MARCH 2011 CREATIVE CREW CHALLENGES

I'm very excited to share my March Creative Crew Projects. The challenges for March are:

CCREW0311CF ~ Catalog Focus on the section 'Growing Up' ... make anything with a stamp set from this section of the Idea Book & Catalog.

For this challenge, I used the Tiny Tees Wheel and stamped the baby-grow 3 times, one on the shimmery white paper, and 2 to be cut out and popped up with a dimensional. VERY simple, but pretty cute :)

Here's the box open, you can see the DSP liner and the flaps which make this box so unique. The tutorial is on the sidebar under 'Tutorials'. I'd love you to have a go :)

I made a small rose for the ribbon treatment. Spent the day on Saturday with my Michigan Mingle buddies over at Jill's house and Jill was making these cute little ribbon rosettes. So I had to have a go too ~ this twill ribbon is pretty bulky, but I made it work! The centre is one of SU's Vanilla Rosettes which I dyed in reinker to match the project.

CCREW0311DF ~ Design or Colour Focus. The challenge for March is to use Woodland Walk DSP, or the colours of Vanilla, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip. Here are my projects with this colour combo:

One of my friends, Carol, showed me a card in the SCS gallery by Connie Tumm. It was sheer genius! She used a Lattice Die on the inside of her card to make a pop up mechanism. I thought I'd use Connie's idea for this Creative Crew challenge. I absolutely love the inside of this card. I kept the outside VERY simple, as all the action is going on inside!!!



My second Colour Focus card still uses the Owl Punch ~ well, it's too cute NOT to use, right? But this one is slipped inside the mini envelope from the XL Die 'itty bitty box and envelope'.



CCREW0311HF ~ The Holiday Focus is on International Earth Day, ie. recycling, repackaging etc. I recycled one of SU's stamp cases. I just trimmed down a notepad to fit inside and hey presto! Love this one :)

This is the inside, I trimmed down the notepad and put the Newsprint DSP over the header. So easy and SO effective.

There is a final Creative Crew Challenge which I didn't participate in, it's a scrapbook page about YOU! So come on over to SCS and play along, we'd love to see your creations in the Creative Crew galleries. Use the keywords listed above, and the words creativecrew, no spaces!

Tickets, Ladies & Gentlemen!

Well, a whole week with no stamping. That's what happens when the school is off for a week!!! Actually, I can't say no stamping, I got my Creative Crew projects for March done, but that's all I did, not one challenge! So this week I shall try to do them all. Fingers crossed :)

Today's TLC on Splitcoast is to make a card incorporating tickets. Easy enough ... until you go looking for an appropriate set, that is! I decided to pull out a stamp set I haven't used much, with a punch I haven't used much ... and ended up with this. I quite like it, very simple but fun!

Here's a close up of the petal and insert.

Recipe
Stamps : Eat Chocolate, Cute by the Inch
Ink : Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Cardstock : Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories Petal Punch, 1/2 Crystal, Ticket Corner Punch, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon

New Home & Featured Stamper

I always look forward to seeing who our 'Featured Stamper' is on a Sunday. Today it's StampGroover who is very active in the SCS daily challenges so I comment on her gorgeous creations A LOT! I chose to CASE this one today: I love the simple layout, and I love the sentiment stamped on the polka dot paper.




I kept the card the same, but made my image, sentiment and colours different.

I used the Neighbourhood Wheel and coloured the houses with reinker and a blender pen. The sentiment is non-SU.

Here's a close-up of the blender pen colouring. I like the effect of the blender pens, I just don't use them often enough!

Recipe
Stamps : Neighbourhood Wheel, sentiment Non-SU
Ink : Soft Suede
Cardstock : Pear Pizzazz, Shimmery White, DSP In Colour Pack
Accessories : Blender Pen & Reinkers

Little Girl's Birthday Card

Toady's challenge is to make a Child's birthday card. Luckily, I really needed a card for my friend Audrey's little girl, Emma, who is 4 on March the 1st.

How cute is this? I love it :)

Here's a closer look, showing a different angle. I've popped most of the images up on dimensionals, it's simple, but very effective!

Recipe
Stamps : Build a Cupcake
Ink : Peach Parfait, Blushing Bride, Early Espresso
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Blushing Bride
Accessories : Scallop Trim Border Punch, Blushing Bride Ribbon, Build a Cupcake Punch, Word Window Punch, '4' from Timeless Type Jr Alpha Sizzlit, Big Shot

Indifferent Silhouette!

So, the challenge TODAY on SCS was to use a silhouette ... but it had to be BLACK. I looked through my stamps, thought about the Easter one with the little girl, but I've used that for a silhouette already, then I thought I'd had a genius idea, why not use the bird punch? Well, I put the card together pretty quick, but it's yucky! I don't absolutely hate it, but I don't really like it either. Thought I'd post it anyway to show you that sometimes .... well, stuff just doesn't 'work' ... hee hee!

Recipe
Stamps : Perfect Punches
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Basic Black
Ink : Basic Black
Accessories : Black Satin Ribbon, Scallop Oval and Bird XL Punches, dimensionals

A Summery Sketch

A simple, clean sketch is on offer today at SCS! This is what I came up with ~ using one of the gorgeous Sale-a-Bration sets, Sweet Summer. Karen Barber made me fall in love with this set ... Here's a close up of the blooms. Very easy to snip out and pop up onto the card giving some extra depth and dimension.

Recipe
Stamps : Sweet Summer
Cardstock : Peach Parfait, Shimmery White
Ink : Stazon Black
Accessories : Peach Parfait Ribbon, Aquapainter & Reinker

A Change of Style

People often ask me what my stamping style is ... and I always answer that I have NO idea!!! I adore vintage, shabby styles, but I also adore Clean, simple, primary colours. So I have a real mish-mash of styles going on in my head :)

Today is a simple, primary colour kind of card ~ the colour challenge is to use Pacific Point, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi. I NEVER use WW or PP ... EVER, so it was a challenge indeed. BUT, that being said, I really like how simple and fresh this looks! It's quite adorned, but I think it needed it!

Another thing we stampers are often faced with is a mistake, or a smudge (usually after a lot of work's gone into the project). Well, I had TWO mishaps with mine ~ I turned them into embellishment opportunities! See the tuft on the blue-bird's head? Completely smudged it, so just added a little tuft with the writing end of my Pacific Point SU marker! The 2nd 'oops' was on the main panel, far left, just above the green leaves, a HUGE green splodge. So, I just added a cluster of 3 of the punched out flowers. I had to add another cluster on the right to balance the design, but I actually like the way it looks.

So don't panic if you think you've messed up your card, just take a deep breath, and find a way to cover it, or embellish it!

Recipe
Stamps : Cheep Talk
Ink : Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, So Saffron
Cardstock : Shimmery White, Pacific Point, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron
Accessories : Trio Punch, 1/2 Pearls, SU Markers

Shadow Box Card

How super is this? It's a shadow box card, courtesy of today's Technique Lover's Challenge over on SCS. All the details can be found there under TLC312.

My mum and her brother and sister all have birthday's 3 days apart in early March, so I think this one will be perfect for Uncle Robin. Mum & her sister are easy to make cards for, but Uncle Rob can be a bit more tricky. He'll like this though ...

Recipe
Stamps : Nature Walk, Wonderfully Worn BG
Cardstock : Botanical Gazette DSP, Going Gray & Early Espresso
Ink : Crumb Cake, Going Gray
Accessories : Scallop, 1 3/8 & 1 1/4" Circle Punches

Shabby Valentine

Have you ever visited my friend, and fellow Creative Crew Member, Lisa Hensley's blog? It's called 'The Shabby Stamper' and it's glorious. Lisa makes wonderful faux notebook paper and peeling wallpaper. I decided I'd try to emulate her :) The faux notebook paper turned out great, but the peeling wallpaper isn't so great ... practice, practice, practice!!!

This is for my 15-year old Daughter on Valentine's Day. She is in that dreadful, "I really like him, but he's not interested" thing at High School. Hopefully, this will cheer her up!

Here's a close up of the vintage trinket pin, I threaded some of our lace ribbon onto it, love how that turned out!

Recipe
Stamps : Artistic Etchings, Tiny Tags
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, First Edition DSP
Ink : Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Accessories : Chantilly Lace Ribbon, Antique Brads, Vintage Trinkets, Sponges, Spiral Border Punch, Jewelry Tag Punch

Splitcoast's Featured Stamper

Happy Sunday! Today's Featured Stamper on Splitcoast is Willow01 who has a lovely gallery! I chose to CASE (Copy and Share Everything) this card :

I kept the main layout, a square focal image of flowers, but I changed the stamp, changed the colours and in place of the string, I made a scallop edge with ribbon. I changed the sentiment too.

Here's my card :

This one is going to a dear friend of mine who has been fighting a battle with Breast Cancer. Sue and I have been sharing Chemo visits with her, to keep her company and take her mind off what's going on ... it's actually been a wonderful time and we've spent HOURS sharing thoughts, outlooks on life, gossip, fashion, our girls' boyfriends ... you know the kind of stuff! Well, it's a milestone tomorrow, I am taking her for her FINAL CHEMO session. Obviously, I want to mark this momentous occasion with a card! I think she'll like this one. I'm so proud of her fighting spirit, she is an inspiration to all her friends, but especially to Sue and myself. We love you, Elaine Loewy!

Recipe
Stamps : Fast & Fabulous, Fabulous Phrases
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Baja Breeze
Ink : Early Espresso, Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Baja Breeze
Accessories : Marina Mist Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Edge Border Punch, Sprintzer Tool & Crumb Cake Marker

Inspiration Challenge

I took these 2 photographs as my inspiration today. The colours from photo 1, and the quilt idea from photo 2.

This is what I came up with :

This is based on the wonderful tutorial from Jenna Barber over on Splitcoast. My quilt is sitting behind the lattice die, mainly because there were too many mistakes to let it sit alone!!! That lattice covers up a multitude of sins :) Hee hee.

A few 1/2 Pearls for accents, a quick spritz with the Crumb Cake marker, and hey presto!

Recipe
Stamps : None
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Springtime Vintage DSP
Ink : None
Accessories : Big Shot, Trellis Die, Vintage Wallpaper EF, 1/2 Pearls, Spritzer Tool with Crumb Cake Marker, Victoria Lace

A Royal Card

Today's Free 4 All (F4A) is to make a Royal Card using purples reds or golds.

And it wouldn't be Royal without a crown ...


Recipe
Stamps : Bliss (SAB set)
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Concord Crush
Ink : Concord Crush
Accessories : Trinkets Crown, Concord Ribbon, Curly Label punch, Spritzer & Crumb Cake Marker

Clean & Simple Birthday

Here's a quick and easy CAS card! This is the close up of the main image. It's from a SAB set called Punch Bunch. All the images match up with one of SU's punches, making your cardmaking, super-easy!

Recipe
Stamps : Punch Bunch, Candle Crazy Builder Wheel
Cardstock : Shimmery White
Ink : Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories : Scallop Square Punch, Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon, Blender Pen & Ink

A simple Sketch

It's FREEZING here in Michigan! So what's a girl to do to cheer herself up when it's c-c-c-c-cold??? Stamp, of course!

The sketch over on SCS is a really simple one today, here's what I came up with. Not my most inspiring card, but quick, easy and kinda cute!

Recipe
Stamps : Morning Cup, Take a Sip
Cardstock : Old Olive, Shimmery White
Ink : Early Espresso
Accessories : Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Blender Pen, WWC