You're a Star!

I have had such a great time being a member of the Corrosive Challenge Design Team but have decided to step down so this will be my last challenge on the team. But never fear, I will still be creating and will have an announcement to make soon!

For now, I would love to have you join me in this week's challenge which is to use stars in your artwork. Here's mine:

I got very "Nichole Heady" with this one (PTI fans will understand....LOL). I sed the new Tiny Tags stamps and dies from PTI to create my rainbow band of stars. The orange and blue stars are die cut from coasters and added to the card for dimension. Two strips of Scor-tape and Prisma glitter bling up this card. If you look closely, you will also see that there are two layers to the front - white on white. Just another way to add some dimension. The sentiment is from Just the Ticket stamp set. Clean and simple = love!!

So come join me at Corrosive this week - and be sure to check out what the rest of the talented DT created with stars!

Until next time -

Just Ducky

This week at Corrosive Challenges we have a recipe for you - not one to create in the kitchen, but one to create with your artwork! The recipe is this - take 3 different papers, add in 2 ribbons and top off with one image. Mix it all together to create a card and then link it up at Corrosive. Here's mine:

Oh this ducky fella makes me smile! Papers from My Mind's Eye - ribbon from PTI - image from Stamping Bella.

Off for some breakfast and chores. Enjoy your Sunday!

Going Green!

This week at Corrosive Challenges, we are going green! That's right -we want to see GREEN in your artwork~ maybe even a little St. Patty's Day artwork!

We have a new sponsor for March - Digis with Attitude. I chose Tabatha and Tony the tigers to work with but you'll notice, Tony is missing - take a look:

This is one of the great things about digi images - you can alter them!  So in Photoshop, I simply "erased" Tony and I had this adorable gal left. And the card itself is completely digital!! That's right - no paper used here. Perfect for an email greeting (in this case, for a forgotten birthday - yep, my bad~ lol).

If you haven't tried to create a digital card, it is so much fun! I started with a piece of digi paper (which had no green in it, by the way - I recolored part so I had my green). To it I added a pink mat layer and my image which I also colored in Photoshop. Just pick the colors you like and then use the paint bucket tool to fill in. Easy peasy. The scrolly frame and the buttons are digital elements I found around the web at digi sites and were free! My kind of price! A little text and my card is all ready to be attached to an email and sent on its way.

I hope you enjoyed today's post and would like to play along with our Green theme this week at Corrosive. If you have any questions on creating a digital card, leave me a comment with your email address and I will try to answer as best I can. I'm still a little new to the process but learning! Have a good Sunday~

Distressed Newsprint

Our challenge at Corrosive Challenges by Janet this week is to add some kind of distressing to your card. That's easy - who doesn't enjoy a little distressing?

All products from Papertrey Ink except DP, which is from Close To My Heart.  I stamped the newsprint background with gray ink on cream cardstock and then lightly swiped a light staining ink pad around the edges to "age" the newspaper a bit. The DP was scissor distressed around the edges before being added to the card. The die cut dress form was added and sparkled up a bit with a few rhinestones and the sentiment was added with foam tape (and was also inked around the edges). Fairly simple but effective, no?

There are prizes up for grabs at Corrosive so I hope you will play along and add some distressing to your card this week. Have a great day!

Magical Creatures

This week's challenge at Corrosive had me stumped for awhile - the theme is magical creatures and all I could originally think of was unicorns. And I don't have a unicorn stamp. So I went browsing through my stamps - quite a few that haven't seen ink yet - and came across a Ketto fairy from Stamping Bella! Woohoo - here she is:

I chose Basic Grey Curio paper as I wanted her to look like a wood sprite that lives among the flowers - that sounds magical, right? She was stamped on PTI Fine Linen cardstock and colored with Copics. Then her wings were glittered with Prisma glitter and the pompom trim was added to match her skirt.

So what magical images can you find to create with? Stop by the Corrosive blog to see what the rest of the team came up with for this theme and be sure to welcome our 2 new members - Imke and Regan.

Have a creative day!

Oh baby!

For our sketch challenge this week at Corrosive Challenges, I broke out a new a la modes stamp and made a baby card for a co-worker's upcoming "sprinkle":

Such a fun image to color! Here is the sketch we are working with:

The paper I used is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the only embellishment I added is the layered doily pieces to frill things up. Can you tell she's having a girl?

Come join us at Corrosive - we'd love to have you play along with the sketch and maybe even try out for a spot on the DT!

We're on Fire at Corrosive Challenges~

This week at Corrosive Challenges, we are working with the colors of fire - red, orange and yellow. Since it is a new month, we also have a new sponsor - Sparkle Creations. I was thrilled to work with one of Sparkle's great stamps this week and, if you like to color, you are in for a treat!

Meet Cruisin' Chloe in her fabby car! I kept the design of the card fairly simple, using Basic Grey papers and a little girly trim to dress up one edge. Not a lot of extras needed because this adorable image takes center stage! Thanks, Sparkle, for allowing me to work with one of these cute stamps~

I hope you will all have a chance to play along and win a couple of soon-to-be-released Sparkle stamps!

Valentines and Buttons

The challenge this week at Corrosive Challenges is to include buttons in your artwork. Not a problem - I love buttons! And to make it even easier, I had a complete kit waiting to be used that included a button. I purchased a Valentine Exchange kit from Michelle Wooderson (Mish Mash) and here is where the exchange came in - each person that bought a kit was to make any project we liked with the supplies and then send a photo of one project to Mish to post on her blog. I just sent my photo to her today so she should have it up soon!

This is what the contents of the kit looked like before I got to creating:

And this is the first of 2 cards I created with the kit:

I stamped the flourish with white ink onto the red cardstock and added a white round doily from my stash before finishing off the card with lots of kit goodies - the red doily heart threaded with baker's twine, the glittered pink heart, the white embossed heart, the ledger tag (which I stamped with "love you") and of course, a single red button. This card reminds me of making Valentine cards with my Mom when I was young and we would play with doilies and glitter and ribbon....such good memories!

Since I still had goodies left, I decided to create a second card:

This one includes the DP, ruffled crepe paper, yo-yo (modified to look more heart-shaped) and the remaining baker's twine that were all in the kit. I added the band of green cardstock, stamped with Text Style (PTI), the mat stamped with the decorative mat image from Round & Round (PTI) and another button, all on a Raspberry Fizz card. How cute is that ruffle? And now I have 2 more cards ready to go on Feb. 14th! This one is going to my Mom - she loves the yo-yos!

So how will you add a button or two to your card this week? Check out what the rest of the team created at Corrosive Challenges and then play along! And a big "mwahh" to Mish for such a fun Valentine exchange!

Have a great week everyone!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The challenge this week at Corrosive Challenges is to recycle something and use in your artwork. I have been on a mission to get caught up on some scrapbooking so I incorporated the challenge is a layout:

These are photos from a summer birthday celebration that included my Mom, Aunt and son's birthdays. I worked with DP that included colors from the layout - lots of blues and a little red. The layout design is from the Imagine publication from Close To My Heart (love these "blueprints"!) And my recycled item? Take a closer look at the flowers at the top of the page:

The flowers were die cut from magazine pages! I wanted something with a little design to add some more texture and interest to the page but I didn't seem to have another DP that blended well so I went through an old magazine that was sitting nearby that needed to be recycled and found a couple of pages that had similar colors to my layout. As a matter of fact, the pictures these were cut from are a combination of Halloween pumpkins (sprayed white with gold) and a blue decorated Christmas tree! Added a couple of buttons and I got me some embellishments for next to nothing!

I hope you wil try adding something recycled to your artwork this week. Then come link up over at Corrosive so we can see what you reused! Have a creative week and I will see you again soon!

No bull about it

I'm back with another Corrosive Challenge to issue to you and it's one of my favorites! Can you guess? It's a sketch!

Ah, I love a good versatile sketch! Our sponsor this month is Kenny K and I used one of their digitial images to create my first Valentine card of the season:

Now I think that's a male bull (cause all bulls are male) but he/she had sexy eyes so I made "it" look like a girl. Which really gives new meaning to the phrase "no bull about it".....of course she couldn't be a cow with horns either unless again she is a he. Oh well, whatever this animal is, it's cute and made a sweet Valentine's Day card!

I printed the image and then cut out just the head and face, removing the body. Colored with Copics and adhered to the card with foam tape. As for the sketch, I altered it a bit to fit my image and narrowed down

the strips shown in the sketch with one being created from a piece of ribbon and the other (with the sentiment) created from the reverse side of the sparkly patterned paper. What's Valentine's Day without some red glitter?

On this inside, a simple message:

One card ready to go this Feb. 14th!

I hope you will play along with our sketch challenge this week. And while you're at it, be sure to check out what the rest of the team created based on this sketch.

Have a creative day and I will be back tomorrow so kick off H2H challenges for 2011!

 

Happy New Year and Corrosive Challenge

Happy New Year! I am glad to see 2010 go and hope for a better 2011. Do you feel the same way?

I thought it was time for an updated look for this here blog and I hope you like the change. It's going to take me some time to adjust to having the sidebar on the left, instead of the right! It doesn't take much to sometimes throw me for a loop. My blogging goal for 2011 is to post more often between this blog and Ridiculous Lab so I hope you will follow me and see what I'm bringing you through the year. Including video tutorials - if it kills me!!

So on to today's card. Our theme this week at Corrosive Challenges is to create a card using purple and yellow. I needed a masculine birthday card (yesterday was hubby's birthday - my New Year's guy) and I also had little time to get the card done so it needed to be simple. Here's the results:

The paper is from My Mind's Eye and the ticket die and stamps are from Papertrey Ink. The twine that ties the tickets in place is just enough embellishment for a guy card.

We would love to have you join us at Corrosive for this cahhelnge and for all the challenges through the year. There are always great prizes waiting for one lucky player each month so give it a try!

From all of us to all of you, wishes for an outstanding New Year!

Non-traditional Christmas

This week's challenge at Corrosive Challenges is to create something using non-traditional Christmas colors. I have to say, there are so many color options for Christmas that it's hard to say what is non-traditional but I am guessing anything not red and green so here is my card:

This was a fun card to create and I had a chance to use my new banner dies from Papertrey Ink. I embossed the card front with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and tied the black twine to the front so I could "hang" my banner pieces. Each piece was stamped with the tiny ornament image from Tiny Treats Christmas (also from PTI) and colored with non-traditional colors. These pieces were then mounted to the card with foam tape, as was the sentiment at the bottom. I also added a few little clear sparkles to the card because the holidays need bling!

I hope you'll play along with us at Corrosive this week and show us what you can create that is non-traditional for the holidays. I will be back at least once more this week with another artwork post before taking a little blogging break over the holiday weekend. Enjoy your last few pre-Christmas days and be sure to find some time to relax!!

PS - I posted a few photos of Christmas decor at my house over at Ridiculous Lab - I hope you'll stop by and take a look!

Where has the week gone?

Can it really be Sunday again? Sorry I have been absent awhile - we had end-of-semester work to get done with my son, Christmas decorating that doesn't seem to ever get completed and, on top of everything else, my son and myself came down with horrible colds! Sore throat, the works! So there has not been much creating for me.

But I did have time (and some energy, for a change) to create a card based on this week's Corrosive Challenge sketch:

I changed my card slightly but the sketch is still there -

The image is from our prize sponsor this month, the Doodle Pantry. I am still not finished mailing Christmas cards (yes, I am wayyy behind on everything this year!) so one more card in the stash will come in very handy!

Paper is from Cosmo Cricket, velvet ribbon (love!) is from Papertrey Ink. Glitter was used to sparkle up the adorable little tree, in true Christmas fashion.

I hope you will have a chance to play along with us at Corrosive this week. And be sure to check back tomorrow for the last challenge of the year at H2H - with a great prize package you might win!

Christmas in Red and White

One of my favorite Christmas color combinations is the simple red and white...it's what most of my family room is decorated in, with lots of snowmen and cardinals and a couple of Santas thrown in to the mix. This week at Corrosive Challenges, we want to see your red and white holiday creation. Here is my card - another one done and ready for the mail:

This one is pretty simple, which I love this time of year! It's been so busy in my house that I haven't even gotten the tree up yet so cards have to be simple and cute.

I used some shiny red paper I picked up at Target last year. It is nice quality shimmery paper that I found in the Christmas card area at Target and was available in red, blue, gold and silver. Not sure if they carry it this year but it would be worth looking!

I stamped the little reindeer (from Stampendous) onto the scalloped circle section and colored him with Copics, then mounted him on a red circle mat. The white background piece was embossed with the Cuttlebug and the loopy ribbon (from my stash) was added to dress this guy up for the holidays!

This card is also being entered at Play Date Cafe where guess what colors they are using this week too?

I hope you will play along with us at Corrosive - there is a prize package up for grabs and a future DT spot as well! Hope your Christmas decorating is well under way so you have time to enjoy the holiday season!

Things that Move!

At the Corrosive Challenge blog we are xreated things that move this week. This can be a card that includes movement of some kind or using an image that suggests movement, like a vehicle. I decided to add a little movement to the card itself and I started with an image from our sponsor, Shirley's 2 Girls.

Here's the finished card and some details on the movement:

Ah that sentiment has been my motto all weekend! Not good for the diet but who can resist all that yummy Thanksgiving food?! Anyhow, back to the card. The adorable image is a digi from S2G that I altered slightly before I printed. I put the image in Photoshop and removed the cat's tail! Then I printed the whole piece and printed a piece that included only the tail. It was a pretty easy process and this gave me the components I needed to create a little movement.

After coloring the image (and separate tail) I used a swivel knife to cut a line right along the top edge of kitty's butt. Then I slipped the tail into this cut and attached the tail section to the cat by inserting a brad in kitty's nose that also goes through a section of cardstock that I left connected to the tail in order to make the piece long enough to reach the nose. Now the tail can be moved back and forth, like the kitty is wagging his tail!

Here are a few pictures of the tail in various positions so you can get a sense of the movement:

Hopefully you can see how the tail moves from left to right. I know this cat has a bit of a big nose now and would have worked better with a bitty brad but I could not find a single one in my stash so kitty has to live with a big schnozz :)

We would love it if you would play along with us at Corrosive and show us your "moving" artwork! And check out what the rest of the DT created as well!

Until next time, I hope you will pop by Ridiculous Lab for my holiday weekend wrap-up post!

All About the 80's!

 This week at Corrosive Challenges, Janet challenged us to create something inspired by the 80s. Hmm. I was busy raising 2 children - I barely remember the 80's! So I Googled the 80's under images and found 2 old friends - remember these?




I worked at a toy store the year Atari was released and that was my Christmas gift to my husband. Although we only had Pong to start but we later had a Pac Man game. And of course, who didn't have a Rubick's cube? So these are the icons of the 80's I based my card on for this challenge:

I started with the dot embossed background that reminded me of the dots Pac Man munches and I added the primary blocks of color that you find in the cube. My stamped image is a simple sentiment from the Kids Quotes set from Inkadinkado. Clean and simple.

I hope you like me inspiration piece and would love to have you play along. What item or idea from the 80's will spark your creativity? Check out what the rest of the team created at Corrosive and then join in the fun!

Sketch week

It's sketch week at Corrosive Challenges and I used a fabulous image from our sponsor, Shirley's 2 Girls. Take a look:

Of course, I used my Copics to color the image and added ribbon and a felt flower as embellishment - pretty straight forward! How will you interpret the sketch?
This is the sketch we're using:

Hope you'll play along! Stop by Corrosive Challenges for all the details!

Black and Blue a la Mode

It's a color challenge this week at Corrosive where we are challenging you to use Black and Blue. I paired up a delightful image from the A la Mode collection at My Favorite Things with this week's Mojo Monday sketch and created this cutie, in black and blue:

With all the germs starting to float around the office (Hi, Kathy - hope you're feeling better!), I am sure this card will come in handy! I colored the image with my trusty Copic markers and then cut it with the Labels 14 Nestabilities die. The sentiment piece at the top was also cut with Labels 14 by cutting one edge and then flipping the die around to cut the other edge. I know that may not make much sense but it's hard to explain. Maybe another video in the works? I also paper pieced the band around the cups using some of the background paper.

Here is the sketch from Mojo that I used - and there is still time to play along!

We have a great new sponsor at Corrosive for the month of November - Shirley's 2 Girls! So head over to the Corrosive Challenges blog, see what the rest of the DT created in black and blue and then play along. There's an awesome prize package to be given away to one lucky player!

Hope you enjoyed today's card and I will be back tomorrow with more to share. Meanwhile, you can check out my week in retrospect post over at Ridiculous Lab. See you soon!