Card Mania Challenges: Anything Goes - A Sassy Graduation

Sometimes it amazes me how crafting can bring together people from all over the whole wide world. I was a college student in the 1990s when chatrooms first became popular. Back then they were so much more friendly and spambots hadn't really been invented yet. You had the occasional jerk (we didn't yet call them trolls) or a 12-year-old pretending to be an adult and insulting people just because he could... but mostly they were a lot of fun. I particularly loved and spent most of my chat time in a chatroom ruled by the Kiwis and Ozzies (New Zealanders and Australians). I loved being able to talk to people on the other side of the Earth and as there were a good number of regulars, it was like hanging out at your favorite pub, except without beer, drunken crowds or smokers. LOL Finding the online crafting community has been much like falling back into those years... a warm and friendly sort of family and spread across the globe! So imagine my glee when, a few weeks ago, a delightful crafty blogger named Ani from Bulgaria sent me an email and asked me to be part of a new biweekly challenge blog! My first reaction? Someone in BULGARIA is looking at MY cards?! Who would have thought it possible 20 years ago? I was very honored and couldn't pass up the opportunity to get to play with my new group of talented teamies who are also mostly from Bulgaria. I'm not sure I'll learn any Bulgarian, but it looks to be a fun new adventure! My first step was learning the quickest way to turn on my Google Bar Translate function! LOL

So, today is our very first challenge, and we open with an easy one... Anything Goes! You can read up on all the challenge details on the Card Mania Challenges Blog.  Our challenges will be sponsored by the Bulgarian online craft shop, Naborsata, who are also opening their first showroom today in Sofia. You can check them out here! We'll also have a prize each challenge offered by a second sponsor... and for this challenge we have Sassy Studio Designs who generously provided the DT with lots of very sassy images to work with.

I had a difficult time choosing which image and what kind of card to create... I finally decided to go simple and let the image do all the work. I chose this lovely graduate...

One sassy graduate! That hair, those lips, that pose, those BOOTS! LOL

I colored her with my Copics and added a little metallic gold using a gel pen to the medallion on the diploma, her tassel and the buttons on her boots. Although I kept the layout so simple, I went with pearlized papers so the gold oval and the pearly white have a gorgeous sheen to them in person. I tried to capture some of that sheen in these photos, which also show that I've fussy cut my image and popped her up on foam dots. A few black and red flat-backed pearls and the red ribbon are my only embellishments. Even my sentiment is hidden inside!

My teamies have come up with some really gorgeous work so I hope you can stop by to see them all at the Card Mania Challenges Blog. Get crafty and come join in the fun with

Ani

Addii

Delyana

Dilyana

Goldie

Iva

Louise

Mila

Miss Emerald

Paulina

Sue

Tracy

Vili

and me!

Until next time... happy crafting! =)

Christy

SAS4K Challenge: CAS for Kids - Birthday cards

Happy Saturday!  Time again for a new Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge and this time around it's Clean and Simple cards for Kids!

We've got three great prizes up for grabs:

a $15 gift certificate for the Doodle Pantry

3 sets of digis or cutting files from The Cutting Cafe

and 4 digis of the winner's choice from Sassy Studio Designs

The DT got some lovely digis to play with... first up is Harry from Sassy Studio Designs

I had a lot of struggles with this one. My first idea for a card used the entire digi. I can't tell you how many times I colored it... ok, I can. Four. Some of the areas were so small it was difficult for me to keep in the lines, but worse, even when I did, it would bleed. The fourth time I got pretty close, except for a bit of burgundy bleed on his hand and an unfortunately blue halo around his, well, let's say... behind him. LOL So I thought maybe I could salvage him if I fussy cut him out... and then, it happened. Oh, Harry. A broken wand. And no Elder Wand at the ready to magically repair it. Sigh.  I probably could have finagled some sort of Glossy Accents and toothpick support, but by that time I was too annoyed. I was going BIG on my next try! I sized Harry up to get his head and wand hand into a 5.5" square and added a sentiment in a Harry Potter font knockoff. I colored him up and added Glossy Accents to his glasses before layering it over a 6" black base card and adding some dark red gems. Clean and simple. And best of all? DONE! LOL

My next card went so much easier.... I saw Cowboy Birdie by the Doodle Pantry and I knew exactly what I wanted to do from the start...  

Cowboy Birdie comes in a set with both black and white line art and a colored version. I wechose colored, fussy cut and with a touch of diamond Stickles on his hat band and boot flames. =)  I created the main layer in Word, inserting a rectangle shape  with a bold black outline and filled with a red paisley digi paper from Summer Driggs' Freedom set at Summertime Designs. (LOVE her!) My sentiment is done in a font called Rustler. I popped Birdie boy and a little blue star I also Stickled to death (haha) on foam dots and then layered it up on black cardstock and added it to a 5x7 white card. A pop of bright color, plenty of white space and a touch of cute. =)

I'm itching to get crafting now! LOL Why don't you head on over to Send A Smile 4 Kids and check out my teamies' creations while I pull out a few Copics and a bottle of Stickles. I'll catch you later! 

Happy crafting!

Christy