Things are lookin' a little funny at Guylou's

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's Inimitability. I've got to admit that it was a hard one for me, but I lucked out. Once I figured out how I wanted to incorporate the orange, it all came together. Oh, wait. You actually want to hear what the challenge IS, don't you? Well, it's Chana's turn to play hostess and she has decided that we need to be a little off color. I don't think she means overtly inappropriate jokes, although the challenge does call for a funny sentiment, so who knows? I'm scared to ask. LOL. In addition to a funny sentiment, your card should be blue, grey, and orange. That was the hard part for me. I have never used this color combo before. It took me a little time to figure out what I wanted to do. Like I said, though, once the idea finally came to me, this card just came together.

Luckily for me, I had a paper pad with lots of blue and grey. Papers are My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Portabello Road. I added some pearls from my stash and used a punch for the photo corner. Sentiment is one I found online and just typed into Word and printed out. I figure it will make a fun "congrats on your wedding" card or even anniversary card.

The image was colored with copics. Blues on the jeans and folded clothes are B95, 93, 91. Orange is YG65, 61, 000. Greys are C3 and C1. I drew in a little hardwood floor, too. My original intention was to make this card pretty embellie-happy. However, it doesn't feel like it needs it to me. I've been asked several times how I know when to stop with the tossing of embellishments at a card and I can never answer, except to say "I just stop when it looks right." I decided this card looked right as-is, so here you go!

 

Please consider joining us for Chana's off color challenge. The challenge ends on February 14th, so you've got some time. You could win the chance to be a guest designer on a future challenge, as well as a gift card to the store. What are you waiting for?

There's no place like gnome!!

(Sorry for the lateness of this post. I had issues with blogger today).

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's! G has challenged us to add spots/dots to our projects this time around. That's an easy one, since I love polka dots. The hard part was picking the paper to use, because I've got lots of polka dotted paper. I let the image inspire me, which helped. I have a love of cutesy gnomes. Not so much that I actually have any of the little guys at my house, but enough that every little gnome embellishment comes home with me and I smile at every gnome-laden card I see on blogs and in online galleries. For some reason, G's new image of this little house just reminded me of a gnome's cottage. I decided to paper piece the heck out of it to make it even more gnome-friendly. Check it out:

As previously stated (that sounds so pompous, doesn't it? But once again, I digress...), I paper pieced the house. I popped up the windows and door for dimension, added flower soft on the windowsills, and used some stickers from Barnes and Noble. I have entirely too many stickers left in my stash, and just when I thought I had weeded them all out, too! Anyway, the sentiment is from Stampin' Up. The doily came in a pack of 500 that I got on ebay. Okay, it was probably closer to 100, but the stack was so high it looked more like 500. I always sucked at those "how many gumballs are in the jar" games.

Now it's your turn to play with some spots. Enter your project at Guylou's for the chance to win a gift card to her store and be a guest designer on a future challenge. You can also head by the store to pick up this cute little house as a freebie! How cool is that? Go on. Get over there. Go! Go! Go! (Yeah, I know I'm bossy. And when I forget, my baby brother reminds me).

TAG, you're it!

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's Inimitability. This one's easy peasy for most, but not so much for me. All you gotta do is make a tag. That's all. For some reason, this teeny, tiny task always gets blown out of proportion for me. I just have a hard time making them. This time, though, everything seemed to come together. I picked my image, found some fabric and fun embellishments, and broke out my new distress markers to color. They will definitely take some practice!!! I'm so used to copics, and these are a whole different animal altogether. Anyway, here's what I've got:

I used Nounours, printed him on watercolor paper, colored with distress markers, and added glossy accents to his nose and eyes. The tag was cut with a Magnolia doohickey die. Fabric is from my stash. The button ringed in brown is an antique one that I got in a lot in Gettysburg. For once, that's all I've got to say. I know, you are not used to short posts from me, are you? Now it's your turn. Go make a tag and post it to Guylou's Inimitability. Details are on the blog.

I'd like to enter this card in the Cutie Pie Challenge Blog to use punches or die cuts. The tag itself is a die from Magnolia. The key printed tissue paper behind the bear was punched with a Creative Memories square stamp-looking punch. I can't remember what it's called; I've had it for what seems like a gazillion years!

Grab your wings and fly!

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's Inimitability. This time, it was my friend Sara's turn to play host. Unfortunately, Sara recently had to step down from the DT. We sure do miss her, and in honor or her, we're going forward with her challenge idea. All you have to do is make a project that features something with wings. That's it! Things with wings!!

For my project, I used this adorable fairy. She makes me smile.

 It's hard to tell in the pic, but I added some bling to all of the flowers. The image was colored with copics. I wanted her to be bright and happy, and really capture the eye, so I went for some really saturated color. I also tried to keep the card mostly flat, as it will be sent to Operation Write Home so a soldier can wish his/her mom a wonderful Mother's Day.

You have until 10 pm EST on Thursday, March 15th to enter your project featuring things with wings. You could win a $10 gift card to Guylou's store, as well as the opportunity to appear as a guest designer on a future challenge!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome Roxann to our team. She's been an active participant in our challenges and has guest DT'ed a time or two. We're happy to have her on our team permanently! You can check out her blog to see just how lucky we are to get such a great talent and a great personality. The link is in my left sidebar. Welcome to G's DT family, Roxann!

Happy crafting!

Oh, my goodness! I almost forgot. I know I've told you in the past about G's generosity. Well, she's decided to help out all of you wonderful people in blogland. She's giving away a freebie, for 24 hours only on March 2nd. Just go to www.guylou.com on March 2nd, add the fairy bear to your cart, and enter the code 201203-FAIRY-BEAR to get her for FREE. She's perfect for this challenge, too!

Go ahead, it's okay! Clutch your pearls!!!

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's Inimitability. This time around, we WANT you to clutch your pearls. Yeah, I know, it's often a derogatory term to call someone a "pearl clutcher." In this case, though, we will applaud you for it. My dear friend Brenda is hosting our challenge and she wants us to make a project using lace, and...you guessed it...pearls! Now, we're calling this a "girly girl" kind of challenge, but only because it involves pearls and lace. You don't have to make a feminine card. In fact, I challenge you to think outside the box.

Here's my example:

As you can see, I used both lace and pearls, but my card is not about being girlie. It's a bit early, but Merry Christmas! LOL. I keep thinking to myself that if I can make a few Christmas cards per month, I might actually have enough made by December to actually send them this year. We'll see.

My card uses one of Guylou's wreaths that I cut with a spellbinders circle die, then added another spellbinders die behind it. I colored the image with watercolor pencils, so the leaves are a very light green. Then I used liquid pearls to make the berries. I used my copic opaque paint a bit liberally on this card, too. It has a bit of a vintage feel, I think.

Now it's your turn. Go ahead, clutch your pearls! Upload your project to Guylou's Inimitability by March 1 at 10 pm EST. See the GI blog for details on prizes and rules.