It is Friday, and boy, has it been a Friday.  The kids have the day off of school…professional development or something…but they have been full of it all day.  It has been raining off and on for a week, so needless to say, the kids have way too much energy.  It is again raining today, so we can’t go to the zoo as planned (or hoped).

Needless to say, getting here to this computer, has been a bit of a challenge.  I finally turned the Wii on, in the vain hope I can get this post written…so without further ado, or wasted time…the challenges.

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First up is a fun mix it up challenge over at Fusion Card Challenge.  Even more exciting, this is their 3rd anniversary challenge…to make it three years, way to go Fusion!  I like trying to force the fusion, so I went with both the sketch and the inspiration photo.

I pulled out an old Prima Marketing stamp pack and stamped out the tea kettle and the coffee mug onto some student grade watercolor paper.  I quickly colored in both images with my new inktense pencils, adding water to spread the color.  I tried to get a really good shadow out of some blue inktense, and think I got the hang of it.  I die cut the image out with a Little B circle die.  I pulled a piece of printed paper, trimmed it up, and adhered it to an A2 card.  I added the die cut circle, keeping it as flat as possible.  I finally added a bit of a sentiment from the same Prima Marketing stamp pack with some white embossing powder and heat seat it.  Yes, the card is simple, yes I wished I had used a cream or beige card stock for the A2 card, but alas, I think the card works, especially for the fusion.

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The gurus of color over at Color Throwdown this week have a kind of difficult all the while pretty color challenge this week.  Don’t ask me why the palette of black, blue, and mustard I found difficult, I just did.

I finally pulled out a digi stamp from Craftin Desert Divas and printed it out onto some black card stock.  Yes, you can print onto black card stock.  It is light, but it still shows up.  I colored in the image with my colored pencils, making one bird mustard and the other blue.  I know I added a few other colors, but like I said this challenge this week was really hard for me.  I just couldn’t come up with the right look, so here is what you got.  I added a yellow glitter paper to the side of the A2 card and then adhered the black card stock onto the card.  I stamped in white (even thought it doesn’t look like it) a Craftin Desert Divas sentiment pack.  I finally grabbed a my white gelly pen and added some details to the eyes, and the wings.  I love the design, even if I didn’t quite meet the challenge.

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The CAS team over at Freshly Made Sketches have a really cool sketch this week.  It is one of those sketches that make you really excited to sink your teeth into it.

I stamped out an Art Impression stamp onto some white card stock, and then, layering it the best I could, I layered the stamp over a strip of white card stock and a bit of kraft card stock.  I think it work?…almost.  I went ahead and adhered the pieces of paper together.  I then went ahead and colored the image in with my copics.  I went ahead and let the kraft paper mute the colors, but I like the effect it had.  I took an Inkadinkadoo sentiment pack and added the sentiment in some black ink.  Finally, I added some hot pink sequins and a couple of clear ones.  In the end, I trimmed the white paper down, and added it to a black A2 card.

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The gals over at CAS on Sunday this week have a really fun color challenge.  The colors this week are black and white, and one color of your choice.  I of course, decided to make it as hard on me as possible.  I went with black, white and skin toned.

I stamped out a C.C. Designs stamp, and started coloring it in black and white.  I used my copics, using the cool tones to color in their cloths.  I guess their is a bit of cheat here, because when I color black hair, I always use a little blue to make it look more life like.  I think I however, covered the blue pretty well.  I added the skin tones (yes I used two different skin tones shades, just cause it looks funny if they are matchy, matchy.)  I trimmed up the card stock and adhered it to some black card stock.  I stamped out a Fiskars sentiment onto a scrape of white card stock and added it to the black.  Finally I added the whole thing to a white A2 card.

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This week the team over at Art Impressions blog has a new challenge up for the new year.  They are challenging us to try out a new technique with our card.

I have done colorless copic coloring before, but I have never really gotten the hang of it.  I am pretty sure that is mostly because I have never taken the time or patience for it.  Today I took the time and patience.  I pulled out a new (at least to me) Art Impressions stamp and stamped it out in some desert sands Memento Ink.  Then I went off coloring the stamp, hiding the Memento ink.  With the exception of the eyes, I think I actually got the coloring down.  The eyes were a failure… but alas I think otherwise I did pretty well.  I pulled out a Craftin Desert Divas sentiment and stamped it out in black.  I trimmed it the card stock and adhered it to black card stock shaped into an A2 card.  PS let me know if you catch the spot I missed, because to me it is glaringly obvious.

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Finally today we have a Stella Says Sketch challenge from Catch the Bug by Bugaboo.  I printed out last week’s Freebie Friday stamp onto some student grade watercolor and went to town trying to complete the stamp.

I colored in the image in with my Derwent colored pencils trying to the colors soft.  I added water where I needed to so I could spread the color.  I accidently smeared the computer ink with the water in the background, so I pulled out my new spectrum noir sparkle pens and colored in that background space in the silver color.  I die cut the circle out with my circle die.  I know the sketch was more detailed then my card was, but no matter what I tried, I could not find a way to add something around that circle I liked.  I did however grab an A2 card and dry embossed a snow flake pattern onto the card.  Yes, it ended it up simple but I also think it is cute.

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Okay, the Wii seems to have worn off, so I am off to dip and movie night with the family.  Hope you enjoyed the few minutes I got to share with you.