Creative Time = Fun and Relaxation!

....and today has turned out to be a very creative and fun day for me.   I was up pretty early and took advantage of that time, to get all my chores done right away, so that I could focus on spending extra time in my craft room today!!

      The end result is that was was able to work on some new cards and I'm very happy to have four to share with you today!  All of these were inspired by new challenges and I really enjoyed making every one.

      My first card of the day was created for the newest "SFYTT Challenge" over at Reverse Confetti.  If you are new to this challenge it's a really fun sketch challenge and the initials stand for "Sketch For You To Try" which you'll find on the blog HERE!!  Reverse Confetti has also become one of my favorite new online crafty stores and I especially LOVE their stamps and dies and am very excited knowing that a new release will be coming out on March 8th.   WooHoo!!

    This is a copy of the sketch that they have provided us for the March Challenge and I hope you will join me and play along and don't forget to stop by their store too!!

SFYTT #10

My Card

   As you can see I'm using some awesome new designer papers and these are from a new Stampin' Up Collection, called "Kaleidoscope Designer Series", and the colors and patterns are very trendy!!  A new LOVE for me, which means, I will be ordering more!   I with a nice Black Hero Hues Card and then layered on some gorgeous Pool layering paper, also from Hero.  Next I used the Kaleidoscope paper to cut all my elements and also used this fabulous Die set, a favorite from Reverse Confetti.  The sentiment is also from Reverse Confetti "Lots to Say" and is one I've used many times, another new love!!  I finished off my card by adding my Black and Teal Butterfly, which is an Memory Box die called Darla!!   

   The next card is for a Clean and Simple Challenge, my current first choice in card styles, and this challenge is one hosted every week (Sunday) over at The Outlawz Challenges.   For those of you who LOVE challenges, this is a great group and the perfect place to join, as it's totally free and they offer a variety of themed challenges, with a new challenge every week!!    The theme for this week's CAS challenge is Lady Bugs and I knew I had the perfect Digi Image from Bugaboo to use for my card.  This cutie is called Lily Lady Bug and you'll find here!    If you want to shop for other Lady Bug images, Jodie (the creator) has a wonderful collection, which you can see at this LINK! 

  I printed Lily and the "Love Bug" digi sentiment, directly only White Cryogen Cardstock, my absolute favorite for coloring with my Copics.  She was very easy to color and was done in shades of reds/grays and blacks.  One I had the Copic color added, I used my Wink of Stella Markers to add extra sparkle to her eye and wings and then added her to a black mat and a white card base!   A super easy, and cute little card.

  Like little Love Bug card, my next card started with another digi image, also from Bugaboo, which has always been one of my favorite place to shop for fun and whimsical image.   This time it's a sweet little "Baby Bear" which I chose to use for this week's BABY themed Challenge at Addicted to CAS!!

     This cutie little guy reminded me of a baby being delivered by a stork and I thought would be fun and different to use a "animal baby" on my card.   He was also colored with my Copics and I again included a digital sentiment that I added before I printed the image.  To make his balloon have lots of shine and dimension, I added a layer of  3 Crystal Lacquer!  

    And last, but not least is another new card I created today for the current MUSE Card Challenge, which I love.   As soon as I saw Vicki's MUSE card, the Zig Zags she added really popped out at me and I knew I wanted to use that design element in my card.   It really helped that I owned this set of Border Dies by Spellbinders and cutting those was the first thing I did to start my card.  Once I had the cut in colors that I really like (took a couple tries) I decided to add them to my card-base on a slight angle and then I also knew I wanted to make this into a Birthday Card for a teenager, (a boy too), I decided to use "Stars" as my other shapes and cut those with another set of Nestie Dies in the same red/black colors. The final step was adding my Birthday Sentiment, which is a new favorite from Hero Arts called Message with Flourishes CL738.

   This card is also being submitted to the Birthday Themed Challenge currently being hosted over at the Hero Arts Blog.  I am submitting this one as my "Kids" card, as it was created specifically for a teen boy who will be turning 14 next week!!   I think he'll like the style and the bold red, white and black color them!

   And now it's time to go, my pups are NOT happy that I am on here typing a post when they want ALl of my attention.   They love to play for awhile before it's time for bed and they go to bed pretty early, so now is their time!   They were so good all day, kept themselves very content while I crafted, but I did take breaks and took them out, plus gave them a couple of little treats!!!

   Off to play with them now and hope you all have a great night.  I also hope I have another great day of crafting and relaxation tomorrow and with the bone chilling weather, I'm very happy to stay in all day and keep warm and cozy!!