Catch Up Challenge

Several friends and I enroll in various Virtual Card Making events and classes.  Sometimes we are unable to attend the class when it is live, but fortunately the videos are available to participants to view later. 

One day we were lamenting how behind we were. One thing led to another and the concept of the Catch Up Challenge was created!  On the last day of the month we would post cards made from an event or a kit received in the past. 

I was unable to create along with September's Crop & Create Delivered card making event sponsored by Scrapbook and Cards Today.  It is a favorite event for all of us.

I chose to make the cards from the Hero Arts class which was taught by Channin Pelletier.  

We used the "Happy Fall Leaves" bundle of stamps and dies and the "Circular Grid" stencil, which are all by Hero Arts.

I varied my cards a tiny bit from the class but they are 95% true to the class design.

I'm happy to have an assortment of Fall themed cards for mailing out in the coming weeks. That''s what led me to choose the Hero Arts class as my Catch Up for October.

Here are the links for my friends in the Catch Up Club.  Please visit their blogs and admire their work from some past project or class.

Barb's Inkin' to Retirement

It's Totally Terry

Cre8tive Play: It's Cheaper than Therapy

Double Duty Cards Featuring Pinkfresh Studios

I am a day late in posting this, but on the 22nd of each month a group of us challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards using the same set, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

Stamps by Pinkfresh Studios (one of our favorite companies!) were selected for this month's challenge. I decided to a set that we received from one of their virtual events,  "Pure Joy" stamps, stencils and dies.  A personal favorite of mine.

Here are the two cards that I made. 

This card was watercolored with Yasutomo pearlescent paints on a bright blue card stock. I do not know the origin of the card stock, but it's been in my stash a long time.

The border features a die from the "Rounded and Braided Rectangles" set by Pinkfresh Studios.

The images and sentiment are gold embossed. Then the images were  painted free hand.  Everything is popped up for dimension.  A sheet of glossy gold card stock is layered on the reverse side of the front panel.

The second card is ink blended using the stencils and a combination of inks from Taylored Expressions and Gina K Designs. A light amount of pink ink was blended onto the front panel of the card, and the sentiment is stamped directly onto the panel.

A layer of pink card stock is mounted inside the card, onto the back panel so that when the card is closed the pink shows through the die cut border.

Repeated on each card are the die cut images, the border dies, the round layout of the images, and the sentiments from the same stamp set.

I have to revisit this set again and experiment with the images and sentiments in a layout that isn't circular. That could be fun.

Please drop by the blogs of the other Double Duty members and comment on their work:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Creative Crew: Brutus Monroe's "Gingerbread House-Peppermint Lane"

Here we are, the 15th of the month and time for another round of the Creative Crew Challenge!  

Our hostess this month is Lovely Lorraine and she gave us the adorable Ginger Bread Houses by Brutus Monroe:

Papers: Lily White Sugar Coated by Doodlebug Designs and the blue & white star paper from "Let's Go Camping" by Echo Park.

Images are colored with Olo Markers and Pops of Color "Snowflake" was used along the roof line and on top of the chimney.

I hand cut the Sugar Coated card stock into hills, glued the back layer flat and used thick foam tape to give some dimension to the front hillside. The gingerbread houses were then attached, using glue and foam tape, as needed for the dimension.

The inside features the other designer papers from Lorraine: "Homemade Holidays-Sweets" by Colorplay.

The sentiment is by Darcie's and is ink blended with Cherry Pop ink by Taylored Expressions.  It's mounted on top of the reverse side of the paper from Colorplay.

Thank you, Lorraine for a fantastic set of papers and images!! This was such a treat to work with!  

Here are the links to the other Creative Crew members blogs and galleries. Be sure to visit and admire their creations.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie 

October's Hot Mess = Success

Back to my Astro Pastes by Simon Hurley! I never cared for working with glitter until this medium came along. They are so fun!

This card is a black base with Hero Art's "Swirl" stencil and three colors of Astro Paste applied with the wide spatula tool. Colors used are Later Gator, Bee Sting and Slippery When Wet.

Excess pastes were applied to a scrap of black card stock and the "Be Kind" sentiment was die cut from that. It's glued to a black shadow piece and popped up with foam onto the center of the panel.  The Be Kind die set is by Altenew.

The whole panel is foam mounted onto a white card base.

Just look at that texture and shine! What still amazes me is how the glitter stays put. You can't rub it off, zero shedding!

"Be Kind" and visit the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol

Double Duty Cards Featuring Gina K Designs

On the 22nd of each month a group of us challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards repeating the same image, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

Stamps by Gina K Designs (one of our favorite companies!) were selected for this month's challenge. I decided to crack open my unused 2022 kit,  "Joyful Holiday" stamps and dies.  It was definitely time to let it see some ink.

Here are the two cards that I made. 

Both were made with the "Playful Penguins" stamp set and dies included in the kit.

This card also used the star stamp from the "Star Struck" set which is part of the kit.

The white panel was blended with "Confetti Cake" ink by Taylored Expressions and the stars were gold embossed.  The images were colored with Olo Markers.

The second card is made with images that are all in the "Playful Penguins" set.  The panel and base of the card was ink blended using "Strawberry Milkshake" ink by Taylored Expressions.  

There certainly is a lot of product in this kit. I should get a jump start on making Christmas and winter greeting cards using it.

Please visit the blogs of the other Double Duty members and comment on their work:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Creative Crew Featuring Newton's Nook

Barb is our hostess this month and she sent us adorable images from the "Happy Howl-oween" set by Newton's Nook.

Her kit also included designer papers by Echo Park Paper and Around the Block.  They all were so cute that I found a way to use all of them.

The sentiment and image has been colored with Olo Markers. Stickles added bling to the pumpkin costume, hat and corners of the sentiment square.

The cute candy corn ribbon completed the whole look.

A big shout out to Barb for such a cute kit!   Here are the links to the other Creative Crew members blogs and galleries. Be sure to visit and admire their creations.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie

September Hot Mess = Success

On the 12th of each month a group of friends challenge ourselves to get messy.  It doesn't matter how we define messy, or what we create.  As long as the process meets our definition of messy!

Lately I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with Lunar, Solar and Astro Pastes by Simon Hurley.  So this month, I set out to use some Solar Pastes with a stencil and see if I could get a jump on my Christmas cards.

These are the two cards that I came up with.

Both card stocks are from a pack of my favorites for holiday cards.  It's by Recollections and is at least 15 years old.  Unfortunately I don't know the name of the pack, but it has this beautiful plum color, an evergreen color, the dark blue and a beautiful Christmas red in the pack.

This card was made with the Cross My Heart color of Solar Paste, applied with a foam dauber tool.

This card was created by sponging on Golden Hour and Beluga Solar Pastes.

Both card bases were edged with matching Solar Paste to accent the panel.  Both panels are popped up with foam.

The stencil is called "Graceful Snowflake" by Gina K Designs.  The sentiment strips and die are also by Gina K Designs and all of these were part of her kit in the October, 2022 Crop & Create Delivered virtual event held by Scrapbook and Cards Today.

I used my finger and rubbed the Solar Paste onto a scrap of card stock as shown here.  When it was dry, which only took about 5 minutes, I die cut the "holidays" sentiment for the card front.

I think that the next time I try this technique, I'll do something different for the die cut sentiment so that it has more contrast. It sort of fades into the base of the cards in these versions.

Lessons learned: 

• Don't try this type of stencil with a regular scraping or spatula tool that you can use with these pastes.  
• Be careful not to overload the dauber with the paste. With this stencil it was easy to get the paste squished underneath the designs.
• Wash out your foam topper on the dauber right away so it's good to go for other cards.

Stop by the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol