So it is the Monday after Mother’s Day and there might just be a nap in my future.  I would like to think that our weekend was so crazy that we just are suffering the effects of too much fun, but that really isn’t the case.  We had a weekend, but I’m not sure it was the kind that makes Monday mornings hard.  Seriously the alarm went off this morning and not only did I not understand why an alarm was ringing I thought it was Saturday still.  Oh well, that’s Monday’s for you.

For all you mothers out there I hope your family spoiled you rotten.  My family was very kind, however it was a split day for our family because yesterday my husband graduated from a program he has been doing for the past two years.  We are so supper excited for him, and he is just grateful to be done.

I got a few fun art supplies from my family for the holiday of moms, including dies that help make pop up cards and I finally succumbed to a gelli plate, and I can’t wait to really dig in them.  There was some experimenting yesterday, but tonight I will really get to dig in.

The first of our card challenge fun today is from the gurus of color over at Color Throwdown.  This week they are asking for us to experiment with the colors pink, light blue, orange and peach, giving us a nice spring palette.

Now I love the inspiration photo, but I just couldn’t bring myself to

craft up a flower card.  So I went with some little spring critters from a Stampendous stamp pack, and pulled out my alcohol makers and colored them in using the themed colors.  I love how their hands are just touching like the little guys are almost afraid to be boyfriend/girlfriend.  I pulled some green into the card, even though it was not one of our colors, since it was in the inspiration picture and mounted the card with a bit of peach printed paper.  I added a small strip of blue sparkle paper.  The clouds I add last minute from an Ellen Hutson Essentials stamp pack and I added the sentiment from another Stampendous sentiment packs.

Up next is another color challenge from the queens of color over at Colour Q.  This week they tossed out the colors poppy parade, certainly celery, coastal cabana, rose red and white.  I figured snce the inspiration photo looks like a pretty watercolor picture, watercolor was the way to go.

However I wasn’t feeling florals this time, so I pulled out a fun little rain girl stamp from Penny Black.  I watercolored in the picture with my Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I know it isn’t really realistic looking, but I still really like it.  The watercolor had come out well in my opinion, so I we will just put realistic up on the shelf for a while.  I backed the watercolor paper with a piece of the printed paper that helped pull out the red toned colors in the  watercoloring.  The kiddo does make me happy, even in all her rain gear.

This week the designers over a Freshly Made Sketches passed out a very simple sketch opening up tons of possiblities.  I like how they opened up the challenge this week to allow us all kind of options.

I went with a panel of color to add to the sketch.  I pulled out a really pretty shade of blue and die embossed a flower with a Darice embossing folder.  After embossing the image I pulled out some sandpaper and roughed up the raised image.  I backed the card stock with some black paper and adhered it to the A2 card.  Now the sketch was looking for a large sentiment, but I just don’t have one, so I pulled out a die from My Favorite Thing and die cut out the word memories onto some black card stock and slightly different shade of blue card stock.  I pulled the two die cuts slightly apart so the word was highlighted in black.  I finally added a hand written sentiment that said “Thank you for the”.  Yes the card is simple, but I like it.

Finally today we have a bit of holiday cheer from the design duo over at Jingle Belles, where we celebrate christmas cards all year long.  This week they are wanting a christmas card that is interactive, with either a shaker element, unique folds, a pop-up, sliders, etc.

I got that great new die set from Stampendous that was made to make pop-up card, so away I went.  I made the front of the card really simple, so it looked sort of like a throw away card.  But when it opened things were a little bit more exciting.  I used a Hero Arts stamp set that depicts images from the night Christ was born.  Using the die took a bit of a learning curve, but I figured it all out in the end.  I stamped out the wise men in some black Memento Luxe Ink, and colored the angel in with my alcohol markers.  I stamped out the stars with brilliance gold ink and left things pretty simple otherwise because lets be honest, when things pop up, what else to you need.

That’s it for today…off to a nap, or laundry which is what I really need to do.  Have fun, and make your week crafty.