Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives---when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Color Throwdown

I am trying to jump on board with some new challenges, so this is my first time doing a Color Throwdown challenge.  This week's challenge was to use kraft, ivory, olive and red. Here is the card I made using those colors.

I decided to go with a fairly clean and simple design on this one. Isn't that little mouse adorable?? He's from the Sweet n' Sassy stamp set called So Sweet Cocoa. I just bought this set and a couple of others from Sweet n' Sassy, and I will definitely get more with this darling little Cocoa mouse!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a sweet day!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Stamp TV CSS Sketch Hop

It's time for the first CSS hop of 2012! If you came here from the lovely blog of Karen, you are on the right track. If you want to start the hop from the beginning, jump back over to Stamp TV where you will find the list of all the participants in this hop.

We are doing a sketch challenge this time around based on this fun sketch created by Melissa Cash.


I had a lot of fun coming up with something for this sketch, and here it is! Since we are finally getting some winter weather here I thought something wintery would be fun.

I used Pure Luxury White base weight paper for the card base and layered on the plaid paper from the Wishing You Joy Stamp TV Kit patterned paper pack. The images and sentiment are from the Gina K. Designs Warm and Wonderful stamp set. I stamped the mug and scarf onto PL White layering weight, colored with Copics, and paper pieced the scarf with the same plaid paper. I added a bit of sparkle on the mug and scarf snowflakes with my Gelly Roll stardust pen. I layered the image square onto a square of PL "In the Navy" and then onto a PL "Ocean Mist" piece cut out with the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square.  The mittens were stamped onto the plaid paper and cut out, then I adhered them to the white twine and used a glue dot to hang them from the side of the main panel.

A simple sketch for a quick and easy card! I like the design because it really focuses your attention on the image.

Thanks for hopping with us, and don't forget to leave a comment at each blog stop. There is a huge grab bag of fabulous Gina K. Designs stamps waiting for someone who comments on the blog posts. On Tuesday, January 17 one comment will be randomly chosen and that person will receive the grab bag of stamps. Cool, huh?! Now head on over to see what Linda has waiting for you.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

Hello! I am trying to stick to my New Year's goal of jumping into some new stamping challenges, so today I'm sharing my first time with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. I always love sketches because I don't have to think about the layout, I can just focus on the fun stuff, like colors, images, and embellies!

Here's the latest sketch:


And here is my card based on the sketch:

The colors I used were inspired by the plaid paper in the new Gina K Designs True Love Patterned Paper Pack (this card is also going into the Stamp TV Mix It Up Monday Challenge). I used Pure Luxury Grass Green, Passionate Pink, Black Onyx and White. The patterned paper is from Echo Park's Be Mine paper pad. The images/sentiment are from Gina K STV Kit "Sent with Love" and from the "Hopeful Hearts" set. I colored with my Copics and used an SU punch and Spellbinders Eyelet Pendant for the details.

I really like this sketch and think I'll add it to my sketch book so I can use it again! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to pop over to the Mojo Monday blog so you can join the fun!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

CMC Copic Challenge

The holiday madness is finally behind me and a new year has started! Whew! It was fun while it lasted, but I have to say I'm mighty glad to have the holidays behind me and a fresh new year stretching out in front of me. Don't you always feel like you can conquer the world when a new year starts? I do, and while I don't really make resolutions, I do try to think about things I'd like to accomplish in the new year. One of those things for me is to participate in more challenges from a variety of blogs and websites. So, this is the first one I'm jumping into - it's the Color Me Creative Classroom Copic Challenge group. The challenge this time was to do projects that were in cream, white and gold. Of course, since this is the Copic Challenge group there had to be copic coloring also! Yikes! Coloring gold is a real challenge! At least it was for me, but here are my two creations for the challenge.

This card has a base of Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory base weight and Pure Luxury Good as Gold that was embossed with a Sizzix folder. The image and sentiment are both from the Gina K Designs set called "With This Ring." I used Spellbinders classic circles and scalloped circles as well as the Fancy Tags.

This one also has a base of Pure Luxury Ivory base weight, a layer of Good as Gold and a layer of Ivory layering weight paper that was embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder. The pears and sentiment are from a Gina K Designs set that I've had for quite a while and really haven't used much, but the pears seemed like a good choice for coloring gold (they actually look more golden in real life than they do here; they also have some sparkle on them that didn't show up in the photo). The set is called "Fruitful Harvest."

I hope you enjoyed these creations. They were fun to make and did provide a challenge for me when it came to the coloring -- I hadn't really tried doing a gold look and it wasn't as easy I had hoped! LOL! That's what challenges are for, right? To stretch us and to help us improve our skills.

Thanks for stopping by! Smiles :-)