Deep breath, deep breath

       Life has been totally ca-razy. That's may not be considered a good reason to be two days late posting, but it's the truth.
       So, it's way past time to share the PINspirational Challenge with you.  As you can see, it has a back to school theme.
       I was inspired by the blackboard, so I did white embossing on black to mimic the blackboard look.
I settled on an inspirational quote from Club Stamp. The watch is also a Club Stamp image which was black-embossed on white card stock, fussy cut, and adhered with dimensionals.
       I wanted some texture for the background panels, On the right is a crimped piece of white cardstock. On the left side is a woodgrain pattern to reflect the wooden fro in the inspiration piece.
       I hope you'll be inspired by the image -- there are so many good ways to go with this one... you could do plaid, or apples, or books...  Whatever inspires you, please link up to our challenge blog.

My card is entered in these challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes
Crafty Sentiments -- back to school
The Paper Shelter #395  -- back to school
Word Art Wednesday #402 -- anything goes

Joy fold card

I haven't made a joy fold card for ages (read: years), but I had a lot of fun making this card after Mrs. A. posted the most recent Butterfly Challenge.  As you may know, she is featuring a different fold with each challenge, and this time it was a joy fold.

This is a very simple card to make, and hopefully, I'll remember that in the future. (She has a tutorial on her blog if you've never made one of these).

For my card, I used a stamp set from Clearly Besotted.  The sunflower is inked in two chalk ink colors -- chestnut roan and Cadmium.  I used a small, dry-embossed, punched butterfly as a little holder to keep the central part of the card from flapping open.

For the background, I used some very old patterned paper from Stampin UP.  One of the challenge colors for the Butterfly Challenge was "jasmine," a pale yellow, so I felt this paper met that requirement.

This card is for these challenges:
Butterfly Challenge #126: theme: Joy Fold,  Color: jasmine
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper
Pammie's Inky Pinkies #1933 -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #400 -- anything goes

Camping fun

I'm a day late posting my DT project for PINspirational Challenges, but it's a fun one. Look at this awesome inspiration photo -- don't you want to be on that mountain?

Instead of making a card, I made tags. I used some old Sizzix dies I got at a consignment sale. (They are the little square ones with a foam layer -- I think they are called Sizzlets.) This is such a great camping set with all the elements for a great scene, except the campfire is the wrong scale. Look at it -- it would loom over that tent if I put them side by side.  So, I made two different tags.

The tags themselves are cut with the Stamplorations stitched tag die. I just gathered bits of snippets in a variety of colors and cut the different pieces, then arranged them to make a nice scene.

And now a funny story about camping. We enjoy camping and headed out for a long weekend of camping fun around the Fourth of July. Except, it was SO hot, SO humid and SO uncomfortable we were miserable. It was too hot to hike even early in the morning. We came home a day early, something we've never done before.

As we were driving home I was trying to think up a good way to tell my DH I didn't want to camp again until it's cooler. Then he surprised me by saying "I've reached the conclusion that I'm not a summer camper. Let's not plan any more camping until it cools down." So ... great minds think alike.

Hope my project or the photo inspire you to create your  own project. If so, be sure to link up at the PINspiratiional Challenge blog.

I'm entering these challenges:
The Paper Shelter #393 -- punches and dies
Die Cut Divas -- hot
Pixie's Snippet Playground #358 -- use snippets
Crafty Sentiments -- anything goes
Pammie's Inky Pinkies #1932 -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #400 -- anything goes

Just beachy

Another PINspirational Challenge has been posted, and life's a beach! I hope you'll be inspired by the inspiration photo and join in the fun by linking up at the challenge blog.

I decided to feature this summer-themed paper along with a smaller image from a beach set from Purple Onion. Usually, I use the large image with this set, which is a beach chair and umbrella scene. But to show more of the paper, I chose this smaller image of a beach bag, hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen lotion. The image is colored with pencils.  The sentiment is from the same Purple Onion set.

This card is entered in these challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- bright and cheerful
Scribbles Designs Challenge -- A Slice of Summer
Word Art Wednesday #397 -- anything goes
Crafty Sentiments -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

Tagging in

Back with another Christmas project, a tag this time.

I cut the tag (using the stitched tag die from Stamplorations) from watercolor paper, then black-embossed the cityscape and Santa -- from a Whimsy Stamps set. To create the background, I applied some Distress Inks (a darkish blue and a lavender -- I don't have names handy) on a sheet of freezer paper, spritzed some water, and dragged the tag through the ink a few times. After the ink dried, I used a Wink of Stella pen to add some sparkly stars to the sky. I also used a white gel pen on some of the windows that got inked up in the process.

This tag is entered in these challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- not a card
Catch the Bug Christmas in July day 3 -- Anything but a card with "Santa is Coming to Town" theme
Word Art Wednesday #397 -- anything goes
Winter Wonderland -- Winter Buildings
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #447 -- die-cut

Charlie Brown Tree

       Let me start by saying that I love that everyone knows exactly what you mean when you say "Charlie Brown tree."
        I got to play with my stamping stuff for the first time in ages this week, and here's the first card I worked on. I am really happy how it came out, and it may become my default "mass produce" card as the year goes on. I try to do a variety of Christmas cards, but at a certain point, I'll find one that's easy to make and pull it out to make more of when time or imagination gets short.
        This card was made using a die from Stamplorations that I refer to as a Charlie Brown tree because it's sort of appealingly sparse and off-kilter. I wanted to use a variety of patterned papers, so I took a bunch of snippets, taped them together and ran them thru the die-cutter. (I started by cutting a full tree from a piece of white card stock, and I used the negative to make sure the snippets were arranged so they'd be well-placed on the die-cut). After cutting,  the die-cut snippets were adhered to the plain, full die-cut tree for sturdiness and to make sure everything was lined up correctly. If I were to mass produce this card, I'd simply cut the entire tree from four or five different patterned papers, then cut the pieces roughly where I did here and mix and match the trees for a similar effect. The tree is on foam tape dimensionals on the card.
         The sentiment is also from Stamplorations, (I think the set is called the Joy of Giving...?) It's white-embossed.
          The layout is the current Sketch Saturday layout, and everything on it is a snippet.

This card is for these challenges:
Sketch Saturday #573
Catch the Bug Christmas in July Day 1-- movie inspiration A Charlie Brown Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #447 -- use a die-cut
Rudolph Days July -- Christmas
Crafting By Designs  -- get ready for Christmas
The Paper Shelter -- Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #396 -- Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground -- use snippets
Stamplorations -- neverending challenge using Stamploration products
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

Tour de holiday

It's time for another PINsprirational Challenge and it's a fun inspiration this time (see the photo to the right). I'm pretty sure Deanne wasn't thinking about the Tour de France when she selected it, but since I have a sometimes bike racer and huge Tour fan in my family, that's where my mind went.

The main image on my card is a vintage biker from Rubbernecker Stamps. I stamped it three times, one in navy, one in blue and one in slate gray. (The stamping platform was great for this). The sentiment is from a very old All Night Media set, and I spiced things up with some acrylic dots.

Hope you'll be inspired to make a project for PINspirational Challenge -- it doesn't have to be a card. Just be sure to link up to the challenge blog.

My card is entered into these challenges:
Paper Shelter #391 -- holiday time
Word Art Wednesday #394 -- anything goes
Pammie's Inky Pinkies #1928 --  anything goes