Sunshine = Love!!!

...and today is another summery day here in Massachusetts with lots of sun, but also lots of humidity.   We are expecting some nasty storms rolling in later, but I hope the die out before they make it to the coast.   I also hope this front cools us done a bit and gives us some more much needed rain.

    I'm having another really good day, which is heavenly and it was another day with plenty of quality crafting time.   I knew I wanted to catch up on some challenges and also get back to what I missed in class.  I started by heading back to my "Stretch Your Stamps" class to start where I had left off.   I knew that I wanted to be sure to try and try every idea and I usually try to make at least one card from each of the classes.  My first card today was inspired by a gorgeous card that Shari Carroll had created using a wonderful variety of border stamps.    The class was all about using border dies in a variety of fun new ways and Shari, used them to make her own colorful paper/backgrounds that she later cut into heart shape.   I greatly admire Shari's wonderful cards and style and also follow her blog and videos.  She is another of my favorite Hero Arts designers and I would LOVE to some day take a class with her!    I loved her idea, but with our temps being so hot, I decided I would skip using my heat gun, and came up with the idea of using patterned papers instead for my hearts.    If you are a member of the class you can see Shari's Card on Day 10, it's fabulous.    This is my CASed version of her card.

    My next card is another card I created using a fun "inky/misted" tag as part of my background, along with one of my newest dies, which is this fabulous Meadow Rue Die from Simon Says Stamp.  They, (SSS), are now starting to carry their very own die sets (which you can find HERE),  and they are all wonderful.  I one this one, as well as two of the word dies that were created by Kristina Werner!

    As I mentioned above the center of this card is actually a manila tag, that had been colored with Distress Inks and Perfect pearls Mist.  I had made several tags a while back and kept them to use as backgrounds and elements for future cards.   I then simply cut off the top section and cut it down to the size of an A2 Card.  I then die cue my flowers in a deep navy cardstock (from PTI) and added it on top and added two matching strips of navy cardstock, down the sides and mounted them along with some scrap green paper onto a card base I created from some Desert Storm Kraft Cardstock.   I then simply added the scraps of lime paper along with some cream time and blue gems and had this fun and easy card, that will be submitted to the current "Anything Goes" challenge being hosted over at the Simon Says Stamp - Challenge blog!!

  My next card was also created for another of my favorite challenges, which is over at The Pink Elephant.  This week the theme is Summer and I chose to color up this sweet little "Beach Girl Hannah" which is actually one of Lori Boyd's adorable digi images.   To me, nothing says Summer more than the beach and this cuties is all set to hit the beach in her cute little pink polka dot bikini!!  :)

     And my final card today is another super fun and happy kind of card that was created for the new Twisted Thursday Challenge at The Outlawz, as well as the "Bright Colors" challenge being hosted over on the Oozak Challenge Blog.

   The Twisted Thursday theme is - A Day at the Beach and I started by coloring up a cute little Beach Bucket digi, from my Bugaboo collection  I used a variety of mediums including Copics, Distress Stickles and 3D crystal accents to color this cute image.  I then cut a circle shaped card with my Cameo along with a yellow scalloped circle that I wanted to use as my Sun.  I ran that through my Cuttlebug in an embossed folder and then added Highlights with Wild Honey Distress Ink.  I put it all together, stamped this cute sentiment, by Ali Edwards and had this fun little card!!    I hope I have inpsired you to play along at both of these challenges too!

   I'm off now to clean up my very messy desk and see what new challenges I can find.   I really enjoy challenges and consider them as my way to practice making cards and trying new things!   I thought there would be a new one today at A Blog Named Hero, but I didn't' see one?  Hope you have a great night!!