Category Archives: Challenges

a case study… week one

There’s nothing quite like a challenge to get your creativity going, is there? When I first started paper crafting, challenges got me hooked on stamping. They encouraged me to try new things and I loved being part of the crafting community. Participating almost daily in challenges helped me to develop my own style and pushed me to improve my designs. Challenges will always be part of my creative process whether they be online challenge, design calls or the challenge of creating with new products.

One challenge site that I’ve recently discovered is the CASE Study Challenge Blog. It’s a fun and unique site as each month they feature a guest designer for each of their weekly challenges. I’m excited to be their October guest designer for the duration of the month. For each week, they’ve chosen a design that I’ve created in the past and use it for inspiration for their design team. The exciting thing is you can use the designs to inspire you to create anything at all. You can choose to be inspired by the layout, by the color scheme, by the technique or just by some element of the design. How fun is that? I love flexibility!

Another thing that excites me about this month is that I’ll be playing along with the CASE study design team to create something new. I’ve been feeling a little dry in the creative department lately so I’m enjoying these challenges to hopefully rev things up a little.

Today’s card was inspired by a card I created for the CLASSroom nine months ago. You can find this inspiration piece and the design team’s take on it on the CASE Study blog here.

It may be a little bit difficult to see at first what inspired me so I’ll get you up to speed. The color scheme is very similar and I was inspired to use Ranger Distress Stains and the Prima Resist Canvas again. The resist canvas flowers and tab are colored with distress stains and I’ve also created the background with the stains as well.


I love the effect I ended up with by layering the card with a mask and then dabbing on two colors of distress stain. To make sure that the inks didn’t run, I dried the cardstock well with a heat gun before stamping on it.

This card made its way across the miles to my daughter whom I’m missing dreadfully. I can’t wait to see her for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend!

Supplies:

Happy creating!

Classic Stamping

This morning I was feeling a little nostalgic and decided to turn my creativity to some classic stamping. A few years ago, I was quite addicted to stamping challenges as they are such a great way to jump start your creativity. Checking out the daily challenges at Splitcoaststampers.com was something I used to do daily but in the craziness of life, it’s been a very long time since I’ve done that.

Tuesday’s are color challenge day there and once I saw the color combo, I knew I’d find some time to play along. You can find it here if you’re interested in playing along.

One of the stamps that I’ve been wanting to use worked perfectly with today’s color challenge. It was easy to ink up with a couple dye markers, the yellow is a distress ink marker in Mustard Seed and the leaves are a Stampin Up marker, Certainly Celery. This stamp makes a beautiful focal image but it always looks lovely as a background. Did you notice I’d stamped it again tone on tone on the colored cardstock?

Supplies: Pool Party Cardstock and Dye Ink, Certainly Celery Marker by Stamping Up, also…

Happy stamping!

tagged with love

I love a challenge.

I seriously thought this would be an easy one.

Make a valentine’s tag using 7 Maya Road products (7 SKUs)…and the freebies were paint, sewing, black and white pen, one sheet of cardstock and punches and dies. Oh yes, and one of the MR items had to be kraft.

It was harder than I thought! Those Maya Road goodies are just plain addictive! After much counting and playing around, here’s what I came up with.

The little Vintage Heart Tart tins are so addictive. I’ve used them quite a bit lately so I was trying to use something else but in the end, I just couldn’t resist. You can easily punch these little tins with a Crop-a-dile for  hole for hanging the tag.

This tag was created for the latest Maya Road Designer Challenge. I hope you’ll join us for lots more valentine’s inspiration. Great ideas, lots of tips and oh yah,…the chance to win a Maya Road prize pack. Good luck!!!

If you’re wondering exactly which 7 Maya Road products I used, they are the first 7 supplies below…

Supplies:

Loves and Hugs…

a celebration…

It’s a busy, busy weekend and I know many of you are celebrating a holiday weekend in the USA. While here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving last month, I’m busy getting into the holiday mood with lots of Christmas shopping, wrapping presents and stringing outside lights. I’m enjoying every minute of it!

I’m also excited about another celebration this weekend. Ellen Hutson LLC is celebrating 5 great years. Congrats Ellen! I’ve been a huge fan and devoted customer from the very beginning. Being part of the CLASSroom team just makes it even better.

We have some great inspiration and challenges to share with you as part of the celebration. Today I’m hosting a sketch challenge that I’m sure you’ll love. You can see a little peek at the project above. There’s a great prize up for grabs so be sure to check it out here.

Happy celebrating!

the compass

This morning I’m sitting here in a fog. It’s fall and it seems, time for a cold. So I’ll be keeping this short and sweet if you don’t mind.

Love these stamps from Market Street Stamps. I’ve been itching to use them together and today’s Market Fresh sketch seemed like the perfect time. Once again, I’ve taken a few liberties 😉  You can find the sketch and the challenge here. Hope you can play along!

Just simple stamping today as these stamps are so great on their own without any techniques at all. Just a little pink ink. I’m really into pink these days for some reason.

 

I had fun making some felt roses again. I just can’t seem to stop making these! It’s really interesting the different looks you can get by using different felts. These flowers use the Papertrey Ink felt which is a little thinner and makes daintier roses. If you want to compare, here’s a project using the same die with different felt.

Supplies: Cream cardstock by Neenah, Rosebud Memento Ink by Tsukineko, Vintage Wallpaper stamp and Compass Stamp Set by Market Street Stamps, doily by Ellen Hutson LLC, Kraft Ticket by Maya Road, Crystal Trinket pins by Maya Road, 3D Flower Bigz Die by Sizzix, felt, Tiny Attacher by Advantus, Word Charms by Maya Road

Happy creating!

all boxed up

Ready for some more cardboard? Upcycling never looked so good.

The latest Lessology challenge is up and it is to create a trinket box using an upcycled box. In my house there always seems to be an endless stream of cardboard cereal boxes headed for the recycling box. A cereal box seems a little large for a trinket box challenge until you decide to cut it down a little.

I cut my cereal box down to a single panel and then die cut it using a pillow box die. Flip the outer printed side of the box to the inside and you are left with a pretty cardboard colored box. To pretty it up a little, it’s been stamped with the Sweet Lace background stamp from Market Street Stamps. Market Street is sponsoring this latest challenge and have some beautiful stamps to giveaway so make sure you play along!

 

Supplies: cereal box, Pillow Box Bigz Die by Sizzix, white pigment ink by Clearsnap, Sweet Lace Background Stamp and Autumn Greetings Stamp Set by Market Street Stamps twine, hem tape, Strawberry Shortcake Chalkboard Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, Jet Black Archival Ink by Ranger, Pearl Trinket Pin by Maya Road

Have a beautiful day!

i {heart} moxie fab world

Since Moxie Fab World first hit the internet, I have been a huge fan.

HUGE.

Actually, it’s one of the few sites I check out daily.

Moxie Fab World is a wonderful creative space that’s always full of inspiration. I love the photos, the challenges, giveaways, getting to know designers and especially Cath herself. It’s just a happy place.

I particularly like a challenge and MFW always is sure to have a good one. When I have free time, it’s where I go to have some creative fun. A few weeks ago I was so thrilled when Cath asked if I could be an upcoming Moxie Fabber of the week. I am so honored.

I just have to thank you all for all the kind and lovely comments left on the Moxie Fabber post on Monday. I am so blessed.

And Cath, I don’t know what to say. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You made me cry.

Today my card is created for another Moxie Fab World Challenge, a sketch challenge. It’s such a pretty one isn’t it? There is still time to play along and you can find out all the details on this Moxie Fab challenge here. Shaped cards are really easy to create, especially when you can use basic shapes to make them. This circle card has all it’s layers cut out using Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies.

I think I must be in a super girlie mood today as this is oh so pretty in pink, pink, pink.

 

The layers are stitched on my sewing machine and the sentiment is stamped onto a tiny canvas tag.

Supplies: white cardstock by Neenah, Lost & Found 6×6 paper pad by My Mind’s Eye, Strawberry Shortcake Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, flower by Prima, Canvas Tag by Maya road, Crystal Trinket pins by Maya Road, sewing machine, Jet Black Archival Ink by Ranger, Hem tape, circle dies by Spellbinders, Sunshine and Smiles stamp set by Avocado Arts

Have a Moxie Fab day!