What's shaping up?

      I've done enough challenges that it's pretty hard to surprise me with anything. This week's challenge at There's Magic in the Air included something I've never seen before in a challenge -- the requirement is to include a half-circle in your card, along with the colors of orange, blue and brown. Actually, that's sort of a surprising color combo, but it's the shape that's a new one on me.  Aside from requiring an actual circular card, I don't remember shapes coming up in any challenge.
     This cute image is from Paper Cupcakes, and it's the freebie this week, so head on over to There's Magic in the Air and download it.  There are also some Thanksgiving sentiments offerent for a free download.  I just forgot about them, or I would have used one on this card.
     Card is pretty self-explanatory. Image is colored in pencils and OMS. I sponged Bliss Blue ink around the image.  Sentiment is from two different sets and is inked in Tangerine and Chestnut Roan Chalk ink.  Sentiment is wrapped in baker's twine and up on popdots. I put a big half circle behind the main image and echoed it with a small one behind the sentiment.
      The little acorn is from a set of buttons I picked up at Hobby Lobby on Monday (66 percent off). I don't usually buy buttons with shanks, but I couldn't resist these cuties at the clearance price. Aside from investing in a shank removing tool, does anyone have a suggestion on how to remove shanks?

White-on-White

     White-on-white always makes an elegant looking card.  Adding some dry embossing just seems to up the elegance quotient, or at least I hope that's the case for this Christmas card.
      It was as simple as could be to make. The tree is gold-embossed and popped up on a white mat that is embossed with the textile folder. That is popped up on a panel embossed with the swiss dot folder. A white organza ribbon with gold edging is wrapped around the larger mat and finished off with a bow. And that's all there is to it.  This would be an easy one to set up assembly-line style if you make a lot of Christmas cards.
     This card is for a VSN challenge to make a white-on-white card, and also for what amounts to the same challenge at Paper Cupcake's blog There's Magic in the Air.
     The embossing powder is called Pirate's Gold from Powder Keg. I love the stamp, but unfortunately I don't know who made it (it's from a clear stamp set I got at a consignment sale and it doesn't have any identifying info on it).

Cats Rule

     The theme of this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge is Diva Cats.  The layout is the current sketch from Card Patterns (#140)
     This cat stamp from A Muse seemed perfect -- the crown, or tiara, really seemed to capture the idea of a diva. The cat is stamped in Colorbox Chalk Yellow Cadmium ink, and additional ink is sponged around the circle. I always have ginger cats, and this color is pretty close to that of my current cat.
      To emphasize the diadem, I colored it in with a Spica pen and added gemstones. (Somewhere in my stash are tiny green gemstones that I intended to use and that would be perfect. Of course, I couldn't locate them.)
      The sentiment is computer-generated, and the little heart/paw stamp is from All Night Media. I used markers to ink it up so I could get two colors on it.
     The patterned paper was a gift, so I don't know the origin. Twine is Martha Stewart baker's twine. Border punch is labeled Recollections (I don't know anything about the company, but this punch works really well, although it could be because it's fairly new.)

Gingerbread Newsboys

     A few weeks ago, I saw several cards that used newsprint as one of the design elements. As a former journalist, this really appealed to me, but I kind of forgot about it until this week's Way to Use it Challenge at SCS called for us to use newsprint.  I ended up making a Christmas card that is for both for the current Really Reasonable Reason challenge (#35, Christmas) and the current challenge at Paper Cupcakes' There's Magic in the Air blog (Something sweet).
     Since I knew I was doing a Christmas card, I didn't want the news article to be about Greek debt or anything depressing, so I went through the newspaper looking for a block of newsprint that was both solid type and about a reasonably pleasant subject, just in case the recipient is like me and starts to read the background. (If it's in print, I will try to read it). I really hoped I could find something Christmasy, but settled for a food section article on growing water chestnuts.
        I DPT'd the newsprint with Creamy Caramel ink to make it look aged and so the gingerbread strip would pop.
       Gingerbread border stamp is from DRS. I stamped it in Colorbox Chalk lipstick red, and colored the gingerbread men with colored pencils, dotting in a little green marker on their bowties. Candy cane is from a bag of metal embellies from Michael's, purchased a few years ago.
       What do you think of the newspaper background? The solid block of type works well when you want the background just to be background, as I did here.  I would like to try different elements from the paper (ad pages, classifieds, etc) to see how they look on cards.  Yet another thing to remember when I'm making cards....

Thanksgiving Card II

     When I saw the current challenge at Victorine Originals (VO20) was to use the color combo of black and orange, I immediately thought of Halloween. However, it's too late in the year to be doing Halloween cards, so I decided to challenge myself to use those colors for a Thanksgiving card. I was driving around when I came up with the idea for this card, and I was inspired by all the trees I was driving by, espically the variations in color found on a single tree.
      The layout is based on the current Card Patterns sketch (#139) .
      The bare trees image is from Posh Impressions. I stamped part of it on the white panel in Memento Tuxedo Black, letting the rest just disappear off the right edge of the paper.  I went thru my scrap pile and found a variey of different orange papers to punch leaves from, then added leaves to the trees and on the ground.  The sentiment comes from two different sets, with the "happy" in Colorbox Chalk Tangerine and the "Thanksgiving" stamped in black.
     To play on the variations in oranges theme, I used different orange papers to mat the main image and the sentiment; the ribbon has yet another shade or orange. Finishing touches include a corner punch and a leaf embellishment (too bad I didn't have one in orange)

Thanksgiving Card

I finally got around to trying some of the new techniques from the current edition of Tecnhnique Junkies.  One, called chalk resist, required chalk ink and a solid stamp, so I used this pumpkin. The technique takes advantage of the fact you can see what is stamped beneath the chalk ink, so the background stamping shows through (although the photo didn't pick it up very well, I just noticed)
I thought the curlicues of the background stamp (an old Stampabilities stamp) were a good complement to the curlicues on the stem of the pumpkins.
The sketch is Card Positioning System   sketch #242. I replaced the paper clip with a tiny safety pin and a bow. The flower seen in the picture looked too stark white; after taking the photo I sponged on some orange ink to make it fit in better.
Other details:
Inks:  colorbox Chalk in tangerine and chestnut roan; Memories shadow ink in pale leaf
Sentiment: taken from two different sets