I just LOVE classes! Yippee!!

  I am so excited to be back in school once again and this time, I am taking another fabulous card-making class with Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner, Julie Ebersole and some other very talented designers.  Today is Day One of Clean&Simple Cardmaking, as as expected we are off to a great start and I loved the cards and ideas the girls shared with use today.

   Today, we worked on the idea of using Sketches for our cards and that is something I don't do enough.  I do LOVE working with sketches, but never have made up one of my own before I start any card and maybe now I will think more about doing that.

  Of course, every card we create does not always come out like we hope and that is exactly what happned with my very first card today.  This card was based on one of the sketches we had to work with today and also was inspired by a wonderful card that Kristina made (she makes it look so easy).  My original idea was pretty much to CASE her card, but change my colors and my masked area and that ended up being a bust.  My very first stamped background smudges and was just not right for the card, so that one is in the trash.  It will shortly be followed by this card, which is number two of my YUK cards.   I'm never afraid to share my YUK cards and this did not turn out at ALL like I had hoped.

  UPDATE:   After receiving such nice comment about this card, I decided to try the heart mask one more time and this time, I went with the idea of Red and White (thanks Michelle).  In the end, this was one of my favorite cards today.  I used White Picket Distress Stain to stamp with and only wish I had gone with White Staz-on instead, as the Stain did smear a bit.  I am glad I tried it again and THANK YOU all for the encouragement!

   After my first disaster, I moved on and decided I would work with a different sketch and that one I had much better luck with and came up with this very easy card.

  Having been happier with my second sketch I decided to try my hand a the third sketch, which was also the one that Maile Belles (one of the guest designers) used on her card today.   I really loved how her card came out.  Mine is much different but we did both use the same sketch and I was also pretty happy with this card.  It's truly Clean and Simple and that's why this class is all about!

   For those of you who are also in this class, I'll be curious to know which sketch or card you liked best today.   I thought they were both awesome and really could not pick a favorite.  There are also some many amazing cards in Gallery to see!  WOW!!

    After being pleased with those two, I decided to try the original sketch one last time and to also try and make it work with today's new challenge at 'The Outlawz', which is the weekly Greeting Card Challenge.  The theme this week is Sending a Hug or Love and since 'HUGS' has always been one of my favorite sentiments, I knew that's exactly what I would use for my card.   I picked out new papers and started my third attempt at this sweet little square card.  In the end, I was much happier with this one and will also be submitting it to the challenge.   This time instead of stamping with ink, I used White Distress Stain and one of my favorite Hero Arts Background stamps, called Lotus Background.

    In this case, I also dry embossed the 'white' section of the card, which was originally going to be the open space area.  I kind of liked the added texture, so instead of leaving that space open, I cut a piece of white cardstock in the same size of my original mask and then ran it through my Cuttlebug in a new embossing folder.  The sentiment is from one of the newest Hero Arts Sets and my cardstock is Rich Rizzleberry from Stampin' up.    What a great day and it's only Day One!!  Today's giveaway is also a fantastic prize, it's a $50 gift certificate to Ellen Hutson's Store!   How cool is that!!

 Good Luck to all and I hope that one of my craft friends is the lucky winner!  I'm heading back to class now to admire all the awesome cards that are in the Gallery!  

  Oh, and one more thing before I forget --  If you have been wanting to start your own Smash Book or a new Journal, there is a brand new group doing exactly that.  You can find it over at Suzanne Dean's -- Color Me Creative Classroom!  It's open to all and is FREE.  We are all working together on some challenges and ideas for our Smash/Journal books for 2012.  The first LIVE CHAT is also being hosted on the Main Site tonight, at 7:45 EST.  

Classes, Chats and Challenges -- Yippee!

A perfect creative day for me!!!