Becky Oehlers (PTI Design Team) started a weekly challenge on her blog. It is a pretty unique challenge – she provides quite a bit of rules for each challenge, but I have always been amazed at the variety of cards created.

I really loved the inspiration piece for this week’s challenge (Compose a Card #6), so when I found myself with time on my hands tonight (ok, I was procrastinating, but we won’t tell), I had to take the challenge.

I started out by wanting to replicate the tray ceiling in the inspiration photo. I created the frame with a ruler/exacto knife. I really had no plan for the rest of the card, so I’m very happy that it finished up so nicely 🙂

This card was created for two challenges. This week’s CAS challenge at SCS was to create a square card (cas56). And Lisa has started a new challenge on her blog – Poppy Seeds – where she’ll provide 3 seeds of inspiration. This week’s seeds were (a) light yellow color, (b) crystals, and (c) flower stamp (psc01).

I never grab my owl set though I *had* to have it when it came out. I do like the set, but I am definitely a flower girl 😉

Months and months ago there was a craze about creating little skinny cards using the cardstock strip that is created when you make a square card. My cardstock was a tiny bit bigger than your normal 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card, so my scraplet is a little wider than the “norm”. This is the first time I’ve done this and boy it is a bit challenging – such an odd canvas size to work with.

This card was created for two challenges – an Embellish color/technique challenge (Color with a Border), and a Just Add Ink sketch (jai6).

I am really happy with how this turned out! The birdhouses were actually what got me started on this card – I thought they would be a cute way of fulfilling the sketch. The technique challenge was to use a border. I only have a couple border punches, but I like this new one. The focal circle is more like a frame; I like the look of the yellow polka dot paper behind the scallop.

This card was done for a challenge – over at PageMaps blog (contest). I’m not sure why, but when I looked at the sketch I saw a Christmas tree in place of the bird. It is sorta hard to get in a holiday mood here, so I wanted to keep the colors bright.

Since I chose a PTI stamp set, I checked in my PTI paper stash and decided the Men of Life pack was my best choice. The blue piece looks stitched so the lace was an easy choice. The rest just sorta fell in place. I am in love with this card!

Tonight is Papertrey’s monthly Blog Hop! This month’s theme was to create a card that was inspired by a Design Team member. Papertrey has such an awesome design team, I’m sure anyone could find inspiration!

I think I am most in awe of Betsy Veldman (Blog & PTI Gallery). Her style is very very very different than my own, but it is always so full of detail that every time I look at something she’s created I find something new to ooh and ahh at!

I couldn’t pick just one of her cards to “copy” because I’d never come close. So I made a list of things she seems to do frequently and then I tried to incorporate them into a card of my own.

I really love how this card turned out. I’m not sure I could spend so much time on every card I made (since this stuff isn’t second nature to me, it took me hours to make this card), but once in a while I will definitely be pulling out my “Betsy List” again!

Blog problems kept me from getting this posted before the deadline at Embellish Mag, but I love this card so I have to post it! The challenge was to do a birthday card using the color provided: raspberry, blue, green, brown. Sort of a bold color combo.

This is the first time I’ve inked up my Vintage Picnic set, but I am loving it. One cool thing about the stamp set is the basket is symmetrical. I actually stamped the plain basket and cut it out and then decided I wanted the weave image. I flipped over my cut basket and was able to stamp the weave and didn’t lose any outlines! Clear stamps rock! 😉

The outside is pretty simple, so I went overboard on the inside – a first for me!

At first I didn’t want to stamp and color all the tulips on the inside so I tried to do something else…but it wouldn’t work so I just did it. I do love how it turned out. The “basket” was done by using the 4 line background image from Background Basics – Retro and then just drawing little vertical lines to simulate a weave.

This card is for a couple challenges. First, the theme (you are what you eat) is from the Res-Q-Challenge blog (resq33). I probably should have done some sort of chocolate/peanut butter card, but I do drink tea more than anything else.

The layout is based on a scrapbook sketch I found on the Sketches blog (sketch175).

I did the inside of this card. (Probably because I feel the outside is a bit plain.) Just a simple strip to hold the tea bag and a repeat shape inside for the writing area.

Most cards I make don’t have “purposes” (well, besides fulfilling a challenge), so I’m always happy to send a card (less stash, means I need to stamp more 😉 ). I recently was able to send a card home with my sister for her to give to the guy watching her doggie while she visited us. I was so happy to use a card I really didn’t think I would send, ever. But silly me didn’t do the inside of that one and it had a dark blue base. Ugh! So doing the insides of my cards is becoming a bit more “need” instead of “want” – that way I can give my cards away without thinking about it.

Oh. My. Goodness! I had some horrible blog problems last night and I just now got it fixed. I think I may have missed a couple deadlines for my challenge cards, but I’m just glad my blog is functioning again!

OK, I’m breathing now. On to the card!

This lovely is for two challenges – a sketch, and a color. The sketch is from the Clean & Simple blog (ftl79). The colors are from Just Us Girls (jugs21).

I’m still trying to figure out how to use my PTI cupcake set to create something I like. I think I need to do more stamping/cutting instead of straight stamping. That way I can layer things a bit more. That said, I’m still very happy with this one!