Weeeee Are the Champ-ions, My Fri-end...

Hello friends & followers!  I am happy to share the four cards I created for the Viva la Verve! sketch challenges for the month of April.  You may be shocked to learn that I completed all four without rotating or flipping a single one - rare for me!  Without further ado, here is the first one, based on Week 1's sketch created by Amber Hight:

The sentiment is from Verve's 'Grateful Elegance' set.  My original intention was to put red rhinestones in the centers of those punched out 1/4" black circles, but the two sizes I had were either too large or two small, so I placed them around the edge of the big black circle and under the sentiment instead.  Card one, clap clap done! 

My second card is based on week 2's sketch by Andrea Ewen, I loved the balance of this sketch:

The elegant filigree butterfly is from Verve's 'Thankful Blossoms' set.  I embossed the top & bottom real red panels, added some tiny red rhinestones to various parts of the butterfly, and found this shiny red & black ribbon from Michael's that was perfect to complete the card.  Here I did decide to place the bigger red rhinestones inside of the punched out black circles - notice how you can barely see the black behind them?  Card two, clap clap done! 

Here is my card based on the sketch for week 3 designed by Teresa Klein:

I was originally planning to stay with the kraft-red-black color combination and make a set of cards but for some reason Verve's 'Cupcake Affair' spoke to me on this layout and that color combo. just didn't fit.  Of the four cards this is my least favorite, the cupcake and flower I used to replace the 2 circles in the sketch just look crooked or something.  Love the chocolate velvet ribbon though and this pretty paper from Basic Grey, and the yummy 'chocolate and butter' color combination.  Card three, clap clap done!

Here is my card for week 4 based on a sketch by Shannan Teubner; it is my favorite of the four:

The portion where I fanned five different colors of yummy twine was actually five different sections on Shannan's original sketch, but I got frustrated trying to cut the pieces just right and thought this looked like rays of a sunshine rainbow streaming from the sun I created using a Nesties' classic & pinking circles.  'Hello sunshine' seemed like the perfect sentiment to complete the card - it is from Verve's 'Accent notes'.  I am also submitting this card for Paper Sundaes Challenge 66: a toppings bar where you have to use at least two of the following toppings: sparkle, pearls, die cuts and the color yellow - I only used the last two: die cuts (I created the sun using Nesties circles & pinking circles dies) and the color yellow (in the sun and the twine).  Card four, clap clap done.  So, which one is your favorite?

Alrightie, time to go upload these cards to my SCS gallery and post them on the Verve Champions thread - you can be a Verve Champion too - all you have to do is complete all the Viva la Verve sketches for the month posted every Friday.  Alrightie, I am off to take my victory lap (hypothetical of course, I still can't run).  I might have something else crafty for you to see later if you wish to check back.  Happy Thursday everyone!!
~Crafty Math Chick

Three More Cards for Monday

Hello again friends & followers!  I have been busily crafting away today and have three more cards for your viewing pleasure.  The first is based on There She Goes Sketch Challenge 104 and TSG's HSH - Hanukkah Additions set:

The menorah and sentiment (which conveniently fits perfectly inside Stampin' Up!'s Word Window punch) were embossed with gold EP onto Night of Navy cardstock matted in Brushed Gold.  The background was embossed using the Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots EF and I used two ribbons to complete the card: a navy satin ribbon over the scalloped strip of Brushed Gold (ideally I would have preferred a navy velvet, but I only had royal blue which clashed), and a sheer navy ribbon at the top.  There She Goes Clear Stamps is hosting 'The Mother of All Blog Hops' Mother's Day weekend - it is going to be a LOT of fun, showcasing tons of TSG's fantastic images, so make sure you click the link and check it out - I don't want you to miss out on the fun!!  :)

My next two cards were both completed using Skipping Stones Design's Sketch 73 by Laurie Schmidlin:

In my first card I replaced the heart with a snowman from SSD's 'Sassy Snow' Set and created three snow drifts using pre-glittered white paper from DCWV (which doesn't show up well in the photo, but it is super sparkly in real life). 

I substituted pom poms in for the buttons as a little snowball stockpile, and since this snowman's expression seemed to be saying 'Gimme a snowball!' I gave him one in his little mittened hand.  The background is Marina Mist cardstock embossed using Cuttlebug's Snowflakes EF.  (Holiday card count - 28, still behind, but catching up).  This card also fulfills the requirements Charisma Cardz Challenge 16 - jokes & laughter due to the humorous sentiment.

My second card uses SSD's 'Grey Hares' set:

I usually stamp this cute bunny on grey cardstock since it matches several of the funny sentiments from this set, but today for a change of pace I decided I wanted a white bunny in front of that sunburst on background DP; all three different patterned papers on this card are all from The Blossoms & Butterflies mat stack by DCWV.  I punched out some flowers using a triple flower punch from Stampin' Up! and Daffodil Delight, Marina mist, and Melon Mambo cardstock and gave them pearl centers.  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges as well:

• Paper Sundaes Challenge 66 - sundae bar: you must use at least two of the following toppings: sparkle (pre-glittered cardstock - check), pearls (check), die cuts (if the punched flowers count) and yellow (check),
• Creative Inspirations Challenge 108 - pets/animals,
• The Crazy Challenge 64 - use 3 different patterned papers (2 different ones to create the hills, one in the background), and
• Charisma Cards Challenge 16 - jokes & laughter due to the punny sentiment.

Thank you all for hosting such fun challenges and thank all of you for taking the time to stop by my little blog and see my cards.  I hope your week is off to a fabulous start!
~Crafty Math Chick

April 2011 PTI Blog Hop

Welcome friends, followers and hoppers!  I finally get to reveal the card I made for Papertrey Ink's April 2011 Customer Blog Hop.  The theme was 'Boys to Men' so I used PTI's 'Father Knows Best' set (love the trees in this) along with lemon tart, summer sunrise, and dark chocolate cardstocks and PTI's Father Knows Best patterned papers (the stripes I used are my favorite). 

For some added dimension I popped up a few of the lemon tart circles punched out with a 1/2" punch and stamped a couple of the smaller circles in summer sunrise ink over the circules in the tree image.  I tied it up with some 5/8" lemon tart grosgrain ribbon, and voila - card complete!  I think this makes the 4th Father's Day card I have created this year.  Since I only need one to send to my Father-in-law I will let my hubby pick his favorite and ship the rest off to Operation Write Home for the troops to send out.

Thank you all so much for stopping by to see my card on this hop.  And for my regular followers I will be posting some additional creations later this afternoon if you wish to check back.
Have a great day!
~Crafty Math Chick

Happy Friday!

Good morning friends & followers.  This morning I have a set of cards for your viewing pleasure courtesty of the Color Spotlight Challenge at Stamp TV, In the Navy, Wild Dandelion and White.  I actually had all three of these colors, which have now been depleted except for the white, after creating this set of cards using Gina K. Designs' 'Lights of the Season' set:

Here is a close up of a few of them:

I could not decide up an orientation or which use of color worked better so I made half using In the Navy as the background embossed with the CB Swiss Dots folder and the other half using Wild Dandelion and D'Vine Swirls as the CB embossing folder, and then making two of each in vertical and horizontal orientations.  Do you have a favorite?  Holiday card count: 25 (at least 5 behind where I should be for this time of year, I will catch up though).

This card also fulfills the requirements of this week's Color Throwdown 138 - use navy, white and one other color (I obviously picked yellow) which happens to be sponsored by my friend Laura Pryor and new new company this week, Lil' Inker Designs, so why not check it out if you have the time and are feelin' crafty!

I hope to have a second post later today with more crafty goodness for you.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful Friday!
~Crafty Math Chick

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE!

Hello friends and followers!  This post is to wish a very happy and healthy birthday ot one of my dearest friends, Lee Murphy.  Many of you know her as luvlee on SCS and a Design Team Diva over at Stamp TV, I know her as 'family,' and one of the kindest, sweetest, most loving, giving and talented ladies I know. Here is a card I made for her birthday:

(you may have seen it posted previously, but Lee has been so busy I don't think she has, and my back prevented me from making another card for her last night so I am re-posting so that I can at least honor her on her special day).  Lee has a soft spot for the meeses (which she has now got me hooked on as well), and for glitter, and for the color pink, so this card was created using three of her favorite crafty things (the cupcakes are pre-glittered cardstock).  The ribbons were even part of a 'get well soon!' care package she put together for me when I had my spinal fusion surgery.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND!!

Thank you for being the loving, supportive, caring, inspirational, understanding, remarkable person you are!!

Here are some of the other gals who are celebrating Lee's special day on her hop, in no particular order:

Lori
Lydia
Carole
Misti
Alison
Paula
Nancy, and last but certainly not least
Joanne.

We hope you will stop by the birthday girl's blog: My Reality - it's All Good and wish her a happy birthday.

Thanks for sharing Lee's special day with us, WE LOVE YOU LEE!!

~Crafty Math Chick

Taylored Expressions April Blog Hop

Welcome friends & followers to your 18th stop on Taylored Expressions' Blast from the Past Blog Hop!  :)  You should have arrived here from Michelle Single's blog, if not, you may wish to begin at the beginning at Taylor's Blog.The theme of this month's hop is "CAS" - clean and simple for you newbies.  I decided to use  Taylored Expressions' Sketch 136 for my card today:

Of course, I rotated it 90 degrees to the right, as I have been a lot lately, and came up with the following card using Taylored Expressions' "In the Park" set:

You all see the puppy sitting on the bench right?  Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for dogs and have trouble resisting any set with a canine component, so when I saw this little guy this set had to be mine.  I masked him (you know how tricky it was cutting around those ears?  LOL!) and stamped the park bench over him, stamped the tree and the cute little birdie, colored everything in with Copic markers, added little tiny silver domes for the bench rivets and added the sentiment up top.  I found my Martha Stewart grass punch (so whichever of you commented I would find it after I finished my previous card you were so correct!) and sponged it to give it a little dimension and added it at the bottom of the card. 

So, that is my card for this hop.  I hope you liked my card and will continue on your journey. Cassie Trask is next on the hop and I am sure she has something special for you to see. 


I primarily created this card for Taylor's Blog Hop, but it also happens to fulfill the requirements of the following challenges as well:

• Crafty Catz Challenge 78 - Furry Friends (because of the puppy and the birdie), and
• Lawnscaping Challenge 8 - Calling all critters

Thanks for stopping by and I may just have a little something additional posted for you later in the day as well.
Cheers!

~Crafty Math Chick

Two More

Hello again, I am back with two more cards for your viewing pleasure.  The first was created using this week's Spotlight Sketch at Stamp TV and the colors from The Play Date Cafe's Color Challenge 77, green, brown and white:

Here is my card:

I am really loving this little owl from Gina K. Designs' 'Owl Always Love You' set and coloring it in with OMS.  This is my first circle card ever!  Fellow splitcoaststamper Ravengirl (a.k.a. Toni) told me I could make a circle card by cutting out two Nestability circles, scoring 1/2" from the top of one of them and attaching it to the other circle by this bent piece from the inside - genius!  I wanted to use the largest circle I could since the size of the owl panel was rather large itself, so I went with a scalloped circle shape instead.  Since this little guy certainly qualifies as a 'cute critter' I am also entering him in Lawnscaping's Challenge 8, Calling All Critters:

The second card was created using Skipping Stones Designs' Sketch 72 designed by Laurie Schmidlin, some pretty patterned papers by Echo Park and SSD's "Bra's Volume 1" set.

The fancy bra was embossed with black EP onto Pink Pirouette cardstock.  I colored in the bow in the middle and added a tiny rhinestone accent, can you see it?  Since this card has lots and lots of layers it satisfies the requirements of Cupcake Craft Challenge 138, "Lots of Layers'.

Thank again for stopping by my little blog to view my creations.   I hope you like them and have a great day!! :)
~Crafty Math Chick

Happy Easter Kim Hughes!

Hello everyone.  Thank you all for your kind and caring comments about my back; I am trying to rest up and hoping for a good report from the doctor tomorrow.  My first card today is a celebration of Kim Hughes.  I fell in love with Kim's clean and simple, whimsical style of illustrations back when she designed stamps for Cornish Heritage Farms.  She has her own company now, Paper Smooches, which continues her unique and adorable style.  This card was made for her May guest designer challenge:

I used the cute freebie egg basket image Kim generously provided at The Paper Smooches website and added the 'hoppy easter' sentiment from her 'Sweet Spring' set under the Cornish Heritage Farms label.  I colored the basket & eggs with Copic markers and then applied glitter using terrifically tacky tape for the stripes and a Zig 2-way glue pen for the eggs.  Then I popped up the egg basket square with dimensionals, and TA DA!  Cute and sparkly Easter card!  I know being selected as a guest designer for Paper Smooches is a long shot, there is so much talent out there, but I love Kim's images so much, and have just about all of her sets with CHF, that I had to at least give it a shot.
This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges as well:
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge 44 - sparkle and bling,
Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge 51 - to use the colors and theme from the following inspirational picture (I used pink, yellow and blue along with eggs and an Easter theme):

Creative Inspirations Challenge 107 - Easter, and
For Fun Challenge - pick at least three of the following colors: pink, yellow, green, blue and purple from the following inspirational picture (I used pink, yellow and blue).


Thank you all for visiting and viewing my creations. I want to give a special thank you to everyone who left such kind and supportive comments regarding my Waltzingmouse waltz card yesterday when my back pain was severe - you are all so sweet and I appreciate all of you!!  I will have another post with more projects later on today.  Thanks for stopping by!
~Crafty Math Chick

Bunny Waltz

Hello friends, followers and waltzers!  You've heard of the Bunny Hop, well today is the Bunny Waltz in honor of Waltzingmouse Stamps' April Blog Waltz.  Please forgive the delayed posting, I have been playing with ideas in my head all month, trying to come up with something really spectacular to honor Claire and her fabby stamps and nothing seemed good enough.  Then, starting last Tuesday my back has been worse than it has been in a long time so I have been trying to rest it and that left me in the unfortunate position of creating something last minute, which I despise doing because for me pressure does not result in my best work.  Ramblings aside, here is my card:

This month's waltz theme was 'Easter' and the only WMS set I have that has Easter themed stamps is Claire's adorable "Lil Buddies".  I stamped the bunny twice, on the white background and then again on Creamy Caramel cardstock which was cut out and flocked with Caramel Latte Fun Flock and adhered to the white base.  I also flocked his fluffy tail with cotton ball white Fun Flock as well.  I could have sworn I had Martha Stewart's grass punch but could not find it anywhere without lots of bending and my back finally insisted that I give up and create grass of my own for its sake, so I took two strips of green cardstock and notched them with a scissors and pulled up a few random pieces by hand for dimension.  I decided to use the butterfly from the set to hold the 'Hoppy Easter' sentiment in the banner which I curled with my fingers and popped the middle section up with a thick dimensional to try to give it a wavy effect. I colored in the butterfly with Fruit Punch Stickles for a little sparkle.

That's about it - thank you for visiting my card on this waltz, but please do not feel pressured to leave a comment on this one; even my husband told me 'it isn't your best work' as the smile disappeared from his face when he looked at it.  I guess the fact I am not feeling well is effecting my creativity and/or execution today.  Please forgive me Claire, perhaps it is better not to participate at all in the future if I can't honor your stamps as you deserve?  I hope everyone is feeling well and has a happy Sunday.  I apologize for wasting your time and will try hard to do better in the future.
~Crafty Math Chick

Fancy Tag Frustration

Hello my friends and followers, Friday is almost here, hang in there.  This morning I have three cards to show you.  This first one I created by rotating Card Positioning Systems' Sketch 213. 90 degrees to the right:

Since the challenge was sponsored by My Favorite Things (MFT) Stamps, I wanted to thank them by using one of their images in the card.  Everyone knows that MFT has tons of adorable little girl and 'Who's that Girl?' images, so I wanted to throw a little love in the guy's direction using Who's That Geek Guy:

That yummy patterned paper is from DCWV's Generation Tech Stack that I LOVE (can you tell that the red aliens are foiled?!!).  The chair, tee shirt and laptop were paper pieced with Going Grey, Real Red, and Brushed Silver cardstock respectively, and I added a hint of shading to the skin, background and table using Prismacolor pencils.  I LOVED this set when it came out because a lot of male relatives of mine are HUGE computer jocks and have fond childhood memories of gaming on their computers and Atari systems.  this card also fulfills the following challenges:

• Crafty Creations Challenge 114 - to use paper piecing on your card,
• SCS' Ways to use it Challenge 318 - Hey people! (to use a person on your card), and lastly
• Paper Sundaes Challenge 64 - Childhood Memories. 

My second card was created for this week's sketch spotlight challenge at Stamp TV.  I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right, used the colors from Crazy for Challenges' Challenge 82 - to use the colors green, brown and cream and created this card using Gina K. Designs' "Owl Always Love You" set, which I think is the first GKD set I added to my collection:

That corner was kind of tricky for me, being a lover symmetry, but I added the 'Owl' in the corner and the rest of the sentiment (always love you) inside the card.  :)  I used Gina's tutorial on coloring with Odorless Mineral Spirits to color in the image (I am really enjoying this technique and showing my Prismacolor pencils some love, the poor things have been a little neglected since I purchased some copic markers, it is nice to mix up coloring techniques every now and then) and sponged a little Creamy Caramel ink around the edge while the Nestabilities' die was still in place to create an extra layer.  The DP (designer paper for any new readers) was from a Christmas stack from the Paper Studio and I embossed the brown strip of cardstock using Cuttlebug's Forest Branches folder, which is also a favorite of mine.  Since this card has an owl on it is also fulfills the requirements of this week's Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 129, dedicated to 'our feathered friends'.

Okay, this last card is the reason for this post's title. I have seen SO MANY LOVELY cards created using the Fancy Tag dies by Nestabilities, but I have to tell you - I was ready to throw this particular set across the room yesterday.  I tried to create the card below, made form this week's color spotlight challenge on Stamp TV, red hot, sweet corn and sweet mango, using Gina K.'s touching set 'You Are Not Alone' and one of the fancy tags for the sentiment and the die would NOT cut all the way through the cardstock.  Yes, I tried running it through twice.  Yes, I tried running it through twice in both directions.  Yes, I tried using a shim, destroying perfectly good cardstock in the process which angers me because I detest waste of all kinds.  Yes, I attempted to pick the die cut out from the die with a stylus and craft knife and after several tries I just could not justify the strain on my back (which still hurts, good job CMC!) or sacrificing any more cardstock and simply cut the mangled ends off the lable and tried to hide them behind some big rhinestones with this card:

This card was supposed to be for one of my closest friends on the planet and now I totally feel it is not good enough for her!  Hmph!!  Maybe the 'you are not alone' sentiment was trying to tell me I am not the only one who has had problems with this set?  I tried to distract from the the carnage by adding petite red rhinestones to various flourishes created by the 'Birds & Swirls' Cuttlebug embossing folder, thus meeting the requirements of this week's Tuesday Throwdown Challenge 44, to use sparkle and bling, and used the thumping technique on the pretty flower image as well.

Thank you for letting me vent.  Any other suggestions or tips you have regarding this set are greatly appreciated, I really like the shapes of the dies of the set and would love to be able to use them.  I have never had this issue with any other spellbinders set before, and the company I ordered it from will not take it back or send me a replacement because I ordered it too long ago.  Maybe I can try it with my old original Sizzix?  Don't know that sandwich though...   You may see more from me later this afternoon if I am able to let this go already, it is blocking my mojo...
~Crafty Math Chick

Peep!

Hello friends and followers.  Today for your viewing pleasure I have a card courtesy of the Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge 72 and the color combination from the inspirational picture from Off the Wall Craftiness 50:

And here is the card I made inspired by these challenges:

The chickie and sentiment are from a set from Skipping Stones Design called 'Chick Chat'.  Inside the card says 'from one cute chick to another' and there is a stamp for the back of the card that is an UPC symbol with the words 'Not Cheep' - I just LOVE that!  The 'peep' chick was stamped twice - on white and yellow cardstocks then cut out and paper pieced and I added glue and yellow flock to make the chick fuzzy.  The papers are from two different baby themed stacks by K & Company that just really seemed to go well together.

Although I designed this card with the above two challenges in mind, it also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges as well:

• Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge 129 - Feathered Friends,
• Crafty Creations Challenge 114 - Paper piecing,
• A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge 147 - All creatures great and small,
• Fab & Funky Challenge 68 - Spotty and dotty (two of the patterned papers I used have dots on them),
• For Fun Challenge - Must use at least three of the following colors: pink, green, yellow, blue & purple, and
• Raise the bar Challenge 61 - Hey Chick! (use a chick on your card).

 I hope to get crafty a little later this afternoon as well, so I might have a second post for you; I will have to see how my back is doing.  Thank you to all the challenge sites for the fun challenges and thank all of you for taking the time to visit my blog and view my creations.  Your kind comments always make me smile.  :)

~Crafty Math Chick

SSD Second Take

Hello friends and followers.  I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.  :)  I only have one card for your viewing pleasure today, my mojo is weak today.  It is my second take on Skipping Stones Design Sketch 71: (which was designed by Laurie Schmidlin)

You may recall my earlier card with this sketch which had a chocolately donut theme, but the first time I saw this sketch I saw those tall rectangles as candles for some reason and could not get that idea out of my head so today I came up with this:

This didn't come out as I imagined in my head, I couldn't find the exact patterned paper I was looking for the background - this one is actually orange but it looks more like a yellow once I matted it with yellow.  The candles are embossed with swirls using Cuttlebug's D'Vine Swirls embossing folder (one of my favorites) and I cut the flames out by hand from pre-glittered yellow cardstock.  The bunny from Skipping Stones Design's 'Grey Hares' set was stamped twice, once on the lilac cardstock and then again on Going Gray and paper pieced so the inside sentiment "Grey hares are cute" would make sense.  Lots of Pop Its on this card - under the candles, the flames, the star, bunny & sentiment flag.  Added a few light blue rhinestones on the left for balance to make the flag.  One of my BIL's has a birthday coming up, so this card will be for him.


In addition to the SSD71 sketch challenge, this card fulfills the requirements of the following other challenges as well:
For Fun Challenge 18 - Use a bunny on your card,
Paper Play Weekly Challenge 14 - Critters Galore,
Crafty Catz Challenge 77 - embossing,
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes, and lastly
The Catered Crop's Follow the Recipe 9 - the ingredients I used from this week's recipe are:
- colors: red, yellow, green & blue
- shapes: star, swirls (on candles), circles (rhinestones)
- embellishments: bling.


Thank you for the fun challenges and thank you all for taking the time to visit my blog and view my creations.  Have a terrific week!
~Crafty Math Chick

Flashback Friday 10.0 & Ooh La La Echo Park

Hello friends and followers - Happy Friday!  This morning when I was making the blog rounds I learned of a new challenge on my friend Emily's Blog: My Little Slice of Bliss.  It is a challenge sponsored by Amy Tsuruta called The Flashback Friday Challenge.  The really cool thing about this challenge?  You don't have to make a new card for it - you simply re-post a card for the given challenge of the week, revisiting it and giving it a little love, and maybe it will serve as inspiration for a new creation in the process.  I hope you will check it out - especially since Emily is the guest designer for the challenge this week!  This week's challenge was to re-post a picture of the first card you made involving any stitching.  This was mine from July of 2009:

It was using a set from Cornish Heritage Farms by Kim Hughes (who now has her own stamp company, Paper Smooches with more images in Kim's adorable and unique style if you wish to check it out) and I actually sewed on the card - I used a paper piercer and punched holes and did a basic stitch using two strands of red embroidery floss over the 'Noel' sentiment.  As you can see, it didn't come out that great, but it was fun to try.  The trees were paper-pieced and I added some Stickles to the heart for a little sparkle.  The papers are from a retired hostess stack from Stampin' Up!  Here is a link to the original photo of my card, and it's three siblings, in my gallery at Splitcoaststampers if you wish to view it as well.  Thanks for the 411 about Amy's cool challenge Emily, and congrats on the DT honor!! 

Remember when I said I wanted a second go at this week's Sketch Spotlight Challenge on Stamp TV?  Well here it is using that cute Eiffel Tower image from Gina K. Designs' 'Sent With Love' set:

All of those delicious patterned papers are courtesy of Echo Park's 'Be Mine' collection - do they rock or what?  I highly recommend you all 'like' Echo Park Papers on Facebook and sign up for their newsletter, because Madison, their UBER generous owner, has giveaways of his gorgeous papers all the time.  The ribbons are once again a get well gift from my friend Lee.  (You know, I am not much of a 'pinky' girl and would never have picked these out in a million years and I love them - I think I need to ask Lee to pick out all of my ribbons for me, for a fee of course.  ;)  ) and they went with this collection perfectly.  I am kind of re-thinking the rhinestones on top of the black velvet ribbon now, what do you think?

Since this card uses the colors pink, black and white is also fulfills the requirements of Colour Create's Challenge 68, to create a card using only pink, black and white.

That about does it for me today my friends.  I hope you all have a happy Friday and a fabulous weekend!

~Crafty Math Chick

Six on the Seventh

Hello my friends and followers - I cannot tell you how it makes me smile as I see your numbers slowly increasing.  :)  Today I have not one, not two, not even three cards to show you but six.  (I KNOW!)  There are lots of cool challenges on the horizon that have piqued my interest.  The first one is for  Skipping Stones Design Sketch 71:

I used their humorous 'Birthday Donuts' set (the inside says "...sometimes it's best not to count how many you've had") with some Regal Rose patterned paper from one of Stampin' Up!'s retired hostess stacks and this cool chocolate chip morsel DP I found at JoAnn's.   (Someone out there has to come up with some chocolate morsel shaped brads, don't you think?  They would have been awesome on this card!) The donut is embossed using American Crafts' Brownie embossing powder onto Creamy Caramel Cardstock.  I popped the donut up on dimensionals and added a few fun pink & brown ribbons.  Oh yeah, and the brown brads in the corner - do you know how difficult it is to find brown brads?  Not bronze or copper, but brown?  Psst - try Hobby Lobby, they sell them in the combo six packs by Spare Parts and go on sale pretty regularly.  Since this card is humorous, as are several of Skipping Stones Design's sets, it satisfies the requirements of this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge - Comedy Rocks.

This next card I created for Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge 49 - to spotlight an animal.  I have not tried the spotlighting technique before:

...so how did I do?  My friend Lee Murphy turned me on to House Mouse stamps, aren't they cuties?  So I created this birthday card for her using some patterned paper from the 'Birthday Extravaganza' stack by the Paper Studio and layering two of the yummy ribbons she was kind enough to send me in a 'get well soon' care package.   She is a big fan of pink and the meeses, so I am hoping she will like this card.  (Note to self - you do not have a 5/8" or 7/8" circle punches in your collection and, yes, you do need them).  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges:

• Really Reasonable Ribbon's Challenge 21 - to use punches or die cuts and ribbon,
• Paper Play Challenges Week 14 - Critters Galore, and
• Wee Memories Challenge 50 - rainbow inspired - isn't Jenny's inspiration picture GORGEOUS:

Okay, on to my third card, which was created for Verve's 'Color Me Spring' Challenge.  I used the my new 'Egg-stra Special' set that I won during a sneak peek blog hop from Jackie Pedro's Blog (thanks Jackie!) and some patterned paper and ribbon from a past Sell-a-bration Freebie to make this little number:

Believe it or not, I struggled with this one; I am just not a pastel person.  Other than light blue and making an all white and blue or all white and pink baby card, I tend to shy away from my pastels, but I wanted to give this cute little chickie some love.  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges as well:

• The Shabby Tea Room's Challenge 56 - based on this inspirational photo (I thought of the chick hatching from one of these eggs and the pastel colors):
• 
• Tuesday Throwdown 43 - Spring theme, and
• Dutch Dare Card Challenge 107 - Spring has Sprung.

Now for my last three cards, a trio of itty bitty 3 x 3 cards (LOVE this size to include with 'happy mail' packages sent to fellow crafters, because you just can't send something to a fellow card maker without a handmade card in it) for you courtesy of Waltzingmouse's Sketch Challenge 41, which was to make 3 itty bitty cards this week.  I used their 'Sewing Box Hugs' set and made these little cuties:

Again, I used patterned papers from retired hostess packs from Stampin' Up! in Pretty in Pink and Apricot.  The birdie was stamped three times on white, apricot daisies and apricot swirls papers, then cut out and layered, popping up the wing with a dimensional and corner-punching the corners to add pink pearls in some of the corners (discovery - I don't have nearly as many pearls as I do rhinestones!).  Since faux stitching is used in the images of this card is also fulfills the requirements of Challenge 39 by Your Next Stamp - stitching.

That is about it from me.  Tami Mayberry of Gina K. Designs fame is having a HUGE giveaway on her blog if you wish to go check it out, it is pretty spectacular.

I hope everyone has a happy Thursday evening!
~Crafty Math Chick

'LEGO' my Controller!

Hello friends and followers.  Please tell me I am not the only one who instantly envisioned a LEGO piece when first seeing Taylor's Sketch 135 this week:

Well, I did.  I saw a big 'ole Lego piece staring back at me and the weird thing about that is - I didn't play with Legos that much as a child, and I don't have any children around the house playing with them either that they would be in the forefront of my mind!  I did watch the White Stripes' 'I Fell in Love with a Girl' "LEGO" video from several years ago on YouTube recently, can I blame that?  I tried to fight the urge to construct a card around the idea, and was successful with the rose & teal 'doggie in the window' card I created last week, but today I thought "why not?"  So, here is my LEGO card:

I had just about every shade of green Stampin' Up! cardstock out on the cart in the dining room (where I am currently stamping standing up while my back heals and my sitting time is limited) and finally decided Glorious Green just looked 'more 'LEGO' than the other shades.  I punched two 7/8" circles and sponged some ink of the same color around the edges of the 4 circles and square to give the illusion of dimension and then popped them up with 1/8" thick pop dots.  Garden Green was used as the backdrop and the patterned papers are from that 'Generation Tech' stack from DCWV that I love so much (I liked how the pale dots kind of played off the Lego piece).  I found a free Lego type font on the web and was going to type up 'LEGO my controller!" like I have in the title as the sentiment but I decided since it was Taylor's sketch I should honor her by using one of her sentiments from 'Boys will be Boys' - fitting for a gamer of all ages, no?  I stamped the sentiment on the dotted DP and turned it into a flag held in place by one of the controllers from the DP which I cut out by hand and stuck in place with another Pop dot.
My next card was created for Stamp TV's Sketch Spotlight Challenge 20:

I saw the scalloped border at the bottom and envisioned using the crocheted looking border from Gina K. Designs' Vintage Backgrounds set by Nina Brackett, which happened to match the sentiments in her 'Nana's Needlework Sentiments' set as well. 

The card is constructed in RidingHood Red and Very Vanilla with a deep red velvet ribbon from Hobby Lobby (note - HL's velvet ribbons are actually referred to as 'trim' - it goes on sale for half off relatively regularly if you watch their sales flyers, but make sure you are looking for the 'trim' to go on sale, not just 'ribbon by the roll' or they will enter the full price at the register, ask me how I know this?  LOL!).  Since this is a Mother's Day card it fulfills the requirements of this week's PaperPlay Challenge - For Mom/Mum. I think I would like to try this again in another color palette; I feel like I missed the mark of what I hoped to create with this one.  Does that happen to you all often too?

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to look at my cards.  Have a happy Tuuuuuesday (from 'The Laws of Attraction").
~Crafty Math Chick

A Skipping Stones Sketch and a Play Date Cafe Color Challenge

Hello friends and followers.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  Today I have two cards for your viewing pleasure.  The first was created using Sketch SSD70 from Skipping Stones Design:

I flipped it 180 degrees and created this card using their Grey Hares set:

I used this cool birthday candle edger punch from EK Success that was a get well soon gift from my dear friend Barbie (Hi Barbie! - waving) and replaced the 3 embellishments with the trio of balloons image from this set.  I used some colored Martha Stewart twine for the balloon strings and the patterned paper is from a Birthday Extravaganza mat stack from Hobby Lobby.

My second card was created for The Play Date Cafe's 75th color challenge stemming from this inspirational picture:

So I created this card using the colors of pink, blue and silver:

Oddly, this card involves no stamping (gasp!).  The ellies were punched from Pretty in Pink and Baja Breeze cardstocks using my Martha Stewart elephant punch - I simply pulled the ear flaps up in opposite directions so they can face one another.  I used a piece of brushed silver cardstock that was embossed using the Swiss Dots CB EF and adhered a tiny hot pink heart-shaped rhinestone above the couple and tiny silver domes to their eyes (I kinda like how they match the embossed dots in the background, don't you?).  I added a pretty white organdy ribbon with silver accents in the center from Michaels at the top to complete the card.  I figure it will be perfect for an anniversary - or even Valentine's day.

This card also fulfills the requirements of the following challenges:

The Paper Variety 1-2-3 Challenge - 1 rhinestone heart, 2 cute ellies, 3 layers of cardstock (white base - silver - ellies)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 158 - Couples (I have a couple of ellies in love here)

Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge 21 - to use ribbon and punches or die cuts, and lastly

Whimsie Doodles 'Punch it Out!' Challenge - to use punches or die cuts.

Thank you all for the cool challenges and thank you to everyone who takes the time to visit my blog.  I hope your week is off to a terrific start! 

~Crafty Math Chick