Playing with Patterns!!

    Happy Monday everyone!  Hope you all had a nice weekend and that you are ready for a nice week.  I'm very happy and lucky that I signed up for a brand new class -- Pattern Play, which starts today.   Believe it, or not -- we actually are expecting more snow and it could be up to 6" starting late tonight.  YUK!!   Not how I want to end winter, I would much rather be having more of the wonderful Spring like weather, we had a bit of last week.

    But...since I don't have a busy week and don't have to go out much, I'll be very content working on new cards and waiting to hear any possible updates on my new puppy adoption.   The gal that had originally been doing the home visits, is not available, so the rescue I'm working with, needs to find a new home visit person in my area.  They had tried to have to do this part, when I started my application, and it simply did not work out, as I was going to be off to San Diego and wasn't ready.  Now, I am sad, because it is the one thing that will now hold up the process and I should have listened.   Let's all hope that things go well and that little Abby or McGee, will be moving in sooner than later.

   To keep me busy and take my mind off of the chance I could miss out, I have spend most of my free time the past two days working on new cards and I'm ready to share those first, before I show you the new cards I created after my first day in class.

   A few of these cards were actually inspired by challenges I had playing in last week.  I found I loved some of the ideas and designs, so I continued to make more, including these first too, which were inspired the this week's Cas(E) this Sketch challenge.

  This was my first card from Sunday and as you can see, I used the idea of framing my die cut, which was taken form the sketch, which I really love!   I again cut the leave design with my Cameo and had it cut on plain white, but used my Hero Arts Cube Inks to color it with the Blue shade (Cornflower), to make it go with my teal and blue theme.

   This is also another take of the Sketch, but instead of adding a sentiment banner, I used the center and added a digital sentiment.  I also was loving the blue and teal combo and really liked these fun pattern papers which are from the Scoot line by Echo Park.

    And my last little note card, was also created with the same sketch in mind, but for this card I used a cute little Pre-Colored digi images which is from Lili of the Valley.   I love their sweet little "die-cut designs", as they call them and they are perfect when you want to make a quick card and don't have time to color, or like me, have a printer that is broken--leaving you without anyway to print out digi images to color!   Boy am I missing my printer, much more than I ever thought I would.  I'm very happy it's fully covered and will be replaced with a new model, but I need ASAP, and it's definitely a tool the is required when it comes to creating with any type of digital elements!   Hopefully, it's on it's way and will be here in the next day or two?

    Out of all the cards I made in the past couple of days, this is my least favorite and what I consider to be a fail" card.  I can't pinpoint why exactly...but it didn't come out, nearly like I had hoped.   I have a feeling this card will going to be taken apart and re-vised or end else it may very well end up in my recycle bin.

   The next card is another kind of "fail", and it was one I started in last's month "Card Club", but one that I never finished.  I had the base put together and forget was was meant to go in the circle area.  I then decided to pick out a sentiment, which I had in my pre-printed folder and added that onto the layers of circles.   I then, still felt like something was missing, so I added two thin strips of the golden orange which matched the Washi tape.  This is another card, I'm not loving, but I think it's simply because I don't like the colors very much.

     After not loving those colors, I decided to go back to some of my favorites and so I pulled out this sweet tulip digi image, from Bugaboo Stamps,  that was in my folder of pre-colored images.   Often, when I'm really tired or if my Fibro is flaring and I can not be online, at the computer or at my craft desk, I will find a comfy place to sit back, put my feet up and relax by coloring.   All I need is my Copics and a pile of printed images and I can even sit in the recliner with a hot pack, if needed and still be creating.   Coloring for me is so comfy and is another reason that I find card-making to be so therapeutic.    I then keep all my  pre-colored images in a folder for days like today, when I can't print or when I may need to make a card quickly and don't have the time to color a new image.    And after two "fails", I was very happy with this pretty card!!  It's always been one of my favorite tulip digi images and one I have colored and make into cards, many times - love it.

     Today, I'm especially excited to be sharing cards that were ALL inspired by Day One in "Pattern Play" which is another fabulous class being offered and taught by Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire in their online card classroom.  If you are a regular follower you'll know that I LOVE their classes and have taken each and every one, as have many of the other students.  It's even more fun when you get to know the others and we all have the the same LOVE of paper-crafting and enjoying these awesome classes.

    If you want to learn all the great tips and techniques we learn, you'll have to take the class and I'll be you'll be very pleased if you do!!   Although I can not share any of the class content, I can share pictures of the cards that I create, which is what I'm doing now.   I can also tell you that Day One was awesome and I loved how each of the designers shared how they choose their papers and also how they organize their papers!!   Our guest designer today is the amazing Amber Kemp-Gerstel, and she's another favorite, as I love her Clean and Simple style.  You can visit her amazing blog and see her wonderful work.

Pattern Play Class

Day One

   These are the cards that I created today, using a variety of patterned papers and scraps.   The wonderful tips and techniques shared by Kristina, Jennifer and Amber, have given me a whole new way to look for papers and patterns that work well together.   Although they each have their own style and technique, they all  shared their wonderful ideas along with some fantastic videos!    Awesomeness at it's best!!

  This is my first card of the day and I think it will be a fun card for a younger child's Birthday.  All of the papers for this card are from Echo Park's - Scoot 6X6 Paper pack, as well as some scraps from my overflowing scrap bin.   The sentiment is from Paper Smooches and the bling is from my stash!

Card One

Card Two

   Card two also features papers from the same Scoot Paper Pad, along with some Navy Bazzill Cardstock that I used to create my card base.   I also used an EK Success Scallop Border punch to create the red vertical border and used my brand new Circle Dies, which are from Simon Says Stamp and were created by Kristina.  They also have a matching set of Stamps, which I also own and love.   For this card, I wanted a little boy like sentiment and think this "Hey Buddy" from Paper Smooches, was perfect.

   And that brings me to my third and final card today, which was created with more new papers and each of these actually came in the March Card Kit, which is designed every month by Kristina for Simon Says Stamp, along with assorted scraps left over from many of the cards I created today!   The March card kit, has actually been one of my all time favorites and I have been a subscriber, since they first started.  I really love how much thought Kristina puts into putting together every kit.   I especially loved the pretty Spring papers in this kit, all of which are by Lawn Fawn. and    I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new April Kit which looks awesome!!   WOOHOO!!  
  
   *This card is now also being submitted as part of the March Bootcamp Lesson over at the Stars and Stamps blog.

     I am heading over to Flickr now to share my cards and then will also one of two to the Gallery over in the Classroom.  I love seeing everyone share their work and find it always helps me come up with even more inspiration!

     See you all tomorrow with more new cards from Day 2 and hope that maybe.....just maybe the weather forecast is wrong and that we'll wake up to a sunny blue sky day?    And if that's not possible, then I'll hope I hear some news about my Puppy adoption and when the home visit can be done, so I'll be all set.  Wish me luck!

      Update:   I had a card featured today over at Operation Write Home's - Boot Camp and I wanted to thank Paula for that wonderful honor.  That particular card is one that I created at a Card Class that I took at my LSS and it also features techniques and ideas that I have used and learned from Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner in some of the other wonderful online classes!

        I am also now submitting one of today's new cards as a new take on today's composition lesson!    Please be sure to check out all the fantastic cards that are also part of the BootCamp lesson!!   Thank YOU!!