365 Cards Challenge/Day 226 -- So....

Sharing another card for 365 Cards/Day 226. The challenge is to use the word "so" on your creation. I used a new clear stamp set from Hampton Art on this one. It actually had two sentiments that would have worked. The set also has a "thank you so much." The patterned paper and brads are by Basic Grey (Lemonade Collection). Remember my shopping trip to Michael's a couple of weeks ago? I bought the pretty lime green dotted ribbon there. ;) The ink pad used was by Clearsnap from their Vivid line (used Garnet). Love these ink pads as they come in the prettiest colors. :)

365 Cards Challenge/Day 225 (Torendi Week)

This card is for the 365 Cards Day 225 Super Sketchy Sunday. Don't you love working with a card sketch? Sometimes it is just the "jump-start" you need to get crafty. :) A lot of nights I like to do cards while watching David Letterman. :) Working with a sketch takes so much of the stress off of the designing (then I can pay more attention to 'ole Dave and his jokes). :) Most of the time when I see a card sketch, I know instantly what stamp, paper, etc. I want to use. :)

On this card the rubber stamps are by Hampton Art and the rub-ons are by Royal & Langnickel. I colored the cupcakes with my Stampin'Up! marker pens.

It's still cloudy in Alabama. Looks like even more rain. Perfect weather for card making....I'm getting a lot of cards made! :) The college mom here is looking forward to tomorrow. Her oldest will be coming home for fall break (have not seen her since August....sniff, sniff). What fun we will have catching up! :)

Mojo Monday/Week 108 Sketch Challenge

What do you do on a dark and rainy day? Make cards of course. :) Here is my take on Mojo Monday's sketch challenge this week. The cardstock and papers are by Diecuts With A View (Indian Summer Fall Stacks). The chipboard button is by Jenni Bowlin and the rub-on sentiment is by Royal & Langnickel. The printed twill is some I found at Hobby Lobby and is by The Paper Studio. My new light box sure has come in handy today. :)

Combined Challenges -- Caardvarks and colourQ

Here's my card for the Caardvarks "Take A Bow" challenge. The challenge was to use ribbon on your project in a "wonderful way." I don't know if this card qualifies for "wonderful" but it was definitely "FUN." :)

This card also fits into the challenge at colourQ. This is their very first challenge and involves using the following colors on your card: Melon Mambo, Pretty In Pink, Old Olive, Basic Grey + Natural.

"Just Us Girls" Challenge/Week 2

Discovered a new challenge site yesterday (new to me anyway) called Just Us Girls. If you have a new lightbox, then you definitely need a card to photograph at midnight (or dark, cloudy rainy days like today). :) This is the card I did last night "burning the midnight oil." :)

The challenge at Just Us Girls was to have paper piecing on your card plus pink. I looked thru my stamps and found the house stamp by Hampton Art. I remembered some new patterned paper by Basic Grey in their Eskimo Kisses collection that had houses. I paper pieced the stamped houses to match that paper. Luckily the patterned paper had pink in it too. :)

Better get to stirring, there's always a lot to do on Mondays. :)

Light Box

Want to share a photo of my do-it-yourself light box project that my husband and I did over the weekend. :) I wish I had thought to take photos of each step but didn't. There are several step by step photos on the internet though if you "google"
the term "homemade light boxes." We read several of those and came up with ours. :)
We took a cardboard box and cut three windows (one on top and one on each side). This left the back of the box intact. My hubby then spray painted the inside (and front flaps) white. We let the box dry overnight. I bought white muslin to wrap on the outside of the box to cover the cut windows. Once you get it set up on a table, you'll need one light to shine down over the top window plus two lights for the side windows. We got the side ones at Lowe's and luckily already had the top one. You'll also want to get daylight bulbs (also got them at Lowe's). I've still got to get a piece of white poster paper. I will place this on the inside covering the back and bottom BUT it will not be folded at the crease. (Did that make sense?) If it's not folded at the crease, you will not have any lines behind your object that you are photographing. I'm still using mine until I get my poster paper though. I got up to a dark cloudy rainy day so I was very happy this morning to have my new "fancy" light box. :) I've set mine up in our formal dining room (which hardly ever gets used). Not having to move or set it up each time will be great! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)

Charisma Cardz Challenge #40

Today's card is one I did for Charisma Cardz Card Challenge #40. The challenge was to follow a recipe of using: 1 ribbon, 3 flowers, 3 papers and one charm. I designed my card around some pretty ribbon I found at Michael's a couple of weeks ago. The ribbon has colors of black, lime green and red (which were my three paper colors too). I used three green flowers by Prima Marketing. The charm I used was a key and I hung it with some gold wire from the gold flowers and leaves by Nunn Designs. The rubber stamps are by Hampton Art.

My husband and I have had a busy afternoon. We finally finished a "do-it-yourself" lightbox. We cut the windows out of the cardboard box yesterday and my husband painted the box white. It needed to dry overnight. Today we went to Lowe's and got the lights, daylight bulbs, and white muslin (got that at Wal-Mart). The trip to Lowe's took all afternoon as we live 40+ miles away and ate out afterwards. I've set it up in a corner of our formal dining room (that never gets used). :) Now I can take pictures of my creations on cloudy days AND midnight! :) I'm very proud of our finished results.