A challenge card or two...

I keep meaning to participate in the Hero Arts weekly challenges, I just never got around to it. Finally, I set some time aside yesterday evening and got to work. It took a lot longer than I expected, I kept changing the stamp that I wanted to use in two different ways. I started with a sentiment stamp, made a card, but then didn't like how the second one was coming about. So I decided to go with flowers instead!

Here's my first card. I kept things relatively simple on this one. I stamped the iris first, then the other two. My stamp of choice for this challenge was the tulip stamp. I coloured in a little garden scene, using Copics, graphic artist markers, and even a prismacolor marker (no brand loyalty to markers here). I decided to break out two severely underused colours for my card. I did a Glorious Green mat and an Orchid Opulence card base. I was surprised by how much I liked them together.

For my second card, it was easiest to stick with the floral theme. However, I wanted to change things up. I used only the petals of the tulips to make a new flower. There are 3 tulips on this stamp, so there was the possibility to create 3 different flower looks. I coloured those in with markers, and added a touch of glitter with a gold Spica marker. I also added in some gelly gems to bring more sparkle to each flower. I used the same sentiment, but this time, I put it on a tab.

Supplies: Hero Arts Clear Design Stamps- T set, A set, I set, also the Clear Messages set

Paper: Natural White, Glorious Green, Orchid Opulence, More Mustard, Basic Black, White

Ink: Versafine black, more mustard

Accessories, etc.: various alcohol based markers, pop dots, Spica marker, gelly gems

How many stamping companies can I use??

This is a very simple card, however, I think I used 4 different companies for stamps here. I based my card off of Page 5 in the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini. I started with the flower. I used the flower from gelatins Sparkle and Shine. I inked up linen in pumpkin pie, and kissed the flower to that to give it texture. The brown center was stamped with linen as well. The "stem" is a greeting by Hero Arts. The leaves are from SU!'s Bodacious Bouquet. Finally, the white stitched border on the rust is from Technique Tuesday. It seems silly to use so many different companies for one simple card, but that's just the way stampers work :D

In other news, Sarah (here) still has her contest going on. The guessing game is over, but there's still a random draw for an exciting goodie bag!

An 8-minute card.

So what does an eight-minute card look like...

Now, keep in mind, this time actually includes coming up with the design, colour scheme, and all that good stuff. I had a few minutes to spare this morning before going to work, so I figured, why not do a card. I wanted to see if I could finish one before I had to leave. So here it is, I used stamps from both the A and T from Hero Arts Clear Design. I also used some decorative scissors. Since scalloped edges are back in, I figure, why not use mini-scalloped edges too? So the decorative scissors have found a spot on my craft table once again.

Sunday Fun!

Here are a few items I made this afternoon. For the first one, I wanted to match the Bright Lights gelly gems (blue rhinestones), so I designed my card all around that little embellishment. It sounds silly, but it gave me a starting place. I knew what colours I needed to use to match, and I knew I needed an image that I could put the little gem with. This little card is 4.25x4.25 and uses only the gel-a-tins Sparkle & Shine set, plus their gelly gems.
The second item also started out with wanting to use a specific item. I picked up the Hero Arts ClearDesign Messages set today, and it has this dot stamp and this warm hello stamp. I really like the look of the dotted line, followed by a greeting, then more dotted line. So that was my starting point this time. I finally used some more of my special Christmas present papers. The card base is this nice brown textured paper. The flowers are from the gel-a-tins set Bloom. I masked the middle flower, then added some faux stitching with the chocolate chip marker. To finish of the flowers, I stamped 3 more little flowers from the Bloom set and attached those with pop dots. I was going to leave it on a straight panel, but I wanted to do something different, so I cut out around all the flowers and a few spots between them too.

Another "A" creation.

I know it's past valentine's day, but I had bought these awesome coloured rub-ons, and then today I was also playing around with the specialty edged scissors (remember when those were practically the only "cool" tool for papercrafters?) and this is what I came up with. I am always a fan of pinks and browns. So much so that I am almost running out of my Regal Rose equivalent from Jody's ribbon swap. However, I was checking out Canadian sources for grosgrain, and this place seems to look pretty good: Dunwoody Booth . I haven't ordered from them yet, but they offer 100 yard rolls of 1/4-inch ribbon for $14.50 and there are 81 colours to choose from!! And that's just the plain grosgrain, they have plenty of patterns too.

Caramel Apples and A Clear Creation

Earlier this week I had a serious hankering for a caramel apple. They always look so amazing, but I am too cheap to buy one. Instead I went with a Spartan and some of those square caramels. I just heated the caramels at half power in the microwave for a minute at a time until it was nice and runny, then I dipped my cored apple into the caramel, and rolled that into a pile of Skor bits and sprinkles on wax paper. I used a long pretzel for the stick, this was quite a nice contrast with the sweetness of the candy, and the tartness of the apple. Amazingly, I didn't even make much of a mess (a rarity when I am in the kitchen...). I just really liked this photo I took of the apple and wanted to share it.

I spent most of the day making a top-secret project for my Artisan submission. These are coming along a tad slower than I'd like, especially the scrapbooking portion. It's also really annoying since they can't be posted online, and I like to share my work, sorry :(

But I do have a card creation for you! I cleaned up my area briefly, then I got out all my clear stamps (all 4 sets, although I do have a few more on the way!) and was playing around. I really liked how this one turned out. It's really simple, but I like it. I rarely do short images with long greetings, and because of the clear stamps, this was a snap. I love being able to put different sentiments together on the block and position it so easily with other images. After finally using this set and making a card with it, I think I may just get some more of the Hero Arts alphabet sets. They are SO much cheaper than the rubber & wood HA stamps, and you get a lot more! Now to decide which other letters would be good choices...