  Finally I added a few hearts trying to give my love, despite the silliness of the whole card.

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Now we have a little bit of decadence over at Cupcake Inspirations.  This week they are asking for a theme for their challenge and the theme is banners.  Banners are not something I work with often, and I may have gone over board with it, but you know that happens.  I took the colors from the picture and tried to make a card that focused on the browns, yellows, and kraft colors pictured.  Yes, my brown came out too dark, but what are you going to do?

I may have spent way too much time assembling my banner, but in the end I love

how it looks (and moves, since the flags can still move in the brads.  The whole banner was created from two different die cuts and a ton of brads through each of the holes.  And of course all the kraft paper was distressed with some Distress Ink.  The lovely lady from Julie Nutting was colored in with my alcohol markers.  I think the shading came out pretty well (one of my coloring goals right now).  Finally I added this sentiment from Art Impressions which always makes me laugh, and laugh hard.  I like how the fancy lady and the sentiment do not actually go together and yet I think it works.

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Finally we have a great sketch challenge from the designers over at Always Playing with Paper‘s The Challenge.  I loved the layering of circles in the sketch and thought this would be the perfect time to use my new (to me) Paper Smooches stamp and die set.

I stamped out the fruit onto some watercolor paper and went to town watercoloring the images in with some Koi watercolor.  I didn’t get the shadows I was hoping for, but I still think they turned out bright and fun.  I stamped in the leaves and the background leaves with some different colored Archival Ink, as well as the sentiment.  I don’t know what it is about this fruit stamp, but it really does make me smile.

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That’s it for today.  The weekend is here, and I’m excited, despite the fact I know that this weekend is going to be crazy busy.  But I get to have a date with my husband which is always a positive. So until the next time, please go create something that makes yo smile.