New Week ... New Cards!

Time to start a new week of challenges at 365 Cards . Day 27 was Sunday's sketch challenge, and this is what I came up with just using scrap paper! :) 

365 Cards - Day 27 Super Sketchy Sunday

This is the first Valentine card I've made this year. I have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks, since I always make Valentines for my students. 

And now, "presenting" today's challenge. The theme was "Presenting" and the challenge was to create a present or use an image of a present on the card. My original plan was to make a shaped card, but that didn't really work out, and this is what I came up with instead. And again ... I used up some scrap paper! Gotta love that! 

365 Cards - Day 28 "Presenting"

It's not taking me quite so long to make the cards or to get them uploaded to the blog. I'm making progress! We have a busy weekend coming up, so I'm going to try really hard to stay on top of things this week.

Finishing Up the Week

And here are the cards for the last two challenges this week at 365 Cards .

Friday (Day 25) was a color challenge. I love the color challenges!! This week's colors were a pale bluish-gray, cadet blue, apple green, and dark navy. (Part of the fun, I think, is that we all see the colors just a little differently. They look different on my iPhone than they do on the monitor. So it's always open to some interpretation.) Having a palette to work from is helpful in some ways and challenging in others. Usually it forces me to put colors together in a way that I ordinarily wouldn't, or look for certain colors in patterned paper that I might not otherwise see. Anyway, color challenges are my favorite!

This is what I ended up with this week:

365 Cards - Day 25 Color Challenge

These colors just seemed like "little boy" colors to me, so I decided to go with a boy baby card. I used only scraps for the base and background of this card! Woo hoo! Cleanin' that stash out!! The outfit is a from the Baby Boy Clothes digi stamp set by Arty Pants. The sentiment is from a cling set that I have ... no idea who the manufacturer was. :(

Day 26 was "A Button and a Bow" challenge. No other embellishments, just a button and a bow! I kept mine very simple and I'm pleased with the result!

365 Cards - Day 26 "A Button and a Bow"

It reminds me of cherry pie ... which I would rather eat than birthday cake any day! 

Just for fun, I am putting up a couple of pics of a child's birthday card I made using the colors from Friday's challenge. It is cut from the Create a Critter cart on the Cricut. It's the featured project that comes in the instruction book for that cartridge, and because it's not my design, I didn't want to post it as part of the 365 Cards challenge. But I think the colors lend themselves well to that design, and wanted to share the end result.

Sweets and Liquids

Sweets + Liquids = ??  No ... not soda pop, but the themes for challenges at 365 Cards ! 

Wednesdays are now known as "Word Wednesday" and this week's word was "Sweet." 

When I think of sweet, I think of frosting! I don't understand people who eat the cake but push the frosting off to the side, saying "It's just TOO sweet!" TOO sweet??? Impossible! I'd rather eat the frosting and leave the cake! 

But I digress. The challenge was to design a card that represents what you think of when you hear the word sweet. Here's what I came up with:

365 Cards - Day 23 "Sweet"

I love the yummy colors! The paper from the Nana's Kitchen stack from Die Cuts With a View. The cupcake is a digi stamp from Pink Petticoat, and the sentiment is also a digi stamp from Paper Garden Projects.

I just used Microsoft Word to generate the wish inside. Although the margins were set evenly and I had it set to center, for some reason it came out off center. So I cut a candle to even out the inside.

Liquid was the theme of Day 24's Challenge. The card had to incorporate a liquid of some kind ... something that had once been a liquid (stamp pads don't count).

I've been wanting to try one of these watercolor backgrounds for a while, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to do it. 

365 Cards - Day 24 "Liquid"

First I heat embossed the floral image (from a Hero Arts sympathy stamp set) onto watercolor paper. Then I used fairly concentrated watercolor in Carmine, Vermillion, and Lemon Yellow for the background. When it was almost dry, I used a tissue to wipe the color off of the embossed image. My original plan was to use a pink background paper, but the image just got lost in it. I really like the way it looks against this buttery yellow.

I think watercolor is great fun, but admittedly I have some things to learn about technique. :) Nevertheless, I'm happy with my first attempt.

The Sound of Music

Well, yes, that does happen to be one of my favorite movies of all time! But it's also the theme of Challenge Me Monday #145 at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog . 

I made a couple of cards that fit the theme, but I think this is the one that best fits the challenge: 

I used the Stretch Your Imagination cart. It is the bird cut with the card and card frame features. I just backed it with a piece of musical scrapbook paper. 

This card is made from the same cart. I like it too ... just a more whimsical look. 

Today was the end of the first semester and I stayed late at school and got report cards done before coming home. I rarely have a weekend with NO SCHOOL WORK to do, and I plan to enjoy ever last second of it!!

A Few New Cards

Having that extra day off on Monday sure was nice! I got caught up with school stuff (which is always kind of relative, anyway ... caught up one day, behind the next ...) so I've been able to get by with not bringing much home to do in the evenings this week. That's left more time for keeping up with the daily challenges at 365 Cards .

So here are the cards I've completed this week so far:

This was the sketch for Day 20 - Super Sketchy Sunday ...

                                                  

And this is what I did with it ...

Super, super, super easy! I just used stickers from a floral set I've had for a long time, cut some coordinating paper, rounded and inked the edges, and put it on a colored card base. Simple, but very pretty.

Day 21 was a Clean and Simple floral design. I printed out the sentiment on the computer, stamped the stems and inked the bottom with moss green, then cut a few circles with the Cricut. Simple! Clean! Love the colors!

Day 22's challenge was to use a glittery element on the card. I used a piece of glittery black and silver paper from Die Cuts With a View Glitter Stack. The star was cut with the George and Basic Shapes Cricut card. Again, nothing complicated!  

We are out of school early tomorrow to get report cards done. Since it's the end of the semester and grades are due tomorrow, I shouldn't have any correcting at all to do this weekend. Snow is in the forecast, so it should be a good weekend to be indoors and be crafty!

A Week's Worth of Challenges

Yay for three-day weekends! I spent most of the day in my craft room making cards and have finished this week's challenges at 365 Cards . Here they are (with my apologies for the poor picture quality -- we don't have great lighting in our house and it's really bad at night):

Day 13 was a sketch challenge. Lots of ideas floated around in my head, and I decided to go with a graduation card ... I'll be needing them before I know it! 

 The theme for Day 14 was Symmetry. You had to have at least two lines of symmetry or mirror images. I have a vertical line with the paper and with the shape of the embellishment in the center.

Day 15's theme was Fun With Acronyms, and it was fun! Coincidentally, my birthday was this week, and it when a friend messaged HB2U, I knew I had the acronym for my card! :) Love the colors on this one.

Knock, Knock was the theme for Day 16. The requirement was to include a door. The haunted house on this card was cut from the Mini Monsters Cricut cartridge and the sentiment is fussy cut from a sheet of scrapbooking embellishments I've had for a long time. I used chalk to "fog" the edges.

For Day 17, the challenge was Thinking in Threes using three flowers, three buttons, and three pieces of ribbon. The flowers and sentiment are cut from the Cricut Walk in My Garden cart. Took me forever to settle on the design, but I'm happy with the outcome!

Day 18 was a color challenge. The color challenges are becoming my favorite, although I always wonder if I'm getting the right colors. They sometimes look one way on the monitor and another on my phone. I love the earthy tones this week. 

Today's was the most difficult challenge of the week -- Skewed (nothing straight). I am a gal who likes having all the i's dotted and t's crossed ... I will trim and trim and trim to get edges even ... so it about pushed me over the edge to have things askew! As it is, I could have made it a little "wonkier," but it works. It is not quite as neon as it looks in the picture, but it is bright, and it will be a great birthday card for a child.

Whew! All caught up for a few hours. Maybe tomorrow I'll post pics of something other than cards.

Yay! I Tried Something New!!

I had a moment of panic when I read the Day 12 challenge at 365 Cards . The challenge was to make a card with a 3-D, moving part. I decided to try a penny slider card -- a first!

I had a lot of possible ideas going, but settled on a back-to-school card with a moving school bus. The bus was cut from the Doodlecharms cart on the Cricut, and the paper is from a school-theme pack I have.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to make the slider! Why have I not tried this before??? 

More Challenges!

What pops into your head when you hear the word "sharp"? I think of pins (that's the seamstress in me). Pins got me thinking of diaper pins, and I ended up with this baby congrats card for the Day 10 challenge at 365 Cards .

Here's my finished product:

Isn't that little bear just the cutest? It was part of one of those baby paper stacks I bought years (and I do mean YEARS) ago. Feels so good to be using some of this stuff up!

The Day 11 challenge was a color challenge. The colors were a goldenrod, gray, sage green, and charcoal. At least that's how they looked on my monitor! This card was fun to make. Nothing flashy, just some paper layers and a few little daisies I cut on the Cricut using the George and Basic Shapes cart. Love the color combo ... can't wait to give this birthday card to someone special!

A Couple of Fun Ones!

The Day 8 challenge at 365 Cards was to use loud, bold colors and a sentiment of congratulations. Since I'm a teacher, right away I thought of a clip art program that I have and I knew it would be just perfect.

I've always loved the little alien guy! I also clear embossed some stars on the background.

Love, love, love the way it turned out!

The Day 9 challenge was to use a kraft paper base and kraft paper in one other place on the front. I love the natural look of kraft paper and I really like the way it looks with this autumn theme paper.

Autumn is not my favorite season (I am a gal of temperature extremes ... I love summer and winter), but I do really like the way this note card turned out!

A New Sketch

Here's my take on the Day 6 sketch over at 365 Cards .

And while I'm at it, I'll add the Day 7 challenge, too. The challenge was to round one, two, or three corners. 

Love that plaid paper!

Inspired by Nature

Back to Nature (Day 5) was my favorite challenge at 365 Cards this week. The requirement was to create a nature scene that was clean and simple. I bought the Wildflower stamp set from Papertrey Ink a few months ago and have been looking for a way to use it. This seemed like the perfect project.

I'm not sure I'd call this a nature "scene" ... maybe more like a nature "element." But, I love the moss green background and I love the fern stamp on it. Very simple, but beautiful with a heartfelt sentiment.

I did it! I completed a week of challenges! It took a lot of time, and I'm not sure I'll be able to do it every week, but I'm going to give it a try. By the way, you can expect to see more than cards here ... I'll be blogging about quilting and other crafty things too!

A Couple of Toughies

The Day 3 challenge at 365 Cards had me searching through card sketches for ideas. The challenge was to create a card with 5 or more layers. I found a sketch on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

I like it, but I'm not head-over-heels for it. :) 

The Day 4 challenge was a color scheme challenge. On my monitor, it looks like purple, magenta, blue, and yellow, so those are the colors I went with. I puzzled over exactly what to do until I remembered that I had these scrapbooking embellishments that had just those colors!

The picture really doesn't show the contrast between the purple and the blue. It was quick and easy, and I'm happy with the finished product.

True Love!

That's what I feel for this wedding card I made for the (Day 2) Be Mine, Valentine challenge at 365 Cards . To meet the challenge you had to use at least one heart and the word "love." Since I never have a wedding card when I need one (and never seem to have inspiration to make one when I need one), I decided to go that route instead.

The fold is at the top. I cut a circle from the Cricut George and Basic Shapes cartridge, then trimmed it to fit. The hearts are cut from the same cartridge. The stamp is from Papertrey Ink. The paper is from a stack I picked up on clearance at Target a couple of years ago. I love the colors and think it's so elegant!

A New Year and New Beginnings

Changes are in the works over at 365 Cards ! Most notably, the numbering system will now reflect the actual number of the day of the year. (It used to start somewhere around March 1 ... very unsettling for someone who tends to be a little on the OCD side like me! LOL!)

The theme for today's challenge is New Beginnings. I made a joy fold card to welcome a new baby girl.

The baby face is cut from the Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge. The little heart holds the flap shut.

To make the inside, I generated a message in Microsoft Word, cut it, and stitched it to the inside of the smaller card:

Up for the Challenge!

For a couple years now I have followed the daily challenges at 365 Cards and used them for cardmaking inspiration, but I have never been an active participant ... until now! I don't know much about blogging, and I have a lot to learn about papercrafting too, so I'm going for it! I figure I'll pick up some new ideas, make some new cyber friends, try/learn some new techniques, and hopefully even put a dent in my paper stash! So here goes!

The first one is for a weekly challenge called Super Sketchy Sunday (Day 305). Here it is:

The candles are just little paper scraps. The blue was embossed on my Sizzix machine, then I wrapped a piece of rickrack around it before mounting it on a white card base. Easy-peasy!

The second one is for the All About Argyle challenge (Day 306). I've had this argyle ribbon in my ribbon basket forever and have always thought it would look great on a card for a guy. Now I've finally done something with it!

Now, let's see if I can successfully post these on the challenge site! I hope the learning curve levels out soon!