We’re “cooking” up another challenge!

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Cathy

Hi all,

Paper Garden Projects is sponsoring the “Catered Crop” challenge for the rest of this month. How exciting!

Linda posts a simply delightful challenge every 2 weeks. She creates a “recipe” from the entry of the winner of the previous week’s challenge. You can use all or just part of the recipe – so it is very easy to find a bit of inspiration.

Its so worth checking out the entries – so many just beautiful ones. Linda and her design team are amazing too!

And for this challenge – the winner receives a $20 gift certificate to the Paper Garden Projects store – to buy any old thing your little heart desires!

Here is my sample:

I used the new Spring Blooms 2 digital stamp set (tulip and sentiment) and the fabulous Tapasty 1 background stamp. The paper is from the Basic Grey Koshi paper pad.

The Catered Crop recipe calls for:

Pattern Paper – Stripes and mini print
Colors – Blue, Green and Brown
Stamps – Children, Kittens
Color Mediums – Prismacolors
Embellishments – pearls, buttons, ribbon, flowers
Tools – Border punches, die cuts
Techniques – sewing, paper piecing, paper piercing, tissue box (or other paper boxes), coloring sky with Prismacolors, crochet flower
Theme – Spring, Childhood
Shapes – Circles, ovals, scallops
Miscellaneous – Tissues

I decided to include color (green), a mini flower print, the spring theme, diecuts and ovals.

So be sure to hop on over to the Catered Crop site and cook something up to enter the challenge!

I know I haven’t been posting much – but I’ve been very busy on something I’m so, so, so excited about! Hee Hee!

I’ve also been working in the yard a lot whenever I can. I’m trying to get the vegetable garden prepped (its big). Yesterday, DH and I planted 3 apple trees, one pear tree, 3 blueberry bushes and 25 strawberry plants! Wish me luck that the local wild life will let me have at least some of the harvest. Actually – it will be be 4-5 years before we can hope to see much from the fruit trees. But that’s OK – something to look forward to!

Hope everyone is wonderful! Happy crafting!

A distressed spring….

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Cathy

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Actually, I’m not distressed over spring (although my back yard is a bit like a mud pit right now and with a big, hairy white dog – that is a bit distressing…..).

I said distressed because I used the sketch over at Our Creative Corner and they asked for some distressing too. I’m not very good at distressing (although my children excel at it – you should see my furniture) but I tried.

For my card I used one of the Lenten Roses from the new Spring Blooms 2 digi stamp set. Its colored with Copics, here are the colors I used (plus warm gray for shadows).

I also tried the new X-press it Blending card instead of my usual Neenah card stock. I thought I’d share some of my somewhat rambling impressions of the blending card. I know – way behind everyone else, but why not.

The blending card is very smooth and dense. It has a crisper but slightly thinner feel and is a cooler white than the Neenah solar white that I usually use (side by side – the X-Press has a more gray tone). The blending card is quite a bit more expensive than the Neenah – about twice the price.

As for coloring, it seems like the ink floats on the surface more. I had the distinct impression of using less ink (but I have no proof of this). It blends pretty smoothly and I did not have any feathering outside the lines (just my usual “I’m not getting bifocals yet” goofs).

I did not have to “scrub” as much as I usually do when blending. Because these flowers use colors close to opposite on the color wheel, I used the feather blending technique for the petals (which I am not great at). The feather blending was easier on the blending card.

The printer ink did not bleed at all and, testing it with Memento Tuxedo Black, I did not have any bleeding of stamped ink either.

The colors were a little lighter and brighter. If I decide to switch over to the blending card, I will probably remake my color charts.

Here are my 2 flowers for comparisson. I used the same colors on each and tried to use the same techniques.

Here is X-Press it card:

Here is Neenah Solar White:

I’m going toplay around some more, but I am tempted to make the switch. The extra cost hurts, but with the time I spend coloring images, it might be worth it.

Anyone have any opinions on the X-Press card that they would like to share?

Fourth Friday Challenge – Spring Things!

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Cathy

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Hi all,

Its been a while, but how about a 4th Friday challenge?

For this month’s challenge, we want to see your “Spring Things”. Anything “spring-y” is fair game – cards, scrap pages, altered items.

Just link it up using the Inlinkz icon at the bottom of this post. We’ll draw one random winner and one favorite entry. Each will win a bouquet of spring flowers – both the Spring Blooms digi set and the new Spring Blooms 2 digi set. You have till March 13 to enter.

For my project, I used the daffodil from the Spring Blooms 2 set. Unfortunately, I really do need a get well card. I was trying for a cheerful look.

Here is a peek at the new Spring Blooms 2 digi stamp set that includes the daffodils:

For my card, I colored the daffodils with Copics – here are the colors I used:

I also had the chance to use my new Grunge background stamp. I’m in love! I think I’ll be using this stamp all over the place. I stamped the yellow background with the Vines background stamp, and then stamped the grunge over the top. Its the perfect amount of grunge and you can make it lighter by stamping off on paper first. I can’t wait to play with it more!

I’m off to do some class work – but don’t forget to enter to enter the Spring Things challenge!