Another miserable day.....

.... It's been such a lousy week and overall a very lousy month.  April is always the worst month for me and for many years has always been full of sadness, pain and upset.  I will be so glad when it over and hopefully it will finally be Spring and brighter and happier days will come!  

        On a happier note, I am trying really had to keep my mind busy and cardmaking has always helped me.   Even so, it's been a struggle this week, but I know it helps to make the days pass and keeps my mind off of stress and upset! 

     I have a few new cards to share and I'm starting with a card I created for this week's challenge over at the SCACD Friends With Heart Challenge Blog.  This week it's Challenge #2 and our challenge is to create any project that features a stamp sold at Susana's Store, and you must also include a 'heart' on your project.  I chose this adorable Shy Bear, from the I Break for Stamps line. 

  My 'Bear Hugs' Card was also inspired and created for these additional challenges!

• A Spoonful of Sugar - Challenge # 147 - All Creatures Great & Small
• Creative Craft Challenges - Embossing (Heart or Dry)
• Friends with Heart Challenge Blog - SCACD Stamp required/And a Heart

   I have another new card today and this card was created for a new challenge hosted over at 'The Outlawz' and today is Sketch Day.  Here is a copy of the sketch that I used as the Inspiration for my card.  

   And this is my card, which I created in an Easter Theme.  My image is a cute new digi I picked up from PollyCraft.   For my card I flipped the sketch and used two different Spellbinder die cuts for my image background. 

  My Happy Easter card is being submitted to each of these fun challenges -- hope you'll play too!

• Die Cut Dreams Challenge - Challenge # 87 - It's Easter Time
• PollyCraft Monday - Challenge #88  - Easter
• Aly's Sunday Sketch - Challenge # 39 - Hippity Hoppity Bunnies

  I have another card I created for yesterday's color challenge over at 'The Outlawz' and I admit that this challenge is really tough for me.  I do NOT sew in any form and I am not at all good with sewing, so when I read that the new Color Challenge twist was to show sewing in some form on my card, I almost did not even play.  But, then again, I hate to give up, so I started looking around for other ideas and remember that I had this cute little image from Bugaboo that featured a little bear sitting on a thimble.  I colored him up with my copics and in the end I had a card to enter.   The colors inspiration for the challenge was based on this image, which I'm sure may make you drool --

Color Inspiration

  My Card

   And I truly an "Sew Grateful" that I was able to come up with a card for the challenge.  I was also excited to try out my "Sew Easy" tool that I bought from SCACD.   I am impressed with how easy it was to use and that was my very first try.  I know in time, I'll use it more and more and in time, I'll probably LOVE sewing challenges?  (Well...maybe?)  If you are like me and can NOT sew, or really do NOT even like to sew, then I think this will be a great tool for you to add to your craft collection.  You can find it HERE, as Susana's store along with a fabulous instructional video done by Marti.

  And I have two more cards to share and these were created for today's new Midweek Throwdown Challenge being hosted over at the Stars and Stamps Blog.  The challenge this week is to create a card with lots of layers, something I enjoy!   It's also being sponsored by StampFairy and I was happy to have created while I was still part of the Design Team for the challenge too, so I'm actually sharing them both with you here!!   This is the the StampFairy card that I created last month and is featured over at OWH today.  This fun little Birthday Card features Lenny with Flowers, one of my favorite bears from StampFairy. 

      And this is a brand new card I created today to submit to the challenge, which features,  Linda Ballet who is also a favorite from my StampFairy Collection.  

    My sweet little Linda Ballet Card is also being submitted to each of these challenge and you are all welcome to join in:

• Operation White Home - Midweek Throwdown - Layers
• My Partner In Creating - Challenge # 24 - Layer it up
• Kaboodle Doodles Challenge Blog - # 62 - Cute and Cuddly Animals

    Phew!!!! ....that was a very long post, but I had lots of new things to share!  I hope I have inspired you all to create some fun new projects and join in on all of this really fun Challenge!