CASual Fridays #30 and Dilly Bean Stripes

(Edited - So excited to have been picked as a VIP for this challenge on the CAS-ual Fridays blog!)

So I am really on a role of getting some challenges done these days!  And, I've even been able to do a bit of combining.  I tend to prefer to create a seperate card for each challenge but sometimes they just need to go together. 

Like this one at CAS-ual Fridays ... I used the diagonal of Stripes, Kraft, and Pink.  This meant it would easily fit the first weekly challenge at a new challenge blog called Dilly Beans which was STRIPES! 

Here is my card:

I'm totally digging those big wide faux ribbon dies (like the 6th and 9th ones HERE at Papertrey Ink) and decided to create my own template like the home-made Half & Half ones I showed on my last post. 

The flower is from Two Birds set by Hero Arts and coloured with Copics (pinks) and watercolor pencil crayons (green).

I love the tic tac toe idea for challenges as the end results are so varied.  Off to check them out!!

Donelda

Crafty Creations Challenge #146 - Woodgrain and Reds

Today I have a card that fits 2 challenges.  I mean, look at these two inspiration photos ... how could I not use them at the same time??!!  Same colours and lots of rustic wood!!

The photo on the left is the inspiration photo from Crafty Creations Challenges #146 - such charm.

The photo on the right is the inspiration photo from Moxie Fab World - Tuesday Trigger - red and rustic.

I started out with a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock and using my Distress inks, created a woodgrain background.

I decided to use this sweet bird charm sent to me by one of my former Secret Sisters! 

 The reds and browns werecreated by using Distress inks direct to paper.  And I do love that burst punch by Martha Stewart!!

If you want to play along with either challenge:

Go to Crafty Creations Challenges #146

or

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

Thanks for dropping in for a visit.  Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Donelda

Colour Q Challenge #113 and Make It Monday #43 - Ribbon Pleating

The Colour Q Challenge colours this week are amazing!  I really like Sahara Sand and I'm always trying to find great colours to go with them ... this is it!! 

I decided to combine the colours with this week's Make It Monday challenge #43 from Papertrey Ink - Ribbon Pleating.  I don't think I've ever tried ribbon pleating so I decided to "take it easy" and just do a few pleats like on Dawn's 2nd card in the video. 

Supplies used include Background Basics: Retro and Birthday Basics (both Papertrey Ink), Spring Rain grosgrain ribbon (Papertrey Ink), Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Whisper White, and other blue cardstock (Stampin' Up!). 

And see, I've used another one of my "home-made" half & half die cuts.  I have had a lot of people ask how I do this.  Nothing magical I assure you.  I simply took some light cardboard, traced some edges of other dies I had with nice curvy edges, made straight edges and cut them out.   Now, if I want a "half & half die" that I don't own (yet - getting them for my birthday) I just trace the outline onto cardstock or patterned paper and cut it out by hand!  More effort but cheaper!!  Here is a photo of the 3 I made ...

This colour combo is going to inspire lots of increadible projects.  I'm off to check it out!!

Donelda

Watercolored Distress Inks

Wow, look at the colors on this background.  I created it by adding a bunch of different distress inks to a background stamp (Anna Griffin) and then spritzing it with water!  Awesome effect!

Didn't need to do much to the card becuase I didn't want to cover up all that awesome colour!

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Fall Thinking of You

I thought I'd better squeeze this fall card in before it gets too wintery ...

Some days I just can't get enough of those yummy Distress Inks (Ranger).  And look, I have used another one of my home-made Half and Half dies (like Papertrey Ink but just cardboard and traced by hand!). 

These warm fall colors are my favourite to create with!!

Hope you are having a wonderful day.  Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

One Layer Wednesday (OLW) - Variations On a Sentiment

Leave it to Susan R. to create a real tricky One Layer Wednesday challenge #72.  She wants us to use a sentiment and nothing else on a non-standard sized card!  Wow, now that is a challenge!!  At first I pulled out the largest sentiments I have ... but then I got creative and created these:

They are mini scraplings ... 1" x 3" little mini cards.  I keep lots of these small little cards around the office to leave on the desks of my co-workers on their birthdays.  The ones I have at work right now are all girly cards so I was stuck last week when one of our tech guys had a birthday!  These will make great additions to the stash and will be perfect for the guys!!

Thanks Susan for a real challenge, like usual!! 

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Pointsettia Flower - Take 3

Before I get to my Take 3 card, I am excited to announce that I made it onto the Crafty Creations Challege blog Design Team!  So excited to be on another team.  Can't wait to get going with them.  Drop over to the blog and check out this week's inspiration photo, it's awesome!!

Finally, the last day of this Take 3 Challenge ... and here is my Take 3 on using this lovely flower stamp from Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Blooms set.  Notice it is not a Christmas card!

These flowers were inked up with distress inks and cut out.  Check out the centers ... they are lovely brads that I have received from one of my secret sisters (thanks so much)!!

This card is actually created based on the card created by Julia Stainton shown on page 48 of the Nov./Dec. issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  It was so lovely I was totally inspired by it!  Julia's card is a Christmas card with stars on it, but I wanted to change that into a birthday card so used flowers.

Thanks so much for dropping by for my Take 3 Challenge this week.

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Pointsettia Flower - Take 2

My Take 2 card for this week's Take 3 Challenge is also a Christmas card.

And another clean and simple card.  I used one of my home-made die cuts (based on Papertrey Ink's), added some thin black ribbon and a black button.  The designer paper is so beautiful - from My Minds Eye. 

Okay, that is 2 Christmas cards made using this lovely little flower image.  Will tomorrow's card be a Christmas card as well??  Guess you'll have to come back tomorrow and see.

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Pointsettia Flower - Take 1

Hello!  It is always nice to see you!  Today is the first day of my Take 3 Challenge.  Here is my Take 1 card. 

I don't own many Christmas stamps so I have to be creative at this time of year.  See this lovely pointsettia, it is actually the large flower from the Beautiful Blooms set (Papertrey Ink). 

Stamped it with Ruby Red ink and then added some gold micro beads to the center.

A true Clean and Simple card!!  Susan R. would be proud!! 

Drop back in tomorrow to see what I did with this flower on tomorrow's Take 2 card.

Donelda

Colour Q Challenge #112 - Quilt

This week's Colour Q challenge #112 is made up of such delicious colours!  Yum!!

I decided I wanted to make a home-made quilt look.  Took 1" squares, cut them down by hand so that they were not really straight, and did some faux stitching around each square.  Then, I poked holes and used thread to create real stitches to attach them to the card front. 

Close up of the real stitching.

Took this photo at night in my light box.  It still makes a ton of difference shooting in the day time vs. night!  I need to remember to take my photos before the light goes away!

Thanks for visiting!

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Large Butterfly BEauty - Take 3

Hello and welcome back to the last day and my Take 3 card for this week's Take 3 Challenge.  Today my butterfly was stamped onto some yummy purple designer paper.  The gold glitter was part of the paper and ended up adding so much to this image.  Then, I added some distress ink sponging to intensify the colour!

Kept the rest of the card clean and simple so the butterfly would be sure to take center stage!

That was a fun Take 3 challenge.  Thanks for enjoying it with me :-)

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Large Butterfly Beauty - Take 2

Welcome back to the second day of my Take 3 Challenge.  I introduce to you my Take 2 card:

This time, I decided to try a monochromatic card ... in purple of all colours.  If you drop by at all you will know that I rarely use purple!  What an impact, that bright white butterfly on all that purple!!

Well, one more card to go for this week's Take 3 challenge.  Like always, I've saved my favourite for last. 

See you all tomorrow!

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Large Butterfly Beauty - Take 1

Welcome to a new week of Take 3.  This week's image is a beautiful swirly butterfly from Studio g.  It was given to me by a friend and came out of a larget "stamping kit".  It is rather large ... so I decided to start out by just using bits of it on this tag.  Coloured the leaves with my Stampin' Up! pastel chalks. 

I never use my crimper enough .. thought it would add some great texture. 

I had planned to enter it into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to use tags ... but I ended up scheduling this post for the wrong week and totally missed that challenge!  How did I do that??  Sheesh!! Oh well.

Drop back in tomorrow to see what I did for Take 2 using this same image.

Donelda

Crafty Creations Challenge #144 - Recycle

This week's challenge at Crafty Creations Challenge #144 is to recycle.  Well, if you have ever been around my blog you will know that I do that all the time!!  Today I recycled a music sheet that I got from an old old old organ music book.  Another recycled item is a small amount of black velvet trim that came off of an old pair of slippers. 

I don't make many wedding cards (not many folks in my world getting married these days) but thought the wedding bells would look great with the music background.

Off to post and see what everyone else recycled...

Thanks for dropping by,

Donelda

Play Date Cafe #108 - Rich and Warm Colours

The Play Date Cafe colours for challenge #108 were so delicions that I wanted to play along.  However, they were so much fun, I couldn't stop.  I ended up making 2 different cards and then using my scraps to create a third card!

This fist card was clean and simple.  I'm really digging the graphic look these days

I knew the 3 colours would make a great background for a silouette stamp so I used this old Stampin' Up! image on a sponged background.  I kep the rest of the card cas ... and couldn't bring myeself to stamp a sentiment on the front so it went inside.

And then, I just couldn't bring myself to throw out the beautiful scraps.  I saw them all sitting there on my craft table and figured I could add them together for a mosaic look .....

... and here is a close-up. 

You might recognize the sketch from CPS ... but too late to add it to the challenge.

That was fun!!

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Inspiration from Paper Crafts Magazine - Day 2 - Christmas

Welcome back!

Today it is Lindsey's turn to pick a card for inspriation from the Sept/Oct issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  Her choice was the very versatile card by Ellie Augustin on page 46 called Brew Some Fun Card.  Wow, what a great layout to work with!! 

I was so inspired I made 2 cards - one that followed the sketch very closely and another that followed it very loosly.  For both, I focused on the general layout.

I adore this Anna Griffin designer paper. And this little sprig of holly is probaby my most used Christmas stamp (if you can believe that or not!!)

This card is a much looser take on the layout.  The designer paper and die cuts are from the Holly Jolly paper pack from My Minds Eye (out last year). 

Okay, now off to Lindsey's blog to see what her card turned out looking like.  Do you think she also made a christmas card????  Let's go see....

Thanks for dropping by!

Donelda

Inspiration from Paper Crafts Magazine - Day 1 - Stripes

Lindsey and I are at it again!  We both picked cards from the Sept/Oct issue of Paper Crafts Magazine and used them for inspiration.  This week, my pick was the awesome card by Cristina Kowalczyk on page 58 called Ahoy Birthday Card.  Her name might be hard to spell ... but man, can this girl make a card! 

For this card I focused on: the stripes and the general layout. 

I really like the double ended banner running vertical to the stripes.  I didn't want to use string or ribbon so it seemed like a good alternative.

Now, off to see what Lindsey created with Cristina's card as inspiration.  I can't wait to see, she is so creative!!  And remember to drop in tomorrow to see which card Lindsey picked for inspiration and what we did with it.

Thanks for dropping by,

Donelda

CAS-ual Fridays #28 & Barb's Challenge - Damask Tag

This week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #28 is to create a tag or a card with a tag on it.  I combined it with a challenge set by a blogging buddy Barb who posted this beautiful table setting as inspiration.

Together I arrived at this tag.  From the inspiration picture I focused on the black demask table runner, and the color combo of black, white, and apple green.

I really love that burst punch (Martha Stewart).  And see that yummy ruffly ribbon ... it is from a past Secret Sister (thanks Linda!) and I've been trying to find a good use for it for a while now.  This elegant birthday tag was the perfect home for a bit of it!

Off to see what others created....

Donelda

Mendi apples

So I would love to say that I came up with this awesome idea myself .. but it would not be true.  The genius behind this is Sharon Harnist!  You can see her pear HERE and another example HERE and one by Ellen Hutson HERE. 

These apples are the outlined ones from Teacher's Apple (Papertrey Ink).  I had so much fun creating this card.  Definately going to do this again!!  And I really worked hard to incorporate that desired 'visual triangle' ... can you see it??

Donelda

Play Date Cafe Challenge - Tiger Butterfly

This week's colors at the Play Date Cafe were too yummy to pass up!!  Challenge #107 looks like this:

And here is the card that was created by me:

I am totally "into" the color Spiced Marmalade (distress ink by Ranger) these days.  When I bought it I was a bit hesitant because I didn't know how often I'd use it ... turns out I don't seem to be able to put it down!!

In the end, a clean and simple card with the emphasis on this lovely "tiger butterfly" floating among the white flowers.  The butterfly was hand cut, sponged with ink, then stamped with flourishes, and black wire wrapped around the body to create antenna. 

Hope you enjoy! 

Donelda

Crafty Creations Challenges - Color Challenge

Over on Crafty Creations Challenges the latest color combo challenge were definately my colours so I decided to play along.  The colors were Kraft/Brown, White/Cream, and one other colour.  I chose to use Brown and Cream with Orange thrown in for the other colour.

The leaves and tag are Summer Sunrise (Papertrey Ink) cardstock that was spritzed with water, crumpled, and then ironed.  I punched the little maple leaves out with a small punch I picked up from Michael's $1.50 bin - what a bargin!  Before punching the leaves, I sponged on a bit of Spiced Marmalade distress ink (Ranger).  The effect is awesome in real life.  The tag was hand drawn and cut from the same cardstock, just no sponging on it.

Supplies: Stamps-Take a Bough, Round &Round, Fancy Flourishes (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!), Spiced Marmalade (Ranger); Paper - Summer Sunshine (Papertrey Ink), Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!), Au Chocolate patterned paper (Stampin' Up!),Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!), Dark Chocolate twill (Papertrey Ink); oval die (Spellbinders)

Since the CCC are looking for a Design Team and I did the challenge I figured I'd throw my name in to be considered.  Not holding my breath but it would be fun. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Moxie Fab Challenge - Award Medallion

Cath always has some fun challenges going on over at Moxie Fab world.  Right now she is celebrating her 3rd year of posting!!  This card is created for the Award Medallions Challenge.

The black paper is glittery (but hard to see in the photo) and the black on the designer paper is nice and fuzzy creating all kinds of texture in real life!!   That is why I kept the card fairly clean and simple!

Thanks for looking
Donelda

Tuesday Morning Sketch #119 - Noah

Decided to play along with Tuesday Morning Sketches again!  A great sketch this week by none other than Kathy Curry!! 

I had fun using this image from smARTworks.  It was watercoloured using my Stampin' Up! watercolour pencil crayons.

Had to try one of those little bows like Jill Foster puts on all her cards.  It was a perfect addition for the sketch.

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Inspiration from Paper Crafts Magazine - Day 2

Welcome back to our Inspiration Challenge.  My blogging buddy, Lindsey, and I decided to use the Paper Crafts magazine (Sept/Oct) as inspiration.  We both picked cards and used them as inspiration to create our own cards.  Yesterday we showcased the card Lindsay picked.  Today is my turn.  I picked this lovely card by Betsy Veldman called Doily Gratitude Card (on page 56). 

I focused on the masked and sprayed background, the cluster of embellishments, and the sentiment.

Here is my card:

Nothing makes me happier than using feathers on my cards!  And check out the sentiment piece - see the white rub ons (BasicGrey) to mimic the sentiment piece in Betsy's card.  And that lovely flower was compliments of one of my past Secret Sisters (thanks Linda!). 

Now you need to go check out Lindsey's card that she created using Betsy's card as inspiration!

Remember, if you are inspired by either of the Paper Crafts cards (or ours) leave a link in the comment section so we can go and see what you did too! 

And....this has been so much fun we are doing it again next Thurs and Friday!!  Can't wait!! Make sure you come back and visit!

Lest We Forget

"When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?" -George Canning

Thanks for visiting!

Donelda