MFT Color Challenge

Back with another card today - this time for the MFT Color Challenge. The colors we're using are After Midnight, Lemon Chiffon, Red Hot and Daffodil.

I got out another yet-to-be-used stamp set, Strike Up the Band, and created this:

I don't know anyone in a band of any kind but I couldn't pass up having these adorable marching bunnies! I used three of the four colors (no Lemon Chiffon in this one) and made the background to match. Cute?

I just got some more new stamps the other day (birthday gift from my loving hubby) so I am planning some more stamping time ASAP! See you soon!

Color Throwdown

Running in at the last minute to post a card for the Color Throwdown challenge! All products from Papertrey Ink. Enjoy! And have some ice cream today - you deserve it!

Here's the colors:

And here's my card: (they look a little closer to the swatches in person but the camera did not want to pick up the colors correctly)

Until next time!

Pretty Palette - and a Challenge-aversary prize!

It's the 1-year anniversary of challenges at My Time Made Easy and we're celebrating with a prize! One randomly chosen player will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to the My Time Made Easy store!! What fun! And so many awesome things you could choose from! I hope you'll play along for your chance to win!

This week we are working with these colors:

Such rich, beautiful colors! This palette was inspired by the Serenity digi papers but I stuck with solid cardstock instead of printed papers this time around.

I used the Monograms Defined acrylic stamps and stamped my initials in the windows I die cut on the black base. I then cut three strips of cardstock which were embossed with an impression plate and added to the card. Clean and simple but eye-catching, don't you think?

Come play along with our Challenge-aversary this week and maybe you'll be our prize winner!

Spring is just around the corner!

Not that you can tell by the looks of things in my neck of the woods today (we finally got some snow, about 3". That's more than we had all winter, I think!) but Spring is right around the corner and we're celebrating with a pastel-y color challenge at Heart 2 Heart this week. Our colors are Sunkiss Yellow, Sky (light blue) and Sweet Leaf (medium green). If you don't have the exact colors, you can still play along - just use something close.

Here's my card for the challenge:

I sponged the three ink colors across a piece of White Daisy cardstock to create the background for the gorgeous butterfly image. All products are from Close To My Heart.

I hope you'll pop by H2H and see what the rest of the Design Team created with these colors and then play along! Just be sure to use Close To My Heart products in your artwork. Have a good Monday!

Happy News!

I am so happy - I was just accepted to be a member of the My Time Made Easy Pretty Palette team!
I have been a fan of Lauren's since her days at Papertrey Ink and since she started her own business, My Time Made Easy, I have followed her right along. Not only does she offer the greatest templates EVER but she also carries a fabulous line of stamps (both acrylic and digital) and digital papers, cut files - just so many awesome products! So I am over the moon to be working with one of her teams and with one of my very favorite type challenges - color challenges!!

So to start my term off, this is the beautiful color palette we are working with this week:

The colors were inspired by one of the digital paper packs called Romance...oh so pretty! I printed off one of the papers and used it on my card along with a couple of the images from the digital set, Winter Knits:

One of the things I love about digital stamps is how you can move them and resize them and use them in any which way. You don't even have to be a Photoshop pro! I lined up three of the hats and printed them on white cardstock and then Copic colored them using our beautiful palette of colors. I kept the layout simple, letting the hats take center stage, wight where they belong!

The layout is actually from Deconstructed Sketches where I will be entering this card as well. It's too cute to keep all to myself!

That's all for me. I'll be back every Sunday with another Pretty Palette project. And be sure to join in the fun! Any stamps can be used (but you will definitely want to check out Lauren's fabulous collection!). And did I tell you there's a prize up for grabs too? You heard that right! Oh and be sure to see what the rest of the Palette team has created...awesome!  See you soon!

Stars and Swirls

Popping in for a quick H2H post today. My computer died yesterday so I am running behind but I did get a little time to put together a simple card for this week's H2H challenge which is all about color! Barn Red, Bamboo and your choice of Blue (or similar colors) are the palette we are working with - take a look:

I embossed the swirls onto the Bamboo panel with a Cuttlebug folder then added a strip of ribbon across the center of the card. On top of the ribbon are my cut out stars, stamped with images from the Wishing Star set. A couple of rhinestones finish it off! I chose not to add a sentiment as I am not sure yet what I might use this card for - might be for the 4th and it might be a graduation party coming up. Either way, I can pop on a sentiment at the last minute and I'm good to go!

Hope you'll join us at H2H this week where our current DT are wrapping up their time with us and we will be introducing new team members through out the week!

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!

New and Improved H2H

Over the holiday break, I spruced up the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog with a face-lift and changed "procedures" a bit. There will still be weekly challenges but you have all month to play along with them, increasing your chances of winning one of two prizes each month as well as grabbing a spot in our monthly Top Ten awards! Check out the blog for all the details as well as the awesome artwork from the new DT!

To start the year off, we are playing with a color challenge.

These are the main colors we want to see in your project but you can also add a touch of SORBET if you wish. If you don't have these exact colors, use something close ok? We want everyone to play along!

I used the pattern Keep It Level in the Wishes card book from Close To My Heart to create my card for this challenge.

I don't have any cardstock or B&T with the challenge colors but I do have the inks so I made my own patterned paper. The rest of the card is Colonial White and I added a sorbety looking button from my stash for the flower center. If you click on the card you will see the dry embossing a little better. Just don't evaluate the stitching too closely - not my best work!
Hope to see your artwork using these colors so pop over to the challenge blog for more inspiration and then play along! And don't forget about following us on Facebook! I'll be back Thursday with an all new H2H offering - scrapbooking! See you then~

Turquoise, Pink and Red

Our challenge this week at Corrosive Challenges is to create a card using turquoise, pink and red. Well let me tell you, these colors stumped me! But I think what I finally came up with this morning works! Take a look:

This is the first chance I have had to stamp with the Kid Quotes set from Inkadinkado. Such fun phrases! I also grabbed the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness paper pack and some PTI cardstock and a card was born! Not really any red in the card but the darker pink butterfly is filling in as my red in this one.

No Big Ideas today - it's a pretty straight forward card but stay tuned because later this week, I will have a 2-fer day and I will share some Big Ideas with you then. Until then, run on over to the Corrosive Challenge blog and welcome our 2 new DT members, Kellie and Donna and check out all of the artwork the team created for this week. And then join in the fun! Hope to see you there - and back here, real soon!

Have a creative day!

Color me this....

It's time for a color challenge at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog and this time, we're looking a little fall-ish.

Yep, reminds me of Autumn. But I went a different route than leaves and trees for my card - I decided to go whimsical:

Because some days, it really does feel like a jungle!! You can read about the goings-on in our "jungle" over at Ridiculous Lab. And while you're there, consider becoming a follower!

Back to the card. I stamped the animals on three different papers from three different CTMH paper kits and cut them out. Then I stacked them on each other's backs and stamped the sentiment in the white space. The card base was then covered with three strips of the same papers and my main section was added with foam tape. Two black brads finish it off. Easy peasy and I love the simple graphic look of the end results.

I hope you'll play along with us at H2H this week - we have a new prize being offered by one of the Design Team members that you won't want to miss! Be sure to stop by the blog to read all about it and check out what the rest of the team created this week with our color palette.

Have a nice Labor Day!

Corrosive Color Challenge

Red and green always make me think of Christmas but since I am not ready yet to get the Christmas cards started, I thought I would go a different route for the Corrosive Challenge this week to use Old Olive and Real Red. And with a great choice of digital images from our prize sponsor this month, Inktegrity, I found just the ticket!

This awesome tree with tire swing was the perfect fit for some paper piecing - a real love of mine. And super easy with digital images since you only need to print as many pieces as you want to work with and then get to piecing! Here are some Big Ideas included in this card:

* Pop some of your sections up on foam tape when paper piecing for added dimension. The lighter green sections of the tree are added to the card this way.
* Add some additional color to pieces with markers or pencils for more detail and highlights.
* Replace small elements with embellishments. This image included a tire swing which I depicted with a button. It doesn't look exactly like a tire swing but there's no mistaking that it's there to represent one.

The colors are not a literal display of Old Olive and Real Red but the papers I used are definitely in those colors (from Cosmo Cricket and an unknown source for the green sections). I also took a little liberty adding the leafy background which has a few additional colors but that's what creativity is all about - going with the flow!

I hope you'll join in the fun and show us your Old Olive/Real Red cards at the Corrosive Challenge blog this week. Great prizes up for grabs!

I am off to get some things done around here today before we head out for a cookout with friends this evening. Hope you are all enjoying your Labor Day weekend!

A color challenge for H2H

It's time for another great H2H challenge and this time, it's a color challenge. One that I found a little tricky. The colors we are working with are Tulip, Black and Buttercup.

If you don't have these exact colors that's ok - just use something similar.

Here is the card I finally came up with:

Featuring our "Be Yourself" stamp set, this card is relatively clean and simple and not overly embellished. All products are from CTMH except the ribbon. I added some stitching along the edges of the white mat and stapled the ribbon on with white staples. A little rhinestone on her shirt ties in the 'stay pretty' portion of the sentiment cause girl, when you are running and working up a sweat, at least you can have a little bling to sparkle you up!  Like I would know - I don't run. But it sounds good!

If you want to play along with this week, just create something with our colors, post to your blog or other online gallery and then link up over at the challenge blog. You might just win a mystery prize from ME! That's right - I am sponsoring a prize for one lucky player this week so get to creating!

This card is also being entered into the weekly challenge at Cute Card Challenges. This week they are featuring the great sketch I based the card on - thanks for the inspiration CC!!  Until tomorrow (I have a lot of new artwork to share with you this week so check back every day!)

A color challenge at H2H!

This week over at H2H we are working with the following colors:

Yep, these colors were a little bit of a challenge. When I first thought up the combination I was so excited about it and then when I sat down and started to create, I drew a blank! Of course, part of the problem may have been the pain I was in from all the yardwork I've done the last gew days - that might have been blocking the color mojo! But I finally found something that I think works - what do you think?

So many fun things included in this card! First I stamped two of the images from the Togetherness set onto Topiary and Ocean cardstock with Clear ink and then embossed with White ep. I scored some lines on the Desert Sand cardstock and lightly sanded to bring out some of the white core. I also stamped a background with an older retired set - Argyle Backgrounds (which is one of the sets I have up for sale - see my sale page). The Ocean borders were punched with a new EK Success border punch - also called Argyle. And the sentiment is from the set Treasures. A tied button as the flower center finishes the card.

Are you ready to play along? If you don't have these exact colors, just choose something close. Create your item and then link it up over at the challenge blog. Remember your artwork must include mostly Close To My Heart products! You might just be chosen one of our Friday Five members!

Until next time - have a creative day!

Our 1st Heart2Heart Challenge!

I am so excited to be launching this new challenge blog for all Close To My Heart fans!

Today is our 1st challenge and it's a color challenge. We are working with the following colors:

(If you don't have these exact colors, just use something close).

Here's my card using the challenge colors (plus a tiny bit of Heavenly Blue):

I used the Springtime stamp set in a couple of different ways. First, I stamped the flowery part of the boots with Sweet Leaf and then stamped the outline image of the boots in Chocolate. I watercolored a little Sunflower color onto the top edge of the boots and then added some shine to the top edge of the boots with Liquid Glass. I cut the boots out and added them to the torn "mud" created from Chocolate cardstock.

The "sun" is actually one of the umbrella images from the set stamped in Sunflower and then cut to fit the corner of the card. A second stamped umbrella was cut into sun rays and added to the card as well. If you look closely, you'll see some lightly sponged clouds and stamped raindrops to the right side of the card. The sentiment was stamped onto a piece that was die cut and added to the card with foam tape.

So that's my sample in a nutshell. What will you create for this challenge?? To see all of the DT samples, and to get the guidelines for the challenge, head over to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog and play along! I can't wait to see what you come up with - you might just be chosen one of our first Friday Five or win a fabulous prize package from our sponsor this week - Juli Clark!

Have fun and I will see you again soon!