The wrap-up for the CAS DT Search was Friday. During the post-park fireworks show (i.e., the reveal of the new DT and the guest designers), Jen posted a couple challenges. Winning a challenge would earn a guest spot! This weekend has been really wonky for me, so I didn’t get my cards done on time, but I wanted to play anyway – so I did!

The first challenge was to use bold colors and make them pop with black. The second challenge was to use bling. I combined the challenges to create this card.

I had another idea, but it went terribly wrong. I wanted to stamp a solid reverse-image on colored paper with black ink, but my black ink just didn’t make a solid imprint. I got great results on white, but the colored paper just wasn’t working – so I had to regroup and creating a die window is where I ended up.

I’ve been lamenting that PTI hasn’t come out yet with a second edition to their popular Bitty papers – to include all those new colors (3 of which are used here). Thankfully, with the release of the new Geometrics Background set, I can now make my own! (Though lining up that tiny grid was sooooo hard!)

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, I didn’t make the DT, but I did earn a guest spot. The DT is only a few months, so I’ll be trying again next round.

Thanks for peeking!

Yes, another lame post title…oh wait, you won’t see the other lame title for a few more hours (hee hee, I scheduled a post for later…gotta spread the goodness out). Sew, yes, lame title – I love puns, what can I say?

It is a new month and that means a new challenge in the Papertrey Pixie blog group. This is my month to host (PTPC2). I love inspiration challenges – mostly because there are so many different directions you can go that you get a great variety in cards and that makes it fun (to me). I found this fun selection of fat quarters (hence the sewing pun).

What drew me to the selection originally was the colors, but when I started making my card I found I also liked the arrangement of patterns. I stuck with the same design on each square (unlike the inspiration) because I think with cards it helps unify it when stamping (had I had the right pattern paper, I would have used different patterns). I also went with a scallop die because I don’t have pinking shears.

Now if I could just learn to sew! I recently bought the Janome SewMini. I love the machine but it really likes to *go* so I have a hard time controlling the paper as it goes. Oh well – wonky is charming, right?

And by using my Damask set, I’ve also accomplished another challenge – inking up those heretofore uninked images. I love this set and everything I’ve seen done with it…but I must say my previous attempts at using this set have ended in the trash. I like this one though – so yay!!