With Love and Happy Birthday

One of my goals for 2017 was to create more for fun, and today I am happy to share 2 cards I made for some fun challenges.

First up is a card using a brand new stamp from PTI--Splits With Love.  I was inspired by the colors at Color Throw Down #424.

I am also entering this card at Simon Says Monday Start Afresh and Simon Says Wednesday New Something.

And, I am squeaking in at the last moment with a card for CAS(E) This Sketch #202.  I used three sizes of the flower image from Verve Poppy Birthday and the Rose Petal collection of ombre inks from Altenew.

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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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My Crafty Weekend

My last two mini notebooks for this week's Make it Monday #167...This was a really fun project, and I think I learned some tricks along the way.

The next four cards are all for different challenges, but they all have one thing in common--NBUS!!!  If you have not been living under a rock, you are probably familiar with Darnell, her fabulous creations, her friendly blog, and her obsession with NUBS (never-before-used-schtuff).  Darnell is celebrating 500 followers with a challenge to encourage us all to get out our new schtuff and USE IT.  So, I used something new in each of my four cards.

First up is this birthday card that uses a brand new stencil and several new colors of Distress Ink.  I am entering it at Simon Says Monday Magic challenge, because I do think that the way the Distress Inks blend and fade off is pretty magical, and I was able to surround my sentiment without actually masking it off--just had the blending kind of fade off near the sentiment.

Edited to add that I am also linking up to Paper Crafting Challenges for stencils.  

This next card uses some brand new-to-me Verve stamps that I was lucky enough to pick up on sale a while back, and foolish enough to keep sitting on my desk for months.  I am entering this card at Time Out #7:  Summer with Optional Twist of Flowers.  I'm not quite sure, but this might be my first time playing at Time Out.

It has been a long time since I have played in the Fusion Challenge and I don't think I have ever been able to pull off one card with the photo and the sketch--but that is what I did here today.   My NBUS on this card are the Verve Poppy Birthday stamps.  I was inspired by the colors and the flowers and that little bit of newsprint I could see under the flowers.  I am also entering this at Time Out #7.

My last card today uses this sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch #79.  My NBUS for this card is this 'hello' stamp from Hero Arts Live Life.  All the inks are Memento Luxe pigment inks. 

That's it for me today.  One more week of school for my daughters and then we can finally start summer.  Yay!!

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