{Caardvarks} 6x6 card & Oldies

Is this a blast from the past? When I first became a stamper (~10 years ago, scrapbooking for 4 years), decorative scissors, corregated paper, and using UTEE was "in". A lot of work for one image! Remember, this was before my girls were born. Since then I have had a more practical approach; less stamping, more dp. I still love to stamp! I just don't seem to get around to it as often. I made it one of my 2007 goals to get back to my stamping roots. Anyway, I've been seeing a lot more corregated paper again, so I guess it is cycling around again?

Recipe: card base is black, inked direct to paper with metallic pigment ink pads, and edged with my gold Pilot pen. Two mats are also blck cs, one metallic blue, and one a mustard corregated paper. Main image: pigment ink, UTEE, and part of a stamp made by Judikins (on a piece of a cardboard box!). I finger painted her with rub'n buff paints. Then I edged the cardboard square with red line tape, and adhered tiny beads to all four sides. The card base matches nicely, but in the picture the blue metallics appear much brighter.

{Caardvarks} 5 star challenge & Let's Do Math

5 different embellishments? It never really occurred to me how many I use normally. I guess my answer is 1-3; I tend to use brads/eyelets, ribbon, primas, an occasional staple, and rub-ons (do they count?) But 5 different embellishments all at once? How to create a card without overloading it...less is more, right? Hmmmm....

This card has MM brads (2 sizes), ribbon, primas (2 sizes), MM buttons, and a MM page pebble. That's 5, right? The cs is DCWV and the dp is BoBunny.

These challenges have been very good for me. I've been in a rut, using my same favorite sketches over & over. Even though I have been trying to do something different, there have been only subtle differences. In other words, I'm still in my box. The past few days my brain has been saying, "Think outside the box." This is reminiscent of my favorite math teacher from high school. Math was always my favorite subject, but Mrs. Trabbic was largely responsible for challenging me to be even better. Even when I became a secondary math teacher myself, I would recall how Mrs. Trabbic would explain how to solve certain problems so that we all understood. Yes, she made even those pesky word problems seem easy, "A train leaves going north...a second train..." You get the idea. But algebra is cookbook to me. You always follow the same recipe to yield the result. See, I love order. I have learned that my cards do not always have to be perfectly symmetrical, nor mounted with perfect right angles everywhere. It is art. (This was really hard for me when I was a beginner. Go ahead, you can laugh at me!) But Mrs. Trabbic often provided brain teasers, like the 9 dots problem. It goes like this: "Without lifting your pencil or retracing over any line segments, connect all nine dots in just 4 line segments. Hint: think outside the 9 dots."
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Once we found that solution, she would say, "Now do it with just 3 segments. Hint: think outside the box." I hope I accomplished thinking outside the box, or outside the 9 dots today. I certainly was challenged. I did use a variation of a sketch I saw at http://gotsketch.blogspot.com/. So my question for you, my blog reader is this, "Do right brain people go through this?"

{Caardvarks} Four Square Challenge

I'm not sure how I feel about this card. I would not normally choose these dp. I was challenging myself to use scraps that I never go to. These are scraps of KI Memories papers from a Baby Milestones mini book class I taught. The cs is MM double-dipped ocean and terracotta. The mini brad is DCWV, and I did the faux stitching with my paper piercer and gel pen.

When I saw the challenge, I was going to do a sketch I use often, four squares on a square card with the image in the middle, or a large prima. These ideas were already posted, so I tried to think outside the box (my box). But now I'm in a rectangle.

{Caardvark} Tri-This! Challenge

Today's challenge was to make a tri-fold card. I have only made gatefold cards prior to today. Today had lots of firsts. First time I used my lady bug die cut, first time using my scalloped frame die cut, first time using my spicy chicken font, first time using my red glitter paper, and first time using this ribbon my friend Dora sent me (for use on another card, but perfect for this one too!) I hope you like it!

{Caardvark} Challenge Double Take

Today's challenge is to make 2 different newly created cards using the same supplies. The "With Love" stamp (by Stamp Francicso) I even used two different ways! I stamped in SU! chocolate chip. The dp and ribbon slide are by MM, and the ribbon is 7gypsies. The cream/ivory cs is from ACMoore. Yes, all still from my scraps. Some pieces of dp I did not have to cut at all; they came right out of the scrap bag and onto the cs :) The cards practically designed themselves depending on the size of the scrap!

{Caardvark} Challenge Uno

{Caardvark} has a 10-Day 10K Challenge. Today's challenge is to make a newly created card using one stamp on your card front.

This is newly created; my own sketch...in the past 30 minutes :) My one stamp is "Thinking of You" by Endless Creations. I stamped with walnut ink. The cs is DCWV, the dp is Basic Grey "Fusion", the brads are MM, and the flowers are primas. I created the scallops with the SU! slot punch, and rounded the corners with the CM corner rounder. Wish me luck!

i{heart}2stamp Challenge

One of my favorite blogs I check regularly has a challenge to have a card with a mostly white background:

http://iheart2stamp.com/2007/06/30/more-hit-the-beach-a-challenge/

My friend Dianne Mathewson designed this card, and I love it so much, I have duplicated dozens of times. My picture came out kind of funky, but the base is white linen cs. The largest mat is silver mirror paper, the blue metallic is hand made paper (I made it using a lunch bag and lumiere paints), and lastly a navy linen cs. The punch and stamp are both from a fellow NCSU Wolfpack graduate, Anna Griffin.