Playing in Paradise

*It's one of those rare, two-in-a-day posts! For the latest

Crafty Creations Challenges post, please click here. 

Feel free to picture me jumping up and down when I discovered I was one of the winners in last week's Playing in Paradise challenge! And now, this week's challenge is to use mists, one of my new favourite toys. Last week, I got my project in with, oh, minutes to spare, so I thought instead of waiting until tomorrow I'd enter tonight. 

This is one of those put-things-together-and-see-what-happens cards. I ended up with this misted tag, the cute little envelope, and some washi and cardstock strips. One of the best things about this Tattered Angels glimmer mist (besides it being red, gold and shimmery) is it finally gives me a reason to like my ruby red cardstock since it's a perfect match. (Otherwise, I feel calling it "ruby" is a big overstatement.) 

In addition to the Playing in Paradise challenge, I'm entering this in the Anything Goes challenges at My Graphico and Simon Says Stamp. 

Supplies: Stampin' Up ruby red & very vanilla cardstock, gold pearl paper, patterned paper scrap, PSA Essentials Love Birds stamp, Versamark ink, pirate's gold embossing powder, Tattered Angels Santa Baby glimmer mist, We R Memory Keepers washi tape, dimensionals

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No Cards?

Besides cards, what do you enjoy making? This week at Crafty Creations Challenges, we'd like to see anything but a card! The design team is using images provided by this week's sponsor, Guylou's Inimitability. Still thinking about Valentine's Day a couple of weeks away, I decided to make a little treat box with her Joy and Gift image. 

The box itself is modeled on this gable box tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. The cute little dog is coloured with Prismacolor pencils. I couldn't resist making a coordinating 2"x2" mini-card to add to the box once it's filled with goodies. I'm adding this to My Graphico's current Anything Goes challenge. 
Come join us this week with your non-card creation! 

Supplies: white, purple & Stampin' Up kraft cardstock, Guylou's Inimitability Joy & Gift image, Prismacolor pencils, circle, scalloped circle & reverse wonky rectangle dies, 1" circle punch, corner-rounding punch, Twinery pink sorbet & lilac twine 

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Cool Cats, Warm Heart?

(I know, lame title; sometimes you just gotta go with it...)

I am trying to be a little more diligent about participating in challenges that spark my interest, rather than just thinking about them until the deadlines pass. I'm not great at making things just for the sake of making them; that's why occasions such as Christmas and now Valentine's Day give me a perfect reason to make some cards and play in some challenges. Today I'm being inspired by Simon Says Stamp's paper-piecing challenge, CAS(E) this Sketch!'s current layout and of course My Graphico's Anything Goes challenge. Yes, I can be inspired by the thought that any creation counts. :P
Here's the ultimate result:

I find the Market Street Stamps Cool Cats are ideal for paper-piecing, with their clean lines and cute facial features. For a valentine, I decided I couldn't beat this patterned heart paper with its vaguely cat-like colours. I thought it would be fun to use a stamp designed by Lisa Arana since it's her sketch this week, so I flipped it horizontally to work with her Washi Love stamp. Finally, I don't often think of little details like stamping the hearts down the centre row of circles, so I am quite pleased with myself for that as well as the word row along the edge of that panel. Rounding the top-right corner of the card seemed to soften the whole design just the right amount. 
(Aside: Cool Cats seems to be discontinued. No wonder I'll never be a trendy stamper, because I still like them and plan to continue to use them. Oh well.)

            

Supplies: white & Stampin' Up blushing bride cardstock, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party & Six by Six Honey Cake patterned papers, Market Street Stamps Cool Cats, Unity Washi Love & (?) sentiment stamps, Memories black, VersaMagic pixie dust & Colorbox frost white inks, white embossing powder, Winsor & Newton iridescent medium

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The Un-Valentine

Remember when 7-Up used to brand itself as the "un-cola"? Yeah, me neither, way too young. :P 
Anyway... today I decided to make an un-valentine. No pinks, no lace, no flowers... pretty much what you do when you're crafting with a boy in mind as the recipient. 

There are small concessions to make this card a valentine in a subtle way, namely the big heart diecut (similar to yesterday!), the little heart grouping at the bottom, and of course I switched out the regular dog tag for a heart tag. Colourwise, not so traditional. Likewise, his spots are a little out of the ordinary. ;) 
In addition to going into my valentine stash, this little guy is headed off to Simon Says Stamp's current paper-piecing challenge, My Graphico's Anything Goes challenge... and of course he's off to play with Unity's Friends with Flair, too! See you there! 

          

Supplies: white cardstock, Basic Grey Plumeria patterned papers, Unity/Bella Blvd tail wagger & Unity August 2010 Kit of the Month (All You Need) stamps, Brilliance coffee bean & iced spruce distress inks, clear embossing powder, QuicKutz heart die, small heart punch, pop-date tape, Glossy Accents

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Last-Minute Valentine!

... but don't worry, you don't have to check your calendars. I'm entering the Playing in Paradise challenge at the last minute. ;) They are celebrating their 100th challenge with a "Let's Celebrate" theme. And with Valentine's Day just a few weeks away, what better to celebrate than love? 

I woke up this morning determined to play in this challenge. With a deadline that ends at noon today (although now I know noon in a different time zone, so I actually have an extra couple of hours), of course things did not want to go smoothly. Once I abandoned trying to mask the two bathroom people holding hands, things went a bit better. I found what I think is the perfect patterned paper, and embossed the card base to match the man's pattern. I like that this is a not-too-flowery/feminine valentine.
I'm also adding this to My Graphico's current Anything Goes challenge. 
If you work better under a deadline than I do, you still have a little bit of time to get your entry in, too! :D 

Supplies: white cardstock, Stampin' Up (?) patterned paper, Unity/Simple Stories sweet paper people, VersaMagic Aegean blue & red magic chalk inks, clear embossing powder, QuicKutz heart die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, pop-dot tape

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Snowflakes

Wednesday means it's time for a new challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges! I think this week's challenge can be as easy or as difficult as you choose to make it -- we are asking you to incorporate snowflakes into your project. Here's what I mean, for me at least: when the Christmas season is over, I put essentially all my wintry-themed stamps away. So I could take the easy way out today, and make my first Christmas card of 2013, but that seemed a bit too easy. So I made sure that although my card is wintry, it's non-holiday-specific. 

I started with some torn post-it notes to make a softly defined rectangle mask before I embossed my snowflakes with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged the area with ink before removing the masks. A simple white-embossed sentiment, a die-cut snowflake and a bit of bling finished the card. (I'm obviously in an extra-clean-and-simple mood today.) And while I could use this anytime in the next couple of months, I have a feeling this will end up in next December's stash. :D 
Our sponsor this week is Digital Delights; they offer digital images, papers, cut files and more. Come and join the flaky fun!

Supplies: white & blue cardstock, Local King Rubber Stamp snowflake background & Unity winter wishes stamps, Colorbox frost white & Ranger/Tim Holtz tumbled glass distress inks, clear & white embossing powders, Lil' Inkers snowflake die, Stampin' Up basic rhinestones, pop-dot tape

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