Woohoo -- and A big THANK YOU!!

   I was so excited this morning when I went over to the Through the Craftroom Door site and saw that my friend Kerry was the winner of this month's Challenge!!  Yaay Kerry!

   And if that was not enough nice news to start my day, I then headed over to Bugaboo to see what the new Wacky Wednesday Challenge was and that's were I found out, that I was the Winner at CDAC last week -- Yippee!   Below is my newest Badge, and it has now been  added to my Challenge/Award Page -HERE!

     As you can see I have been incredibly lucky in the past several weeks and won so many awesome challenges!  It's a joy and I am very thankful!   My thanks to you ALL!! - I am so amazed when I look at my Award Page, to how many challenges I have won and that's exactly why I decided to create a special page, to give credit to all those wonderful sponsors and group who come up with all these fun challenges!

   Today I hope to work on some new cards and I can say already that there are so many wonderful challenges out this week.  I want to make a card for the new Wacky Wednesday Challenge, and I also have two challenges to do over at The Outlawz Group, not to mention the brand new challenge that started today at Through the Craftroom Door.    And ALL of these are just a few of my favorite challenges and the ones I love to join each week.   If you are like me, then you never really think about winning and simply play along for FUN!   I started taking part in challenges to practice card-making and then later to practice coloring with my Copics.  Now...I just love them and love meeting the others who take part.  It's such a fun crafty world and fun of wonderful people and friends.

   I'm a lucky girl and I want to again say Thank You to everyone who comes by to visit and leaves me such sweet comments.   I feel really lucky to have a hobby that I'm so passionate about and a hobby that most days, I can do!    A big HUG to all my friends and I hope you all have a fun-filled day!    May it be full of happiness, love and lots of craft time!!

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  Afternoon Update:  I am back with a few new cards to share and it's just one of those days, where I am not thrilled with how they all came out.  All the cards were inspired by a variety of challenges and some were a bit out of my comfort zone, but I still tried to come up with something fun and news!   I start with the card that I liked least in the end, and sadly it's the card I made for this week's Color Combo Challenge over at 'The Outlawz'.  As soon as I saw the colors, I knew it was not going to be easy for me, as I tend to love bright happy colors and don't often create with the more earthly colors.   I did come up with a great idea and it started with a 'tree' stamp from my stash.   I stamped the tree in Brown Pigment ink and then added brown embossing powder and heat embossed it.    That's when I should have stopped, as the embossing did not come out very good and was not nice and shiny, as I had hoped.  I've found I never seem to do well whenever I use Zing Embossing Powder...!  It simply does NOT work well for me and after today's failure, I am tossing the rest out!   From now on I'm sticking with Ranger and Hero Arts as they always work great! 

In the end, the card was okay, but is not one of my favorites.  I also had some trouble with my photos today and even with my Ott light, they seem to be a bit too dark?

   This is a copy of the Color Inspiration that I copied over from the The Outlawz to share on my blog!

Color Inspiration

My Card

   As you can see, browns/tans are really NOT my colors and despite putting time into making this card, I am not loving it, even though it does look better in person!  For the splash of Silver, I added three silvery brads down the left side and layered a variety of brown/tan cardstock and papers for my background.

   My second card is also another one that I am NOT loving and this card was also inspired by a new Sketch Challenge today, also being hosted by the 'Outlawz'.  This is a copy of the sketch that we had and as soon as I saw the sketch, I thought it would be a great way to try out one of my new Memory Box dies.

Sketch Inspiration

 My Card

 
  This is not my worst card ever, but it's very washed out looking to me and just seems to be missing something.  It also does not show just how fabulous this die is.   Here is a link that shows this Memory Box 'Whimsy Circle, which I love.  I know that there will be lots of uses for this die, it's so pretty and very delicate! 

  And this is another of the new Memory Box dies I bought yesterday, and you'll see it used in my next card, which is one that I actually liked today!

     I was so impressed when I saw these new dies and the wonderful samples that Memory Box had at my LSS.   I also LOVE their papers and stamps and think they have such a lovely line of products.  This is when it's so nice to have a LSS along with some fabulous online stores to shop from!   The box stores, NEVER have these really nice product lines and it's a shame.  I'm always very disappointed when I go to AC Moore or Michael's, especially since I know there are so many other wonderful products available!

   This card is much more my style, I love the colors (purple, of course) and also really love how the new die worked out on this card.  It was really fun and quite easy to make.   My image is from Bugaboo and is one I've had for quite some time, but really love to color.

  

    The white lace that I used on this card, is also a brand new product I found yesterday at my LSS and I LOVE it.  It's Lace Tape and is by decollections and comes on a roll and still so easily!  It also comes a few other colors - Pink and Cream, are what I saw!   I can tell you already that it's aweosme and I will buy more on my next visit.


    This card is being submitted to these new challenges and everyone is welcome go join the fun:

• Catch the Bug - Weekly Challenge - Pearls and Lace
• SSC - Weekly Card Challenge - No Sentiment
• Stampavie and More - Challenge # 145 - Butterflies
• Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Anything Goes

  And I have one more card to share today and this is another one that I was happy with in the end, even though was also created in darker colors.  This card was inspired by the new challenge over at StampFairy and their theme this week was to create a project with a Masculine Touch.

   I was really excited to see that the card I submitted to their Challenge last week was picked as one of the Top 3 and I earned another adorable badge for my award page!   Thanks Gerda!!

  And this is my card for the new challenge, which features - Lenny, who is my favorite bear from the StampFairy collection.   I paper-pieced him into a cute little outfit this week and then used Copics to color his tie and little nose.  I also went with the darker colors for a more Masculine look and so that I could also submit him to a few more challenges also looking for the same theme.

  My Hugs card could easily work out to be a fun Father's Day Card or even a cute Birthday card for any Male.  I am submitting it to each of these new challenges:

• StampFairy Challenge Blog - Use a Masculine Touch
• Papertake Weekly Challenges - Dads and Lads
• Critter Sketch Challenge Blog - I LOVE Chocolate
• Hooked on Crafts - Challenge # 1 - Anything Goes & DT Call

   And that is all I have for you now.  I have several more challenges that I'm planning to take part in and I have a list printed out on my desk with some ideas in mind.  If you like challenges as much as I do, then I highly recommend you stop over at Feline Playful and check out the wonderful list they update each day!  It's a fantastic site and is one I follow every day!!