It is Friday, which means it is card making fun day.  School is back in swing for most of the country now, which means those awesome card challenge groups that take a summer break are back and I am all kinds of happy to see them up and running again.

So lets no wait any longer, lets jump right in.

---

Up first is one of those challenge groups that is back after a summer break.  This week Inspired By All the Little Things has a beautiful and bright sunflower inspiration challenge.

I know the print the challenge is inspired by is more of an oil paint

type piece, but for me, I was so inspired to work out my creativity with a bit of watercolor.  I pulled out a great large sunflower stamp from Stampendous and with some creative masking stamped out my flowers onto some watercolor paper.  Then using my Prima Marketing watercolor confections in tropical, I watercolored the whole image trying not to be too tight about my color placement.  I trimmed the paper up a bit and added some blue and black card stock to the card just to ground the image.  Finally using some black ink I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp pack and called it a day.  There were several moments with in the watercoloring I almost scraped the whole thing, but I just kept working the image and in the end, I think I really got something pretty that reflects the vision I was trying to achieve.

---

Up next, the design team from The Paper Players has challenged us with a theme challenge.  This weeks theme is…circles.

I went with a ‘spookie’ holiday circle card.  I’ll be honest, I tried to do one with

a lot of circle images within the circle card, but it was so bad that I seriously had to scrape the whole thing and try again.  I however really like where the second card went.  I cut out two circles from card stock from some Little B circle die, and adhered the two circles together so the card could open in a normal way.  I created a little scene using a great witch stamp from CC Designs and other halloween stamps from Graphic 45.  (I secretly thought if I added the pumpkins I would sneak in a few more circular elements.)   I pulled out my Prismacolor colored pencils and went to town coloring the image.  I am not crazy about how the background came out, I think I needed a few more layers of color, but other wise I like the card.

---

Up next is another group that is back after a long summer break.  Always Playing with Paper’s The Challenge is back and this week they have a super cute sketch challenge.

Since it is September, I am all about my halloween cards at the moment and I thought this sketch could be perfect for a stamp set combination I have been wanting to use.  I pulled out a Graphic 45 stamp pack and started building the scene, masking off

what I needed to when I needed to.  I used the broom to be the paper design in the sketch, but I think it worked, or at least sort of.  So one of the things I have been working on lately is using my copics to build nice backgrounds.  I colored the stamped images with the copics with no problem, and  I think I got the circular moon alright, but the back ground was a little more difficult.  I struggled with my grays in the beginning, but in the end, I took the time it need to make what I think in the end looked like a cool looking night sky.  I trimmed the card a little and added some black card stock to the top of the card, and added a few crystals behind the broom so there could be a bit of sparkle.  I added just a touch of wink of stella to the moon, and used my glitter pen to highlight the sentiment and the spider web.  I wish the sparkle photo graphed because it really added something to the whole card.

---

This week the sleuths of design over at Can You Case It have a great little sketch for us to find a solution to.  It really is one of those sketches that gives way to anything you want, so I went with it.

I pulled out a Santoro Gurjuss girl stamp and some Graphic 45

pumpkins and stamped out a scene onto some watercolor paper.  I pulled out my Derwent Watercolor pencils and started working the image, layering my colors.  I pulled out some clean water and a watercolor brush and wet the colored pencils, coloring in the light areas first and working my way out to the dark.  I stamped in the bats and the sentiment from the Graphic 45 packs, and pulled out some printed colored paper and placed it under the watercolor paper.  I punched a little hole into the papers and added the bow, and assembled the whole thing to an A2 card.  Yes, the card is simple, but isn’t it Halloween Happy?

---

Finally today we have a little christmas card challenge from the elves of design over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  This week they have a sketch challenge, that I unfortunately took too literally.

I pulled Recollections holiday stamp pack and stamped out three

images onto some white card stock.  Then I colored those three images in with my copics, really liking the coloring job this time.  I then trimmed out the images and set them aside. This is where we sort of feel off the rails.  I pulled out some holiday paper and started trimming things up and adhering it all to an A2 card.  I put the images onto the card with some dimensional tapes so they would pop up.  Like I said…I just took things too literally.  It is a nice card…and that’s it…it is just nice.  It is nothing special.  But I do like the coloring, especially on the reindeer.

---

That is all for today…cause five isn’t enough anything.  I hope everyone has great plans for the weekend, and that you all have a chance to do something creative.