Merry Craftmas

 Welcome to December!  Today starts the last challenge of 2022 over at Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges!  This month's challenge was generously sponsored by LeighSBDesigns.  The theme is "Merry Craftmas".  I had to think for a bit about how I would use this image with the wreath, craft supplies and sentiment "Merry Craftmas.  I decided that I was going to make a gift card holder and give it as a Christmas gift to another crafty person!  This is the perfect image for a gift card holder in the center of the wreath.  

 I had my niece visiting the day that I was making this card and, oh boy, does she know how to get on Auntie Erin's good side!  As soon as we were alone and I asked her what she wanted to do, she said "I want to do art work!"  Luckily, I had printed a few extra copies of this image in order to get the exact size that I wanted so I gave the extra copies to her.  We spent the afternoon coloring and eventually moved on to some glitter projects.  My kitchen will never be glitter free again but I think she enjoyed herself 😁

I hope you'll join us for the challenge at Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges this month!  Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog.

Alphabet Challenge "R"

 It is time for another challenge over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog!  The letter this week is "R" and the theme is Reduce (make it CAS).  The fun thing about this challenge blog is making cards outside of my normal.  I very rarely make CAS cards but I had fun making this one.  I used alcohol markers to color a reindeer stamp from The Stamps of Life and I think the sentiment is really cute!  

I hope you'll join us at The Alphabet Challenge Blog!  Details and design team inspiration can be found on The Alphabet Challenge Blog.

Once Upon a Time Challenge #5

 It's a new month and with it comes a new card challenge over at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog.  As always, the challenge is to make a card inspired by the cover of a children's book.  This month the book is The Legend of the Poinsetta by Tomie dePaola.  It's not hard to imagine why I made the card I did so I guess very little explanation is needed this month. 😁

I used a layered poinsetta stamp, I think from Hero Arts but I can't remember for sure.  I embossed over the top layer with gold to give it an elegant, sparkly look.  It's funny that the card I had envisioned when I started and the card I ended up with are nothing alike.  Sometimes it just works out that way but I'm ok with how it turned out, even if it wasn't what I planned.  

I haven't embossed in awhile so I asked my exchange student if she wanted to see some "magic".  (I do feel like the point when it melts is very magical, lol!).  She seemed unimpressed at first but as soon as it went from dull powder to shiny gold, she was pretty amazed.  She said, "That's so cool, why don't you do it on every card?"  Good question!  My embossing supplies are one of those things that just sits there out of sight and mind but I think I'll be making an effort to use it more often.  

I know this is the month when everyone is very busy with the holidays but I hope you'll join us at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog!  Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog. 

Sunday Stamps #297

Happy Sunday!  The next challenge at Sunday Stamps begins today.  This challenge is a color challenge and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to use these colors together.  I used the skating snowmen and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I used a snowflake embossing folder and added some patterned paper and velvet ribbon that matched the color scheme perfectly. I live far away from most of my family so I always need cards with a "miss you" theme and this sentiment was perfect for a winter birthday. 

 I hope you'll join us at Sunday Stamps for this color challenge!  Details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog at Sunday Stamps.  

Alphabet Challenge: Quilt

Welcome back to my blog! I feel like it has been forever since I've posted. We had some sickness roll through the family then I was traveling with a group of international high school students. If you are wondering how traveling with 24 kids was, it was pretty fabulous.  They were all much better behaved then my own kids are when traveling. 😂 And a group of the boys were so hilarious that they kept me laughing a lot of the time.  Being with a big group of kids from all over the world  (I think we had 9 countries) and seeing them bond with each other and show real interest in their cultural differences is one of the reasons I choose to work with them and makes all the paperwork worth it!  

So now I'm home and back to crafting so life is good!  I am also really excited to announce that I am joining the design team at The Alphabet Challenge Blog.  This is such a fun blog to be a part of because the theme rotates every two weeks by the letter of the alphabet.  This week's challenge letter is Q and the theme is Quilt.  I was a little stumped by this theme at first but then decided to use a hexagon die to make some quilt pieces.  Except it turns out that I don't have a hexagon die so I used what I do have which is an octagon die. I'm no quilting expert (or a quilter at all!) but I do think eight sides would be much more complicated than six on an actual quilt but it was fine for what I needed.  I paired that up with some floral and striped patterned paper and an embossed background that looks kind of quilty to me.  Then I added a thank you sentiment to finish it off.

 All of the challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on The Alphabet Challenge Blog.  I hope to see you there!

Sunday Stamps #296

The new challenge at Sunday Stamps is a sketch challenge.  I had a new stamp/die set called "S'more Fun" from Pink and Main on my desk that I wanted to use and I think it was a great fit for this sketch.  These little marshmallows are really cute and perfect for the changing weather.  Where I live, it is still fall but colder temperatures are quickly approaching. I should probably haul the box of scarves, gloves, boots, etc. up from the basement before the first snow hits.

I hope you'll join us for challenge #296 at Sunday Stamps!  Challenge details and design team inspiration can be found on the blog at Sunday Stamps. 

Once Upon a Time Challenge #4

 Welcome to November!  I'm very excited to have joined the design team at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog starting this month.  I've been guest designing for the past two challenges and I'm really happy to be a part of the team now!

If you don't know, Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog is one of the coolest (in my opinion!) card challenge blogs out there.  There is a new challenge every month and the theme is always a children's book cover.  I love books in general and children's books especially so I think this challenge is amazing. 

This month the book is Dreamers by Yuyi Morales.  It is a very short little book with amazing illustrations about a migrant family who comes to America and is having a hard time adjusting until they find the local library.  There they able to use books to learn the language, culture and truly begin their life in America. 

The card challenge is to make a book inspired by the cover of the book which I tried to do with a really sweet "Dream" sentiment from an older stamp set that I've had for quite some time and found a patterned paper in my stash that kind of resembles the color scheme of the sun on the front of the book. My main focus was the library because, even though it isn't represented on the cover of Dreamers, it plays a huge part in the story.  I used a stamp set that I just recently received from Rabbit Hole Designs.  I actually bought it for a different project (stamping inside some books I'm giving as gifts) but it turned out to be exactly what I wanted for this project.  

I have a niece getting ready to turn eight years old and I bought her a box set of Roald Dahl books for her birthday.  This will be a perfect card to go with some of my favorite books ever! I think she'll like it 😀

I hope you'll join us this month at Once Upon a Time Challenge Blog and share how you are inspired by this book!