A Place to Start Challenge for April

I made this card for the Place to start challenge that the criteria was black, white, red. That is one of my favorites for color combos, so I stenciled my white paper with this black ink pattern (stencil from Impression Obsessions) . I used Versafine clair Black ink for the image and sentiment from Unity. I used black distressed ink for the stenciling. I tore some red paper strips to add for my red and added red gemstones to some of the centers of the pattern crosses.  You can find the linky and details for this challenge here:

https://hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com/2025/04/april-2024-anything-goes-woptional.html

 

Neglected Stuff Challenge

 

This card made use of a stencil that sadly has been sitting in the packaging for quite some time that I have never even used once. That is a sad state of neglect. So today it is making its great debut after lost and neglected in one of my stencil notebooks. I used distress oxide inks for the stenciling and versafine clair black for the image and sentiment and speckled dots. I used alcohol markers for coloring the image and a white colored pencil to add the light reflections of the vase. The sentiment resurfaced last week from one of my old Flourish sets.  You can find the details of this challenge here:

https://neglectedstuff.blogspot.com/2025/04/neglected-stuff-425-challenge.html

Color Throw down #831

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2025/04/color-throwdown-challenge-831.html

 

Cupcake inspiration challenge #615

I  stenciled over a sheet of design paper with orange distressed oxide ink. I stamped the bird from Unity onto pink paper and cut out with a circle die. I colored the eyes with a white gel pen, after I stamped the image with versafine clair black. The image was colored with copic markers. The flowers were punched from orange design paper scraps and added as embellishment with gold glittered enamel dots for the flower centers The sentiment is from Tim Holtz's snarky senitment stripes. I used a piece of orange design paper for a mat and used pink cardstock for the card base. 

Too bad I missed the deadline!!!!

 

Inspired by...color challenge #332

 

This is my card that I made for the Inspired by....color challenge. #332. Using lots of scraps, I made my color strips on a pink card base. I die cut this flower from a die from Taylor Expressions. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz sentiment strip. You can find the details for this challenge and the linky here:

https://theseinspiredchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/04/inspired-by-color.html

Sunday Stamps Challenge #358 and Shopping our Stash#545

I had such fun this month making Easter cards. I had ordered this fabulous paper from Impression Obsessions when they had their going out of business sales. I sure miss them. This was a perfect two-sided print to use for this layout. This is an old stamp when Michael's use to sell dollar stamps. It was stamped in purple distressed oxide ink. The sentiment was stamped in versafine clair black. The flower were punched with an SU flower punch. I used enamel dots for the flower centers. I am using this for the Sunday Stamp challenge which  was this sketch:

https://sundaystamps.blogspot.com/2025/04/ssc358-flipped-over.html

and also for the Shopping Your Stash challenge for the Hippity Hoppity theme for Easter. That challenge can be found here:

https://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/2025/04/sos5454-hippity-hop.html

 

HMFMC438 - spring

Love this little house mouse in his "flower bed." I stamped the image with versafine clair black, colored the image with alcohol markers. I used the apricot paper as the card base, some orange design paper as the bottom layer, and stamped on white. I punched the borders  with a Martha Stewart punch, and then added the yellow band to help balance the picture. I mounted it closer to the left side of the orange and then added clear enamel dots to embellish the right side. These reminded me of droplets of water (with spring showers in mind as another spring event). 

You can find the details of the House Mouse challenge here:

https://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.com/2025/04/hmfmc-438-anything-goes-option.html

 

Inspired by....bunnies#331

https://theseinspiredchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/04/inspired-by-bunnies.html

I made this bunny card for the Inspired by challenge #331 and for the Free for All challenge today on Splitcoaststampers.  I stamped the 2 step stamp from American Crafts and used it as a dress for my bunny. I punched the head with a circle die, and I punched the ears with a heart punch and then cut it in half for the 2 ears. I free handed the legs and basket. I punched the eggs and butterfly with paper punches. My inspiration for the flower body came from the picture prompt from the Inspired by challenge that I shared here above. This is be used as an Easter card for one of the grandkids. 

 

 

AI challenge - Milestone Birthdays #400

The theme for the 400th challenge for Art Impressions is Milestone Birthdays. And 2025 is a milestone birthday for myself and many of my classmates from the class of 1968. We turn 75!! So this card is going to be used for one of my friends who celebrates this big day in July. 

You can check out the detail for the challenge here:

https://artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com/2025/04/milestone-birthdays-challenge-400-and.html

I used this great stamp set from Art Impressions called "Spring Chicken" set. I die cut my numbers in silver chrome cardstock. I used a few scraps of design paper from my stash for this quick and fun card. I mounted it all to a blue card base. I stamped the chickens with versafine clair black ink and colored it with alcohol markers. I fussy cute around the chicks and mounted them with foam dimenstionals. 

 

Inspired by....rain #330

I love this stamp from Unity Stamps that I thought was perfect for this" Inspired by...challenge."

The white card front I stamped with versafine clair black ink nd colored with copic markers.The  sky was stenciled using stormy sky distessed oxide ink and a "Colorful Life" cloud stencil. The sentiment was stamped in versafine clair black ink as well. I mounted this card on a gray card base. You can find the linky and details for this challenge here:

https://theseinspiredchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/04/inspired-by-rain.html

 

Time Out Challenge 285

 

What a fun challenge is going on over at Time Out challenges!

https://timeoutchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/03/challenge-285-inspired-by-your-favorite.html

I am a big fan of Clint Eastwood, so I picked "A Fistful of Dollars" for my card. I didn't have a stamp for this but I drew around my own hand and just got creative!! It was fun!!  Not a whole lot of supplies for this but paper and pen. I loved this colorful and bright design paper scrap I found in my scrap pile. 

TGIF 517 Technique challenge

http://tgifchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/03/tgifc517-technique-challenge.html

I have been doing a lot of stenciling over the last year or so. My grandmother did lots of fabric stenciling back in the 1950's so I have been enjoying the trend in stenciling on paper that is now popular. I used two stencils from A Colorful Life and the final layer I did by flipping the "Fractured beam" stencil and using red ink. I used 3 colors of distress oxide ink (red, orange and yellows). The bold sentiment is from Gina K designs. 

 

Festive Friday 180 - Piano Day

I used black, white, musical theme sentiment and I don't know if musical symbols count as muscial notes or not. This is for the Festive Friday challenge celebrating Piano Day. I made a whole set of these to send as thank you notes for a family who was visiting our church and who lead the worship music that Sunday. You can check out the details for this challenge here:

https://festivefridaychallenge.com/festive-friday-card-making-and-paper-crafting-challenge-ff0180/

The image is from a retired  2005 Stampin' Up stamp and the sentiment is from a retired 2007 Stampin' Up set. I've got quite an extensive collection of stamps and still find them to be classics in my collection. The flowers were fussy cut from design paper And the cross is die cut from gold chrome paper. I torn the edges around the sheet music of the stamped image. 

 

Paper Players 729

I love stamping onto design papers so I hope this will count as a CAS card. It is one stamp, and the only coloring I did was to add white gel pen to the little seed parts of the dandelion. I love this scripture and this  stamp from Unity features it well. The card base is a light green. 

https://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/

 

House Mouse - In the mood for food

This card was made for the HMFMC this week with the theme being food. I thought these little mice so clever in discovering a wonderful way to pop their corn!! I colored my image with copic markers. I used red and hot pink cardstock for the bottom layers of the card and a festive polka dot design paper for the front layer. I added a few sparkly sequins just for fun! You can find the challenge details here:

https://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/hmfmc-436-anything-goes-with-option-in.html

 

Tic Tac Toe #266

https://tictactoechallenge.com/tttc-featured-designer-design/

I did the right vertical line: ribbon, basket, and free for my card. The basket is a digital image from Impression Obsession, The bunny stamp is from Unity, as is the egg stencil I used for the eggs in the basket. Various distress oxide inks were used for the stenciling. The bunny image was colored with copic markers as was the basket. The white card base was embossed with a Spellbinder embossing folder.  The XOXO sticker on the basket is from Tim Holtz. 

 

Christmas Joy

I used the layout from this week's SCS sketch challenge #1053, I used the criteria for the ABC22J10 challenge using jewels and joy for J. And I am entering this also in the Krafty Chicks Christmas challenge #766.  I love making pieced backgrounds with left over Christmas papers and I cut this to match the pieces for the sketch challenge. I die cut Joy for the sentiment, added a silver star for the dot of the J and red jewels for embellishments. I mounted this on a 5 by 7 inch  kraft card base. 

https://kraftychickschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/krafty-chicks-challenge-759-christmas.html

Green - the theme

I made this card for the Ways to Use challenge on SCS making use of a form of punctuation. There were parenthesis in this sentiment. My inside sentiment says: "Please notice the words in parenthesis. It is like the fine print.."  I also am using this a couple of challenges that the theme was "green."  Those challenges are The Just Us Girls challenge and the Double D challenge. 

https://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/just-us-girls-challenge-766-word-week.html

https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/2025/03/going-green-challenge.html

The background is an Impression Obsession background stamp stamped with various green distess oxide inks. The frog and stentiment are from Unity stamps. They are stamped in Versafine Clair Black in and the frog is colored with Copic markers. I added some green gemstones for emblishments. I mounted this on a green card base. 

 

Think ink and pastel vibes

I made this card and it met the criteria for two challenges this week. One was the Pastel Vibe challenge over on Paper Players and the other was for the "think ink" challlenge over on Shop your stash. 

https://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com/2025/03/pp728-color-challenge-from-jaydee.html

and

https://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/2025/03/sos543-think-ink.html

I used pastel colored distress inks for the background and I used versafine clair black for the sentiment and the main image. I colored the image with copic markers. The image is from Unity and the sentiment and die is from Hero Arts. I used two stencils from A Colorful Life designs and layered them for the background. I mounted it on a light lilac card base. 

 

Find Joy in the Journey

I am using this card I made for two challenges this week. The colors are for the Color Throw Down challenge this week: light brown, dark brown, and blue. I used distress oxide inks for my stenciling and for my jeep. I also used a black colored pencil for coloring the tires and a versafine clair black pen for stamping the image and the sentiment. I used three different stencils from A Colorful Life for my background. The stamps are from Unity. 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2025/03/color-throwdown-countdown-828.html

and also the Inspire,Create. Challenge 

 

Such a blessing CAS card

There seemed to be quite a few CAS card challenges this week, so I am entering this one in some of them. Here is the list:

Addicted to CAS#278

https://addictedtocas.blogspot.com/2025/03/challenge-278.html

https://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/challenge-818-cas.html

Inkspiration Challenge

https://inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/03/inkspirational-challenge-336-cas.html

 I did a little stenciling with a stencil from A Colorful Life, added a die cut from Momenta, and the sentiment is from Gina K designs. All done on a white card and then mounted to a white card base. I added an enamel dot for the center of the flower.  The stenciling was done with distress oxide ink--tattered rose, and the sentiment was stamped with distress oxide ink - stained walnut.  f

Tic Tac Toe #265

I made this card for the Tic Tac Toe challenge #265 using the stripes, green and foliage row. 

This is a digital image from Power Poppy that I colored with alcohol markers. I used striped design paper for my background and a dark green card base. I added green sequins for a little extra shine. 

You can find the challenge here:

https://tictactoechallenge.com/tttc265-featured-designer-karren/

 

Triple B and Colorful Options - Green

I used three stencils from A Colorful Life for this challenge. The green inks were all Distressed Oxide Inks that were used for the stencling. The sentiment is from Stampendous and I used Versafine Clair Black in for it. I sketched the lines on the birds with a black fine-tipped black Sharpie. I punched the butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch from design paper and another layer of polka dotted velllum for the wings. 

This card is for the following challenges:

Colorful Options

Triple B Challenge

 

Crazy is my fame and stenciling my game - March

I used two A Colorful Life design stencils for this card. The flowers are paper punches and the sentiment is from Fresh Pink Studios.  The stenciling was done in Distress Oxide Inks and the sentiments was stamped in Versafine Clair Black ink. I used a splatter stamp to make the green splatters. Enamel dots were used for the centers of my flowers. I am entering this card in thhe Crazy is my fame Stenciling is my game. You can find the details for this challenge here:

https://stencilfun.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-2025-stencil-fun-challenge.html

 

Art Nudge 225C

I wanted to try out some new stencils I just ordered from A Colorful Life, and tried to use colors that were close to these for the February 225C at Art Nudge. The rose stamp is a very old one from my old Stampin' Up collection. The sentiment is from Stampdendous. I used distress oxide inks for the blending for the stencil work, and I used Versamark Clair Black in for stamping the sentiment and images. I used alcohol markers for the coloring of the roses. 

 

Festive Friday - #178

https://festivefridaychallenge.com/festive-friday-card-making-and-paper-crafting-challenge-ff-13/

What a fun challenge here on Festive Friday this week! I chose pink, t shirt, and arms for my card!! I just recently purchased this Stampendous stamp set that includes these arms and the flower and leaves I used on this card as well as the sentiment. The t shirt die is from Hero Arts. The glitter pink paper was a left over from another project. Thank you, Festive Friday team for making me more aware of these special days. This was one I was unaware of.