Halfway through the Week

I just said goodbye to one batch of houseguests, and my next batch arrives tomorrow.  One of those things about living in San Diego--the guest room is never vacant for long.  I managed to squeeze a bit of crafting in during the past week by setting up a large table in the downstairs hallway, bringing down a bunch of supplies, and helping my MIL and SIL make cards, envelopes and gift bags.  A bit frustrating, as I am not a natural teacher, but anything to get a little crafting time.

I used my first set of stamps and dies ever from Clearly Besotted to make this very fun ice cream birthday card using the sketch from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.  I am also entering this card at Virginia's View Challenge #5.

A pair of one layer cards for this month's One-Layer Simplicity Challenge--using this very fun surfboard set I first saw on Susan's blog.  I'm not 100% convinced that these cards work--it's a little difficult to read the sentiments on top of the right surfboard, but I'm going with them anyway.

I made this next card just for fun--I was trying to get some stamping done in between requests for help.  I have seen something like this design done with this stamp before, but cannot remember where--if it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit.  The sentiment is Mama Elephant and the images are poppies from Verve Poppy Birthday.  The card needed a little something, so I put some color coordinated sequins on.  I'm entering it into Seize the Birthday without toppings.

My last card was inspired by this very cool birthday card I saw at Darnell's birthday party by Sharon's Creative Essence.  Sharon used embossing but I was lazy and used die cuts to achieve my black and white look.  This card was supposed to be my first entry at The Cutting Room, a new challenge using die cuts, but I missed the deadline to post.  I will definitely try to enter that challenge again, as I really do love my die cuts.  I used the 'rock and roll' inking technique on my sentiment--Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise and Orange Zest, and then used little spongers to ink the edges of my card base to match.  I am entering this card at Virginia's View Challenge #5.

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