There are weeks where I love Mondays.  The house gets quiet and I’m able to do some selfish things like laundry and vacuum in peace.  Today is one of those extra special Mondays where I’m given even more of a gift.  Today it is raining.  Today there is even some thunder and lightening.

I love rain.  I love the cadence it makes where there is the pitter patter of drop hitting the world and being washed fresh and clean.  And here in Southern California, rain can be so rare, let alone a genuine thunderstorm that I make the most of the peace that the weather gives me.

I know this makes me weird, but I like the rain.  And today is one of those perfect cool rainy days where a blanket is needed if you sit on the couch and if you are so lucky to have a good book and some tea, the day will be perfect.  Well at least till the kiddos and come home and complain about the rain.  They are not fans of it.  Too little experience and fear of getting wet stands in their way.

But I love the rain, and crafting while it happens is perfect.  Finishing up the card challenges and dabbling at big projects puts me at peace.  And knowing that the laundry is close to done makes me even happier.  (I hate laundry).

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Up first we have a CAS layered sketch from the designers over at Freshly Made Sketches.  They’ve given us one of those sketches that if you follow it to the letter it might be boring, but if you get creative you might just make a card that is truly interesting.

I don’t know if I hit interesting, but I think I managed to

avoid boring.  I pulled out some mismatching yet somewhat coordinating print paper and layered them onto the card.  Then die cut a bunch of butterflies (because when they give you a butterfly you just go with it) from My Favorite Things.  Then pulling out my Gansai Tambi watercolor and mixing up some colors to match the paper and dropped color onto the butterflies.  I adhered the butterflies, making some flat, while leaving others dimensional.  Finally I added a bit of a sentiment that says ‘for you’.  Again I don’t think I hit interesting, the colors are too dull and muted.  I’m not even certain I hit pretty, but I do think I crafted a card that I could give someone who has gone thought something that wasn’t positive and perfect.  I think it is a card for someone who needs a pick me up and bit of hope that butterflies can give.

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Now we have a bright and bold color challenge from the gurus of color over at Color Throwdown.  This week they are asking us to craft with the colors, hot pink, teal, black and white.

Now I don’t know why, since they use the paint dollops every week when they post their challenges, but this week the dollops really spoke to me.  So I went with paint splatters to make this card.  I pulled out a stamp from Prima and inks from Distress.  I pulled out the black soot, the pickled raspberry, and evergreen bough.  I stamped out all the different splatters loving the bit of organized cauious.  I then die cut out the ‘congrats’ from both hot pink foam and black glitter paper.  I backed the card in a bit of black card stock and assembled the card.  I know it isn’t much, but I really, really like this.  I find this card striking in a odd way.

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Finally today we have another color challenge from the queens of color themselves, Colour Q.  This week they are asking us to use an assortment of colors including going gray, brilliant blue, bermuda bay, island indigo, and white.

For me this color combination reminds me of the like brilliance of a peacock.  And if something reminds me, I might as well go with it.  I pulled out an embossing folder from Darice with a peacock in it and embossed a piece of white watercolor paper.  I then snagged my Distress Inks and selected hickory smoke, blueprint sketch, cracked pistachio, and broken china so I could drop color onto the embossed image.  Then I added a few different shades of blue and white sequins onto the peacock’s feathers.  I didn’t quite get the effect I wanted on the body of the peacock that I wanted, but I totally nailed my goal on the feathers.

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That’s it for today.  I’m off to vacuum and maybe, just maybe hang out with my book for a few minutes.  Hopefully it will still be raining when I get the chance to selfishly sit.