It is the Friday before labor day, so I just don’t have a lot of time.  I am getting us ready for a little family time this weekend, and doing all the things a stay at home mom does before a long holiday weekend.

But I do have a couple of really fun card designs I wanted to share before I have to run.

The first is a sketch challenge from The Paper Players with a fun box design.  And with Halloween just around the corner, I was so excited to do a little spooky work.

I pulled out some watercolor paper and my Daniel Smith

primatek watercolor as well as a CC Designs stamp of a fun little zombie.  I did some heavy handed watercolor, trying to keep everything just on this side of creepy.  I backed the watercolor paper with some black card stock and added a sentiment from a Hampton Design stamp pack.  I am not crazy with how the background turned out, and yet, I still like how the card turned out.  I know my son or another preteen boy would ‘kill’ for a card like this, so I know it has a purpose.

This week over at Can You Case It, the sleuths of design asked for an any color back to school theme.  We are in week three of school here, so this felt a little late to the party, but alas, I was up for the challenge.

I pulled out an Avery Elle stamp pack and stamped out my

favorite little geeks (cause that is back to schoolish right?), and a sweet little sentiment.  I colored in my little school friends with my copics.  I like the coloring for the most part, but I am really struggling with pink.  I just can’t find a pink combo that sets my heart a flutter.  I added some color around the little hearts and in the end wished I hadn’t, but alas it is what it is.  I filled the glasses with a bit of glossy accents, and backed the focal design with some black card stock.  Yep…keep things simple other wise.  Now I just need to play with my markers and see if I can come up with a pink combo that excites me.

Finally today, I have a neat little Christmas card to go with the technique challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  The little elves over there this week are asking we show our technical skills with watercolor.

I pulled out what is possibly my favorite holiday stamp pack, a

Hero Arts pack that has great ornaments, and stamped out several with black Archival Ink.  I then started painting with my Daniel Smith primary color starter set water colors. I really tried to color the ornaments so that they looked like glass.  I think I almost got it.  I added some red, green, and gold sequins and backed the watercolor paper with some black card stock.

That’s all for today.  Now I need to run and wash some laundry so I don’t have it to do this holiday weekend.