Posting Overload

Wow, you must be sick of me by now.  I don't post for ages and now I have overloaded your inboxes!

I took part in my first challenge in ages the other day and the posting is now buried below.  Anyway that got me to thinking what other challenge could I set myself.  Well, last night I thought I should pack up my very messy dining table as I still had the leftovers from classes last week everywhere.  Sometimes when I am tidying up, rather than putting away all the little bits of leftover cardstock, I create little gift tags.  I try to include these with every order I receive as a little thank you from me.  I don't write in them and I try to keep them very simple.
This week, I thought I would set myself an additional challenge.  The unofficial ground rules where:
1. Only use what is on the table
2. All products must be within arms reach
3. Cannot even lift butt off chair to reach something
Now my table was pretty messy and there was quite a bit on it but I think I thought I had Go Go Gadget arms when I dreamt up the guidelines.  Some things that I would have loved to have used where so close - yet so far away.  Anyway it was a fairly rewarding experience and I did come up with 35 new tags for my collection - not to mention that I didn't have to clear up all those messy little bits of card stock.
Why not give this a go next time you are having a play day and see what you can come up with.  Little gift tags are always a great thing to have on hand to add to that gift wrapping to make it look a little more special.
I look forward to hearing what you come up with and the rules you set yourself to do it.

What A Ride

If you are anything like me, when it comes to boy or man cards, you struggle.  When I saw this awesome motor bike stamp I got a little excited!  I know crazy aren't I? "Motorcycle" is one of the great new stamps in the Autumn/Winter Catalogue just released and I am sure it will be popular.

I made this card really only to show what can be done for a quick simple male card and one of my lovely downline ladies Karen who is linked on the side bar of my site suggested I submit to the Just Add Red Challenge on the Less Is More site so this is my entry.

Cardstock:  Basic Black, Whisper White & Real Red

Stamp:  Motorcycle

Ink: Basic Black

Tools:  Paper Piercing Mat and Piercer & Real Red Marker

Shelli Challenge - Wedding

Shelli Gardner is the CEO of Stampin' Up! and puts up regular challenges on her So Shelli blog.  I have never entered one of these in the past but someone mentioned to me that the current challenge is a Wedding Challenge and I should enter my Little Black Dress card.
My first reaction was not to do it but over the weekend I thought, why not give it a go - what have I got to lose.  When I looked at the photo today I thought it doesn't really come out like it looks in real life so I put my head around how I could make it photograph better and this is what I came up with.
The dress is something I drew a few weeks ago but today I made a slight alteration and made the bodice slightly longer. 
I have cut it from Basic Black and then embossed it with White Embossing Powder, Versamark and one of the stamps from Vintage Vogue.  The hemline was done with the Scallop Border Punch.  I lined the inside with some Whisper White cut slightly smaller than the dress front creating the white hem.  A bit of Whisper White ribbon, a flower from the Pretties Kit and a clear Rhinestone Brad to dress it up and hey presto a new dress!!!
Hope you like it and this is one of the projects for this weeks class along with another card following the Black & White theme.

The Same But Different

It may be hard to believe but these two cards were made from the same packs.
The first card was created for a work shop. The main card is Not Quite Navy with Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze. The patterned paper is from the Urban Garden pack.
We stamped with Versamark and the Inspired By Nature set and then embossed with White embossing powder.
The strip of Kiwi Kiss was torn and edged with the sponge daubers and Kiwi Kiss ink. The words are from the Inspired By Nature set also and the edges of strip were rounded with the corner rounder punch. We made a ribbon tag with the Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon. These colours work really well together and create a peaceful look.
When I was putting some things away I found a spare pack from this work shop. I was going to make up another of the same cards but then thought I should try and make it different. I think I achieved that.
I used exactly the same cardstock but turned the patterned paper over which made it more male orientated. I used the words from the Starring You set on page 141 which are easy to look over but are really handy. I punched out a few small stars with the punch and as you can see it is very different from the first. You should try doing this yourself and see what you come up with. If you have a blog send me the link so I can see what you have created.

I See Giraffes

This card is another one that I created a few months ago but never got around to posting. It was a result of a colour challenge that I took part in.

The colours are Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Pumkin Pie and Very Vanilla. The stamp set is Bundle Of Joy.

I used the watercolour paper to stamp on and coloured in the image using the Blender Pens. These are not colours I would have picked to go together and that is why it was a "Colour Challenge" but they look great together.

Wow What A Challenge

When I was doing a class one day we were talking about difficult stamps that you buy on a impulse, win or are given and then you don't know what to do with them. Sherry had such a stamp and I bravely said to bring it along to next class and I would see what I could do with it. Boy! will I know to check out the stamp first next time I offer to do that. She did actually give me two stamps but I am not ready to tackle the second one yet.

This is a Stamp Yourself Silly stamp and this is what I came up with. Sorry photo doesn't show colour very well. I will try and get a better picture but hubby is away with our good camera for the weekend.

I used Stampin' Up! card stock and inks. The colours are Rose Red and Old Olive. I used blender pens to do the colouring with Rose Red, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink and Blush Blossom. The sentiment is from Occassional Greetings and Sherry, this is "For You".