Looking forward to spring

I started making this card for a challenge to use washi tape. I wanted to display the tape through an aperture in the front of the card, so I used strips of washi from a set of butterfly/pastel tapes.  It came out looking more like an Easter egg than I had intended.  To keep the spring theme going, I used an embossing folding of spring flowering branches and added a butterfly (that's a Simon Says Stamp die) on the edge of the oval aperture.  The sentiment is white-embossed.

The card is for these challenges:

Butterfly #47 -- Over the Edge
Moving Along with the Times #13 -- Things with Wings
Simon Says Stamp Monday -- A  Ray of Sunshine
Jade's Sparkling Butterflies #12 -- anything goes
Kraftin Kimmie's wonderful Wednesday -- anaything goes
Word Art Wednesday #219 --- anything Goes

Looks like fun

Here's another Christmas card, using the Mojo Monday Sketch for this week.
The image is Candy Skis from The Paper Shelter, colored with pencils and accented with white Wink of Stella. The Stitched Edge die is from Penny Black, and the patterned papers are from a Hobby Lobby stack. The silver candy cane is from my stash (bought in bulk on clearance at Mike's several years ago), accented with a red and white striped baker's twine.

I'm entering these challenges:
Mojo Monday #433
Cuttlebug Mania: Kids
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #266 -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- anything with patterned paper
Word Art Wednesday #219 -- anything goes
Kraftin Kimmie's Wonderful Wednesday  -- anything goes

Valentine

Here's a CAS valentine, using an oh-so-trendy watercolored background.  I wanted to use candy-heart colors in this to pick up on the candy heart in the image (A Day for Daisies), although I think my green ended up too dark.  The cupcake is fussy-cut and applied on top of the watercolored base.

The sketch is from Taylored Expressions Share the Joy #20.

I'm entering these challenges:
TE Share the Joy #20 -- sketch/CAS
A Day for Daisies -- All My Love
Artistic Inspriations #149 - valentine
CRAFT #348-- Valentine
Word Art Wednesday #218 -- anything goes
Crafty Sentiments -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

Cookie Challenge #36

It's time for another cookie challenge at If You Give a Crafter a Cookie.  Here are the inspiration cookies.

The sponsor this week is The Stamping Boutique, source of the cute snow globe image on my card.

For my card, I colored the image in pencils and fussy cut it out.  I created the card using the January sketch from Kraftin' Kimmie.  I used snippets of brown and blue snowflake paper (buried deep in my stash) and a coordinating mostly brown paper snippet, and cut them with a stitched edge die.  The white strip is another snippet that was already embossed with snowflakes and cut to the perfect size when I found it in my stash.

I am entering these challenges:
Kraftin' Kimmie Wonderful Wednesday/sketch challenge
Pattie's Creations #118 -- fun in the snow
Pixie Snippet Playground #213 -- use snippets
Word Art Wednesday # 218 -- anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge -- use patterned paper

Change of plans

I spent days trying to do a brooding, photo inspired winter scene card that featured embossed bare trees, masking,  a  fawn and other arty stuff. I could not get the deer stamp to work no matter what -- different inks, different papers, no masking, I even used a fine-grit sandpaper on it.  I gave up and made this instead.

The sweet kitties are from From the Heart Digis and the card also uses the current sketch from the From the Heart blog, I {heart} Sketches.  The kitties are colored in pencils with the sentiment done in Lipstick Red.

I am entering these Challenges:

I {heart} sketches #136 -- sketch
Craftyhazlenut's Christmas Challenge #265 -- use a sentiment
Craftyhazlenut's Christmas Challenge Extra -- anything Christmas
Rudolph Days -- Christmas
Addicted to Stamps and More #178 -- holiday
Craftyhazlenut's Patterened Paper Challenge  -- use designer paper
Crafty Sentiments -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #218 -- Anything goes

Sticking my neck out

It's all about the cute today. I have had the set Mindy's Zoo from Autumn Leaves for years 9since I picked up at Target on clearance) and I'm reluctance to use it because it looks so childlike. I just decided to embrace that look for this card.

The giraffes are stamped in Colorbox Chalk Chestnut Roan and colroed with pencils.  The little balloon is a random unidentified stamp I own, the with string drawn in and collected to the little guy's paw. The distressed rrame is made of craft card stock I roughed up with a scissors's edge and pulled the layers of paper apart.  It's a birthday card (see the balloon) but I didn't have a birthday greeting small enough for the tiny tag, so it goes inside.

The layout is the current sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday.

I'm entering these challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday -- sketch
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Create with Critters
The Paper Shelter #232 -- rough it up
Catch the Bug Birthday Celebration -- Bingo (2 animals/Kraft, twine)
2 Crafty Girls/jade's Sparkling Butterflies #11 -- anything goes with option of adding a tag
Craftyhazelnut's patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper
Kraftin Kimmie's Wonderful Wednesday -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #218 - anything goes

Gold and white Christmas

I'm trying to keep a slow but steady pace on making Christmas cards this year. This is the latest, using the current sketch from Sketch Saturday.

I used glittery gold EP from Powder Keg, which I'm pretty sure has been out of business for a while. On one white snippet, I gold-embossed a tree (Manufacturer unknown) and on another I gold-embossed the sentiment (Hero Arts?  -- yes, I am being very helpful on the supply list today, aren't I?).
I embossed a 1/4 sheet snippet with the Swiss dot folder and cut it in two, applying the wider piece to my base card. Following the sketch, I used gold washi tape for the line between the embossed and unembossed areas and created a little fish-tail flag. I matted the gold tree on a snippet of gold paper, added it to the card, The sentiment has fish-tail ends on both sides.
I made a second, similar card to use up the other Swiss-dot-embossed snippet, using a gold-embossed ornament image that's been sitting around since before Christmas as the main image. So, two cards done.

I'm entering these challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #264 -- Cute or anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra -- anything Christmas
Sketch Saturday #395 -- sketch
Pixie's Snippet Playground #212  -- must use snippetwss
Word Art Wednesday #218 -- Anything Goes