Yes, you read that right…look what happens when you have a couple of uninterrupted hours while your kids are at school…you get to color a little.

Seriously, today has literally been one of the first days in like two weeks where it felt like I seriously had nothing to do but what I wanted.  The house was clean…school obligations taken care of…family sufficiently cared for…

So while this is not normally a day I load up a post on card challenges, I am sneaking one in since I feel as if I have been neglecting my selfish little hobby.  If feels like everything today is the left overs of valentine’s day, but alas, many challenges are still caring the heart and love theme…next week should be something new.

Up first in the line up (I swear it isn’t too long of one today) is a fun theme challenge from the team over at Just Us Girls.  This week the theme is…well…hearts.  I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to go all out.

I grabbed some white heavy card stock and a heart shaped stencil.  Then using both Spun Sugar and Tattered Rose Distress Ink, I blended ink into the stencil.  I snagged a few Gorjuss heart stamps and stamped out the two different hearts.  Finally I grabbed a new digi stamp, Love Struck Bear, from Craftin Desert Divas and  printed it out.  I colored in the image with my copics trying to mimic the colors of the distress ink.  I used a sentiment from Craftin Desert Divas and adhered both the image and the sentiment with some dimensional tape.  I think because the colors are so soft, I actually really like how this came out.  I feel if I had used the traditional reds and bold pinks, this would have really bothered me, but these colors I like.

Over at Art Impressions blog challenge, love in is in the air…literally.  They are wanting designs that show love, be it for Valentine’s, a friend, or a family member.

I pulled out, what to me, was a pretty funny Art Impressions Valentine Day’s stamp.  But lets be honest…who doesn’t look forward to all the extra chocolates this time of year.  I stamped out the gal (by the way, getting Art Impression large stamps properly stamped out has gotten so much easier now that I am using a stamping tool…aka MISTI).  I colored in the gal with my copics trying to keep it from getting too red and pink.  I rubbed in a little tattered rose Distress Ink around the edges of the card to soften the stark white.  I trimmed the card up a little and adhered it down to an A2 card.  I don’t know about you, but I kind of am this woman.

The team over at Naughty or Nice have a color challenge happening this month that just screams valentine’s Day.  However, being Naughty or Nice, I chose to make a card that was way over onto the side of snarky.  

I pulled up a digital stamp from Bugaboo and printed it out.  Then taking it over to my desk I colored it in using my copics.  I tried to get the colors right, but I got a little to current colored on the rollercoaster.  I tried a little experiment on this card, and made Stella’s hair not only grey, but added bits of pink undertone to it…and I think this came out pretty interesting.  I find the sentiment from this card really funny.  I colored the back ground with my copics) and added some pink glittery pink paper behind the focal image.  I added a couple of pretty clear sequins to the card and left it at that.  Now I will admit honestly, I feel like I am still in the ‘never get off’ phase of love…hoping I never want to throw up.

Finally, I have a non Valentine Day card.  The team over at Can You Case It this week are hosting a color challenge sporting the colors curry yellow, teal, orange, and burgundy.

I grabbed the least love image I could find, a Zoo crew Art Impressions stamp and sentiment onto some heavy card stock.  I used the curry yellow and orange shades onto the giraffe.  Then risking everything looking silly, I colored in the grass with teal shades.  I think it worked well with the curry shade.  Finally I added some printed burgundy paper behind the image as well as a couple of burgundy droplets.  I find this card to really appropriate as we head out of the season of love.  I find that many of us could us ‘a double cafe’ mocha vodka valium latte…” after this random February holiday.  (and especially this year since the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter!).

Okay…that’s it for today…maybe next week I will have my schedule back on track…but seeing as the kids are off of school all week, I wouldn’t hold my breath!