Saturday, April 13, 2013

10 Minute Craft Dash 15... In Four Tries...

Hel-LO friends and followers!  Sorry for the long hiatus there, I have been battling with some health issues, and while they unfortunately are not all resolved (won't burden you with the details, the NEED to craft was finally strong enough to win out over my symptoms - YAAY!  
     I have wanted to play along with the 10 minute craft dash ever since I saw my friend Suzanne play along with her friends Jen, Jen and Jessica.  And when I saw this week's color combination, I KNEW I HAD to play along too:
This color combination made me instantly think 'winter' - so I knew I wanted to use some combination of the mittens from WPlus9 Design's Winter Wishes and the snowflakes from their Folk Art Flurries set.  I thought, how hard could it really be to create a card in 10 minutes?...
     ...Well, more challenging than I thought, at least at first.  My first attempt, I didn't even get the mitten fussy cut when the timer went off.  I thought maybe I spent too much time closing all my inks and putting all the stamps back in their packages during the time allotted (I'm a little OCD that way), so I tried again, not even close.  Then I thought maybe the fussy cutting was taking too long, but I REALLY wanted to cut out the mittens and pop them up on dimensionals, I really didn't want to forgo that element of the card.  So, I decided I had to forgo the sentiment flag and stamp the sentiment right on the card front in a contrasting ink instead, yeah, that should do it... almost, but not quite - in the third attempt, without the brad to 'hang' the mittens on, I was rushing in the final seconds to get the card attached and Buh-BAM - just when I thought "I did it!!' I noticed that I had put the card front on the base upside down...  grrr...  Okay, one last attempt and... TA DA!!!!
(please click on the photo for clearer resolution).  I think it came out pretty good, no?  Practice makes perfect right?  LOL!  Then I went back and finished up the three cards that weren't completed under the buzzer (hey, I work on holiday cards all year so I have one less thing to do once November hits anyway).  Here they are:
The one out in front with the matted banner and twine-tied button in the center of the punched & Stardust Stickled snowflake (I think this is my favorite color of Stickles, SO pretty!) was what I had originally envisioned my completed card would look like; perhaps it was a little too ambitious for only 10 minutes, live and learn.  In case you are curious of the other supplies I used to create these set of cards, I used Stampin' Up!'s Pool Party, Island Indigo and Primrose Petals cardstocks & inks, some pretty pink sorbet twine from the Twinery, a 'just because' gift from my close friend Barbie (I love you Girl!), a silver brad, a scissor for fussy cutting and some dimensionals to pop up the mittens a bit.  If anyone is curious, the Island Indigo and Pool Party inks I used for the snowflakes are the 'old' style of stamp pad, and the primrose petals I used for the sentiments are the new 'firm foam' pads - in case you wanted a side-by-side comparison; you can click on the photos for larger pictures of the cards in higher resolution too.  I am also entering these cards in Winter Wonderland's 'No red or green should be seen' Christmas card challenge.  
     Thanks so much for stopping by to see my creations and read my ramblings!  There is still time to play along with the 10 minute craft dash - why not give it a try?!!  It's fun and come on, surely you have ten minutes...  ;)  Have a great weekend!
~ Crafty Math Chick

11 comments:

Paulina said...

I am so thrilled you were persistent and came up with this beauty of a card within the time limit. I'm really impressed with how much you were able to accomplish within the time limit!

Thank you so much for joining along in the 10 Minute Craft Dash. Hope you can play again soon!

P.S. So sorry to hear about your health issues. I hope things start improving for you soon! <3

Michele Lourenco said...

Hey crafty chick! Althought I'm tired if winter and anything related to winter, I have to say this is a really nice card!

Pia S said...

I'm happy when it takes me no more than 2 hours to make a card, so I think I'm going to wait a bit longer before trying that 10 minute bash - lol. You did get a great collection of winter cards out of it though. I really like all these designs. The fussy cut mittens against the stamped background with snowflakes - so sweet!

downrightcrafty said...

what beautiful cards and I am assuming that the mits are in a deep pink?, thank you for joining us at the Winter Wonderland
Hugs Kate xx

Lyndal said...

LOVE, LOVE your winter card - so glad you persisted & now you have 4 FAB Christmas cards!!
So glad you joined in the fun at the 10 Minute Craft Dash - hope to see you again soon :)

walchowDesign said...

Beautiful set of winter cards!

Anita said...

Wow! I would be so like you except would of given up after card 2 or forgot about time limit till card 4. I love the set.

canadian_liner said...

Hey Meredith,
Thanks for your kind comment on my latest try at the 10 Minute craft Dash. I'm impressed you persevered and perfected your winter card (VERY cute design by the way). The first one I attempted took 29 minutes! So I abandoned any further tries at getting that one faster and did a quick and dirty one-layer card instead. I think it would be fun for Paulina to keep a list of "lessons learned" in the art of 10 minute cards... And it definitely takes more than ten minutes to clean up afterwards...

ChristineCreations said...

These are SO cute Meredith! The colours and layout are adorable. Hope you're back to full health soon lady!

Gail said...

Adorable cards. OMG I love the mittens on them!!!! The colors are great, too...and perfect for winter. --Gail

Shannon White said...

Sooo Adorable!! That's so Fabulous that you were able to get this Sweet Holiday card together in 10 minutes!! Man it would have taken me a whole lot longer than that! lol You Rock Lady! 8-)

Hugs
Shannon