A Tropical Thank You

Hello my friends!

My little card today combines the CardSwaps and OWH Midweek Throwdown challenges together. On Tuesday CardSwaps posted their CardMaker Corner Challenge to use a sketch from CardMaker Magazine. I'm using sketch #20 from the November 2010 issue as I already had this set out to use for Christmas Cards.

On Wednesday OWH Stars & Stamps posted their Midweek Throwdown challenge to create a 'Thinking of You' card. So I thought... why not combine the two. I'm slowly learning to combine different challenges into one card.

I had some Graphic45 paper left over from a summer project. The background paper has fish on it but you can't tell it here, it's one side of paper called "Oceania". The tropical bird is from one side of paper called "Botanica". This particular piece of paper has several birds and other tropical images, 9 altogether, and I love that. They come in handy when Mr. Artha Ritis won't let my hands do fine, detail coloring. The image already had the distressing around the edges. I distressed my cream card stock so it would somewhat match. I used dark blue card stock for matting and some dots of Liquid Pearls for bling.

Papers: Graphic45, Tropical Travelogue Collection
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Admiral; Cream from my stash
Ink: Ranger Tea Dye Distress Ink
Embellishments:
Ribbon - My Stash... and I wish I could find more. :(
Liquid Pearls Ocean Blue by Ranger

If you've ever been intimidated about combining challenges I say 'go for it'! It's like anything else, once you do it a couple of times it's not so intimidating. I'm sure glad I tried it. It gets easier every time I combine challenges.

Thank You so much for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit!

Wednesday's Crop Challenges

The "Treat Yourself" Crop started yesterday over at CardSwaps. [That's Aug 8 - Aug 11, 2012] If your tuned in to yesterday's blog post, right here, then you will have the information. Each day there are 3 challenges which are always soooooo much fun, and 1 game each day. That's 12 challenges and 4 games all totaled.

I always seem to run a day in getting my challenges made. Good thing we have until Aug 14th to get them done and posted to the approriate challenge. This evening I'm posting 2 challenges from yesterday.

Christina's challenge was "3 Tier Treat" and we were to make a 3 tier cake. As you can see, my top tier comes out to add a sentiment. Since it's a pocket it's a good place to put a gift card or even money. The stamp set to make this cake is from TooMuchFun Rubber Stamps. I stamped it in Crushed Velver Distress Ink from Ranger. I colored the roses and trim with Copic markers. For a little glitz I added Frosted Lace Stickles and White Opal Pearl Pen, both from Ranger.

This next challenge, "Box of Sunshine" is hosted by Christine K. We were to make a box that would hold a giftie, and decorate however we wanted. My box is made with 2 double sided pieces of Graphic45 paper from the "A Ladies' Diary" collection. My bow is wired lace ribbon in off white, and the glittery butterfly is a leftover... but I don't remember where I got it.



I'm so sorry about the photos and line spacing being all over the place. It seems Blogger has some issues on where I want things and where it's actually going to go. Oh well... tomorrow's another day.

Thanks for stopping by... hope you enjoyed yourself!







Treat Yourself Blog Hop

Good Morning my friends! Don your bunny ears and hoppin shoes, and get ready for some fun and inspiration. This week over at CardSwaps we're having our "Treat Yourself Crop".  Challenges and games will be posted on the forum starting today, Wednesday August 8, 2012 and will run through Saturday August 11, 2012. You will have until 11:59 EST August 14, 2012 to get your projects posted to the appropriate thread in the forum for a chance to win prizes.

If you arrived here from Ivanka's blog you're on the right track. Doesn't she do beautiful work?  If you didn't arrive from Ivanka's blog make sure you start at the beginning of the hop with Brooke Smith.

The blog hop "theme" goes with the crop title of "Treat Yourself". This is my card:

One of the ways I treat myself is by going to the Spa for "the works". Money is tight these days so that doesn't happen too often, but I can treat myself right here at home. When I remodeled my bathroom several years ago I splurged on a Jacuzzi tub. Now when I want to feel pampered I light some candles, get a glass of wine, a good book, and settle in for the luxury of the bubbles... Jacuzzi bubbles that is.

Supplies:
Digi image by Sassy Studio Design
Ribbon by May Arts
Designer Paper by Grafic45
Sentiment stamp by Stampendous
Copic markers
Adhesive pearls

At every stop along the hop you will collect a letter. Make sure you collect every letter and please... leave some "love" for the hostesses. You will need all the letters later for a chance to win a prize. Lora, the last hostess on the hop, will direct you over to the forum for information on

My letter is... M

Your next stop on the hop is the talented Anya. 

Here is the list of hoppers in case you get lost:
Brooke Smith
Jane
Susan
Margaret
Trudy Sjolander
Golda
Meredith
Jeanette
Colleen Schaan
Laura
Ivanka
Marlene   [you are here]
Anya Schrier
Angelina
Ana
Ashley
Lora


Thank you so much for stopping by... I hope you enjoyed yourself! Now go... skedaddle... finish the hop, head over to the forum for the challenges and games. Most of all - enjoy yourself!

Ready to start crafting again!!

I'm finally back and can start posting again. I was visiting my son almost the entire month of July... and quite a bit of the time we didn't have internet.

Today I'm showing my attempt at combining two separate challenges. Trust me... I have lots and lots of trouble combining challenges. This time it came together very well and I'm pleased at how my card turned out.

This week's Member Challenge at CardSwaps. This week it's an Inspiration Challenge and we had darling photos to get out inspiration from. I chose the Teal and Yellow colors to use. I would have liked to use some purple, but I don't have so much as a scrap of that color.

This week's OWH Sketch Challenge found here. I love to use their sketches. The measurements are always given right on the sketch so there's no guessing what size to cut the pieces.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed you visit!

Another Challenge Card

Hello again! Here's another card I posted on CardMaker CardSwaps.

CardMaker Challenge Corner - Clean it Out:

Lora hosts a weekly challenge and they are awesome! For this week's challenge we were to use scraps to make our card front. I know... I know.... some of you just throw your scraps away, but there's so many ways to use them. I chose to make a Tile Card from scraps of Designer Paper and white cardstock. My tiles are 1" x 1" squares matted on white cardstock tiles that are 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" squares.

My lighting isn't that good so the red has an orange cast to it. For some reason the rows of tiles look all wonky and wopper-jawed too. In real life they are straight... honest! HeeHeeHee! Hope you like my card and thanks for stopping by!

Woo-Hoo!! I'm finally back to bloggin!

Hi peeps! I finally got my new computer and I'm b-a-a-a-c-k! The insurance company took their time paying on my claim from the burglary, but they did and I love my new computer.

Member Challenge - CAS Card:
This week at CardMakers CardSwap Golda is hosting the Member Challenge. For those of you who might not know what CAS stands for... it's Clean and Simple. Now that doesn't mean you just 'throw it together' without any thought. You still put thought into your card and do your best work, but you don't go over the top with embellishments and, as I call it, foofala!

Golda's requirements were to make a Thank You card that has 30% white space on the card front. I used the design I used on my cousin's 70th Birthday Invitations. Hope you like it and thanks for stopping by!