Color Dare #62

Today's Color Dare is another inspiration challenge. Here is the inspirational photo:

The colors are Baja Breeze,Whisper White and Ruby Red. As always, if you don't have these exact colors, use what you have that is close. Here is my card:

I used the sketch from this week's Eat Sleep Stamp.

Upload your creation to the Color Dare before next Tuesday and you will be in the running for the weekly Top Three. I hope you'll join us.

Cardmaker Sketch

There's a new sketch challenge at Cardmaker this week brought to us by Jane. I used it with this adorable new image from the Character Cafe. Isn't he a cutie?

Challenges:
Cardmaker: sketch
Crafty Creations: babies
Pile it On: Furry Friends
SPC Color Combo: Rust, chocolate and pink

Color Dare #61

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means...time for another Color Dare. Here is the inspiration picture for this week:

The colors are: Pretty in Pink, Green Galore and Basic Black. As always, if you don't have these exact colors, use what you have that is close. Here is my card, made with another adorable image from Elizabeth Dulemba from Tuesday Coloring Pages.

SO many challenges this week incorporating Spring and flowers. Here are just a few that this card works for:

Incy Wincy

All Sorts

Magical Crafts

Crafty Cardmakers

Digital Tuesday Challenge

Frosted Designs

Our Creative Corner

Crazy4 Challenges

Secret Crafter

OWH Blog Hop Winner

Time to announce the winner of my Blog Hop Candy. There were 81 comments so I used Random.org and came up with:

True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:81 Result: 64 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

That's you KAJIKIT

Please email me your snailmail address and I'll get your prize in the mail to you right away.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by during the hop!

Bugaboo Clown!

Check out this adorable clown from Bugaboo stamps. Doesn't he make a fun birthday card, sitting on the candle like he is.

Challenges:
Paper Cutz Challenge: 1 ribbon, three buttons
Eat Sleep Stamp: sketch
Charisma Cardz: Something for kids
Color Throwdown: teal, blue,black and orange
Tuesday Taggers: clowns, masquerade, jesters

Vintage Christmas

I don't do vintage. It's just not my thing. Since the Bah Humbug challenge and the One Stitch at a Time challenges are both vintage this week, I decided to give it a try. I combined the vintage theme with the Dare U 2 Digi stamp theme which was to not use any patterned paper. I also thought it went well with the Stamp Something challenge which was to distress something. I sanded the red and green paper and used distress ink around the oval image. The layout is from the Our Creative Corner sketch.

I have to say this is not my favorite card. I think it's more the "no patterned paper" thing that makes me feel like it's really plain.

Just a Cute Bear

I want to thank everyone who stopped by my blog on the OWH blog hop this weekend. I appreciate all of your comments and hope that those of you who haven't participated in OWH in the past will be inspired to do so now.
On to today's challenges. I love the Just Cute Bears challenge. I love cute bears, I mean, who doesn't? So it's pretty easy to play along. This week the challenge is a sketch that I combined with the colors from the Rosie Dee challenge. This particular bear is from Meljens and since he's a "Thank You" bear, I used him for the Treehouse challenge and the Paper Play challenge which were both thank you themes.

If you have a cute bear image...you can play along!

OPERATION WRITE HOME BLOG HOP!

**EDITED** You now have until 8am Central Time on Monday, March 22nd to leave a comment for the blog candy**
Welcome to the Operation Write Home (OWH) BLOG HOP! If you've found your way here by mistake...well it's your lucky day..but you'll probably still want to start at the beginning so go HERE to start the hop at the top! If you've come here from Melissa's blog, you're in the right place. Your next stop is below. But first, I want to tell you a little about OWH. This amazing organization collects handmade greeting cards from crafters all over the United States and ships them to troops overseas for them to use to write to their families back home. Here are a few quotes from deployed troops who have received cards from OWH:
(from the OWH website).
Thanks to you and your organization for the personal handmade greeting cards. They are a big hit with everyone here. The first day, the box was reduced to 2/3 of its original amount, and i have some folks taking handfuls at a time.
It is because of the work you and your organization does that makes our time bearable.

Thank you so much for the box of cards. I am a physician who works at the Medical Clinic and our medics went crazy for them! The cards look great and I know my family and friends will love them! Thanks again so much. It definitely helps brighten the day knowing that so many people care about the soldiers to put time and effort into making these cards.

Making cards, something we all love to do anyway, is such a simple way to help brighten the day of soldiers serving overseas. Knowing that a card you made is helping that soldier stay in touch with family and friends is the most rewarding aspect of participating in OWH. If you aren't already a part of this great organization, I encourage you to jump in and send some cards. It's really easy. Here is a link to information for beginners: HERE
This isn't a huge commitment. It's whatever you want to send, whenever you want to send them so don't worry about getting over committed! If you want to jump in right away, how about making a few Mother's Day cards this week and sending them off to the OWH shipper closest to you? They need to make it to the shipper by April 1st so there's still time to make some cards and help make Mother's Day special for so many moms with sons and daughters serving in the military.
Now, on to my card. I made this card with an image from Sassy Cheryl's which you can get here.

If you're interested in seeing a step by step walk through of how I colored my card, click HERE.
Finally, leave a comment on this post and you could win a little prize from me. I'll use random.org to choose a winner around 8:00 AM Central Time on Monday, March 22nd.

In case you can't tell from the picture, here are the details of the prize:
Ribbon from the Paper Studio. 6ft lengths, 3/8 inches wide in these colors:
*Large Dot Brown
*Polka Dot Blue
*Large Dot Bright Pink
*Polka Dot Bright Pink
*Polka Dot Brown
The Paper Studio 3D "Butterfly Glitter Stickers"
K&Company Dimensional Stickers "Princess Tags"
Bo Bunny "Love Bandit" buttons 35 piece pack
Stampology "onyx" ink pad
Your next stop is Carolyn's blog. Have fun on the rest of the blog hop...I'm sure you'll see a lot of inspiration along the way. I hope this encourages you to join in on the fun at OWH. You'll be glad you did. Thanks for stopping by today!

Raise the Bar Challenge

I am so excited to announce that I am the "guest bartender" in this week's Raise the Bar Challenge. I got to play along with the AWESOME RTB DT with this week's challenge which is called "Fruits of Labor"... you can use a fruit image, fruity DP, ribbon...whatever you want as long as it features fruit. How fun is that?
I used this adorable image from Elizabeth Dulemba at Tuesday Coloring Pages:

The sentiment is computer generated and I used some paper, buttons and ribbon from my stash. I hope you'll play along with Raise the Bar this week. You could be the next guest DT!

One Last Bugaboo Challenge Entry

The entries for this week's Bugaboo challenge close tomorrow (I think?!) so I'm submitting one more card. This is another adorable Bugaboo image. I got this one from the Special 50-50 Stamping Group and used the sketch from this week's Bugaboo challenge.

Hero

Another super cute image from Bugaboo stamps. I won't even gush about how much I love this image (but you know I do!).

Challenges:
Cardmaker: sketch
365 Cards: twinchies
ABC Challenge: Q for quotation

Around the World-To Ireland

I'm playing along with a new challenge-The Sisterhood of Crafters and their theme this week is "Around the World" and today's stop is in Ireland. Be inspired by Ireland, the colors, St. Patrick's Day, Luck, Leprechauns...whatever you think of when you think of Ireland. I already said earlier this week that I don't "do" St. Patrick's Day cards but I love making this Anya stamp a little Irish girl with red hair. I found the quote online.

Challenges:
Sisterhood of Crafters: Ireland
Incy Wincy: Go Green
Cupcake Craft Challenge: Green
Corrosive Challenge: Luck
ABC Challenge: Q for Quotation
365 Cards: Sunday Sketch

Color Dare #60

Are you ready for another fabulous color combo for this week's Color Dare? Here is your inspirational photo:

The colors are :Real Red, Gable Green, Tempting Turquios and More Mustard but of course if you don't have these exact color names, use the colors in the picture as you see them. I used them to make this bright summery card:

The image is from Bugaboo stamps and I also used the sketch from their challenge this week.
Also used it for these challenges:
Paper Cutz: anything goes
Daisy Doodles: Artist choice and digi image
Crafty Creations: Spots and dots
Lil Red Wagon: use Copics
I hope you'll join us for this week's Color Dare. Post your entry by next Tuesday to be in the running for the Top Three!

In Bloom

This week's Designed to Delight image is called "In Bloom"...perfect for those of us hoping for Spring to get here SOON! Remember, everyone gets a free image at the beginning of each month. If you make something with that image and post it to the blog, you get the next week's image free also. It goes on like that all month long. If you jump in in the middle of a month, you can purchase the weekly image, make something, and get the next week's free.

Challenges:
Designed to Delight: In bloom image
CPS: Sketch
Picture Perfect: use the colors blue, lavender and white
Lil Red Wagon: use Copics
Copics Colour Challenge: BV 02, G02, B36

Easter Bunny

Ahh...the beginning of the Easter Cards. I used this new image from CocoDingo that you can get here.

Challenges:
One Stitch at a Time: Recipie-ribbon, brads or eyelets, and dp
365 cards: photo inspiration challenge
Spoonful of Sugar: Easter
Kah Wink E Dink: Easter
Papertake Weekly: use lilac and lemon
There She Goes Challenge: Sketch

Polar Bear Challenge

This week at Just Cute Bears the challenge is to make an all white card. Luckily, you can color your image so this is NOT a polar bear card. :) I completely CASED this card from one of the Just Cute Bears DT, Jenny....her card is adorable! I really have trouble with the all white thing but the way Jenny did her embossing and added some glitter I think really made her card stand out and I wanted to try the same thing so thank you Jenny for the idea. Really LOVE your card.

This adorable image is from Doodle in Style and she's called Scruffy Tilly Bear. Here's a close up of the bear, because she's so cute!

Challenges:
Just Cute Bears: All white (color on image is fine)
Pile it On: use pastels
Our Creative Corner: pink, yellow, green and brown
Daisy Doodles: Anything goes and a digi image
Pollycraft: Sparkly things (glittered around the image)

Going Green

Since it's coming up on St. Patrick's Day, there are a lot of challenges out there asking us to use green. I don't send St. Patrick's Day cards so I don't generally MAKE St. Patrick's Day cards so this card uses green but is a celebration of SPRING arriving (hopefully!) This is another super cute image from Dustin Pike.

Challenges:
Our Creative Corner Sketch: Sketch
PaperCutz: Anything Goes
Clearly I Stamp: use green
Raise the Bar: use green
Simple Doodles: use green
365 Cards: 20 circles from two different sources
Cute Card Thursday: Celebrations

Sean and His Dog

I LOOOVE this image from Bugaboo stamps ( I think, okay I'm SURE, I say that about every Bugaboo image..they're all awesome!) This one is part of the new Bugaboo Brats line and it's called Sean and his dog...how cute is this?? I used it for the Bugaboo challenge this week which is a sketch challenge and the Crazy 4 Challenges challenge which is to make a masculine card.

Anything Goes

This week at the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge it's an "anything goes" challenge. I used one of my favorite Anya stamps.

Challenges:
Secret Crafter: Anything goes
365 Challenge: paper piece a part of your image and make it dimensional (headband and boots)
One Stop Craft Challenge: spots and dots
All Sorts: pink, black and white
Sketch Saturday: sketch
Kaboodle Doodle: Birthday

A Picture Perfect Snowman

No, I'm not bragging about my snowman, I'm playing along with the Picture Perfect Challenge this week which is a color challenge and I combined it with several other challenges, one of which was the Bah Humbug challenge which involved using a snowman!

Challenges:
Picture Perfect: black, rose red, bashful blue and white
Bah Humbug: Combine three of the past challenges. I used: snowman, something new (paper) and glitter
Eat Sleep Stamp: Sketch
Paper Play challenge:Double up...use something twice on your card
ABC Christmas: F for frosty
Paper Cutz: Anything Goes
The image if from Dustin Pike. The paper is from TPC Studios and I used Waterfall Stickles on the blue parts of his hat

Andy Bird

I think you all know by now that Alison of StretchNBubbles LOVES birds. This little guy is named Andy and he's her newest creation, available today at StretchNBubbles. Head over and pick him up for yourself and while you're there, check out all the other new stamps being released today. You're sure to find something that you totally love!

Treehouse Stamp Contest

Did you know that the Treehouse Stamp Company has a monthly contest for a guest DT spot? Yes, they do. You can pop over there and get this image. All you have to do is make something, email it to them, and you're in the running for a guest DT spot for April. So why not give it a try? Here's what I made with the image:

I just picked up this super cute flowery paper at Archiver's today. I thought it went pretty well with the image.

Umbrella Bear

This cute little bear is from Hobby Paleis. You can get him here. I used the sketch from Mojo Monday and the theme from Rosie Dee's challenge: "think spring" and the challenge from Treehouse stamps: "clean and simple"

I Made A Flower

Yep, that's right I made the flower on this card using some two-sided paper, the smallest scalloped circle Nestie I have and a brad. Pretty easy! I used Scarlette from Bugaboo stamps..LOVE her!

Challenges:
Crafty Creations: make your own flowers
Die Cuts R Us: paper flowers
Corrosive Challenge: sketch
SP Color Combo: soft suede, dusty durango and bashful blue

Wacky Color Wednesday

That's what today's challenge is called at 365 cards. The color combo today is purple, orange and blue. Hmmm...tough one. I won this image earlier this week from Kah Wink E Dink.

Challenges:
365 Cards: orange, blue and purple
Cardswap: NEW Wednesday sketch challenge
Digital Tuesday Challenge: digi image and paper piercing (you can't really see it but I pierced around the edge of the purple and around the white edge of the sentiment)
ABC Christmas: F for frosty...optional snow

Color Dare #59

It's Wednesday and it's time for another Color Dare! Here is your inspirational picture for this week:

The colors are Chocolate chip, Tempting turquois and Certainly Celery. As always, if you don't have these exact colors, use what you have that is close. My card is heavy on the Chocolate Chip and Turquois. You have to look hard to see the butterfly and the middle button...that's my wee bit of the Certainly Celery color.

And since I love this fairy image so much, I had to take more of a close up picture:

Other Challenges:
Charisma Cardz: use a fairy
Raise the Bar: use an image with a book
Crafty Cardmakers: Female celebration
Stamp Something: something girly
I Love Digi: digi image and sketch and something for a mom
Magical Crafts: things with wings
Frosted Designs: use your favorite technique ( I used embossing and inking the edges)
**** EDITED****
Several people have asked where I got this image. It's from this Free Fairy Coloring page site:
http://fairycoloringpages.blogspot.com/
****************

Birds on a Pizza Box

Yep, this is the new image from Faith at Designed 2 Delight called "balancing act" it's it cute? Hopefully you played along last week and got this image to work with this week. If not, you can get it in the store and play this week to get next week's image for free.

Challenges:
Cardmaker Cardswap: make a pizza box
There She Goes:flowery card featuring yellow
Papertake Weekly: sketch
Color Q Combos: orange, curry, turquois and olive

Sean and His Dog

Isn't this just the CUTEST image? It's Sean and His Dog from Bugaboo stamps.

Challenges:
Kaboodle Doodle: happy birthday card
All sorts: card for a guy, young or old
Creative Inspirations: male themed card
Just Scraps: red white and black
Sketch Saturday: sketch

For You, MOM

It's been a long time since I've used this adorable image from Dustin Pike but I thought he was perfect for a few challenges this week.
Cupcake Craft Challenge: Flower Power
Just Cute Bears: Mother's Day and a bear image
One Stitch at a Time: pink and purple
Rosie Dee: think spring
Our Creative Corner: sketch

Sock Monkey Love

This adorable new image is being released at StretchNBubbles today. Don't you just LOVE sock monkeys? I sure do. Go check out all the new images being released and pick some up for yourself. Also check out the amazing work from the rest of the Design Team! They are a talented group of ladies. You're sure to find lots of inspiration in their creations.

A Petal Fold Card

Friday's challenge at 365 cards was "Fancy Folds", specifically petal fold cards. You can find templates here. I used the square petal card and an image from Cuddly Buddly.
Here it is closed:

And here it is opened:

Challenges:
Crazy4Challenges: paper piercing (can you see that on the outside edges of my closed card?)
Bah Humbug:Christmas card with stitching or faux stitching
Cute Card Thursday: Green
365 Cards: Day 5 Petal fold card

Blast Off!

You're officially out of excuses for not being able to make BOYISH cards. Alison has so many images that can be used to make those hard to make boy cards. This great rocket image is perfect for any little boy on your list so head over to StretchNBubbles today and get it...and if you need ideas on how to use it, look at all the wonderful cards the DT made with this image.

Enjoy the Little Things

Another image from Marjies Malarkies and another word art from TLC. The sentiment is "Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things" That says a lot...don't you think?


Challenges:
Creative Belli Blog: Use eyelets
Color Throwdown: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Ruby Red, Ivory
Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge: sketch
I took Jean's advice and entered this is the Just Scraps Challenge "About a Boy" I'm not sure it exactly fits the challenge requirements!

Be Cheered

This is my first time using word art. I found a lot of very cool word art at Create with TLC including this little sentiment that says "No one can be Uncheered with a Balloon" Isn't that SO true? I thought it went perfectly with this little image from Marjie's Malarkies.

I used the sketch from the Treehouse challenge and the Copic Colors from the Copic Colour Challenge which was to use Y21, B93 and BG15. I used the Y21 on her hair, the B93 on her dress and socks and the BG15 on the balloon.

Hanging Out to Dry

This ADORABLE image is from Sassy Cheryl's and you can get it here.

Challenges:
Crafty Creations: Use all one color
Design Dollies: Sunny and Yellow
Playdate Cafe: Use deep yellow, light yellow and white
Paper Play Challenges: make a card "just because"
Pals Paper Arts: Spring
Eat Sleep Stamp: Sketch

Meet PATCHES the Bunny

This cute little bunny named Patches is the newest creation by Faith of Designed to Delight, and GUESS WHAT?? Since it's the first week of a new month, Patches can be yours for FREE. If you make something with Patches and post it to the D2D blog, you get another image to work with next week FOR FREE. That goes on all month long. Faith's images are awesome so this is totally something you want to get in on. If you do, let her know you heard about it here!

Challenges:
Designed to Delight: Use PATCHES the bunny
Color Q Combos: Celery, Baja Breeze, Navy, Sand and White
Pollycraft: Distressing (I sanded the navy cardstock and used distress ink)
Die Cuts R Us: sketch

Color Dare #58

WOW...it's hard to believe it's March. Time for the first Color Dare of the month and we are continuing the inspirational pictures that Riley started in February. I love seeing the colors in a picture and hope you do too. Today the colors are Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Tempting Turquois and Whisper White. As always, if you don't have these exact colors, use what you have that is close. Here is your inspirational picture:

Here is my card. The image is a freebie from Marjies Malarkies which you can get here.

I really hope you'll play along with these fun spring colors. Upload your creation by next Monday night to be in the running for the Top 3 and a guest DT spot!
I used the sketch from this week's Our Creative Corner challenge and it also fits these challenges:
One Stop Craft Challenge: Optimistically Pink
Cupcake Craft Challenge: Round and Round...use circles

Happy BEE Day!

Today is Wednesday and you know what that means...FREE DIGI day at StretchNBubbles. Today you can get this adorable BEE so head on over and pick him up for yourself and while you're there...check out the rest of the creations from the super talented Design Team!

Here Kitty Kitty..

Look at this adorable new image from Kah Wink E Dink digi stamps! She's free so go over and get her for yourself!

Challenges:
Papertake Weekly: buttons, bows, brads, bling...use any or all
365 Cards: recipie- circle, pearls, silver ("I love you charm" is my silver)
Digital Tuesday Challenge: use scallops and a digi image
Incy Wincy: sketch
Kah Wink E Dink: make something with a Kitty image (doesn't have to be this one)
I Love Digi: pink and a digi image
Crafty Creations: use all one color

One Stitch Birthday Bear

I recently found the 365 cards challenge blog. They celebrated their first birthday yesterday so when I played along with their color challenge, it just felt like I had to make it a birthday card. The colors for yesterday's challenge are: aqua, chocolate, white, red and brown. I also played along with One Stitch at a Time which has a sketch challenge this week sponsored by Karen's Doodles and if you use a KD image (which I did), you get your name entered twice for the prize drawing.

Happy Birthday Scarlette

I absolutely LOVE Bugaboo stamps. This is the newest addition. Her name is Scarlette and you can pick her up for free here. I used the sketch from this week's CPS challenge and it seemed to me to fit perfectly with a long card. I'm also entering this at the Copic Creations challenge which is to use your greens.

Springtime

Yes, I'm optimistic (some may say delusional) but I like to think that spring is right around the corner and this little bear with an umbrella is just perfect for spring...he looks pretty happy..like the rest of us will be when this winter is finally over!
I played along with a new (to me) challenge this week which is right up my alley. It's called Just Cute Bears. I think you can figure out from the name what the focus of the challenges is!

Challenges:
Mojo Monday: Sketch
Cupcake Craft Challenge: Circles
Daisy Doodles: bears (image is a Daisy Doodles digi)
Just Cute Bears: bear image and brown and mint green
Copic Creations: Use your greens