Thanks for the Lift!

Hello!

I'm a bit late on this but I have a good excuse!

I was on vacation last week with my high school BFF 

on a much needed, fun filled, action packed week long trip to New York City

(blog post and pics to come)!  

If you're FB friends with me you've already seen a lot of it!

I had an amazing time and didn't think about anything else!  

However, now, back home to reality I feel a bit out of sync with everything, including my crafting!

So much, it took me most of Monday afternoon/evening to get my DT card done for The Challenge because...

It's The Challenge One Year Anniversary! 

We have some amazing Guests and a prize to be won!!! 

All you have to do to win is play along! The more times you play along, the better chance you have of winning!

We are so honored to be sponsored by:

SugarPea Designs - 

Offering a $20 Gift Certificate!

The Challenge has undergone some fun changes too:

We will be posting weekly!

We will have a different styled challenge each week!

This is the last week of the month and so we are hosting a LINKY party! 

Basically we want you to link up any NEW CREATED craft project!

We also have lots of guests designing with us!

Wendy Ramlakhan 

(SugarPea Designs Owner)

Tracey McNeely

Deanne Kay (Winner of Challenge #27)

Veronica Zalis (former DT member)

Jeanne Jachna (former DT member)

Maura (former DT member)

Claire Broadwater

Featured Designer for March

Narelle Farrugia 

and

The regular Challenge Design Team:

Anita Madden

Kim Heggins

Kimberly Wiener

Lee Ann Barrett

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld (that's me)

and

Welcome new member of our team:

Michele Ferguson!

The theme this week is Anything Goes 

BUT 

You MUST link up a NEW 

project created especially for this challenge 

and  

Only link to 5 other challenges 

(including The Challenge). 

Here is my card using "Blow Me Away" stamp set from SugarPea Designs:

The sky is sponged with various blue inks in my stash.  The grass is patterned paper I cut with a Spellbinder border die.  I decided to die cut a cloud and then make the kite appear "inside" the cloud. I decided to make the dragon transparent to give him a light and fluffy feel like the clouds.

Don't forget to visit all of the Design Team's blogs as well as all of our Guests' blogs and leave them some blog luvin'!  

Then, linkup as many NEW projects as you like and have fun!

I'm linking up my card for the following challenges:

1st Anniversary Blessings!

Hoppy Easter

Good Morning Monday!

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  I myself, arrived yesterday in NYC for a Girls' Week with my BFF, Alicia!

However, there's some fun going on today over

at The PINK Elephant Challenge!

TPE#291 - Inspiration Challenge

How cute is this photo?  So much inspiration there --- colors, textures, patterns, items, etc!

Let's see what you can do!

Stop by Ella's blog and check out all the Design Team's fabulous cards using this gorgeous photo!  Leave them some blog luv  because Design Teams love comments too!

I decided I wanted to try and use all those beautiful pastel colors and since I haven't made any Easter cards yet, this was the perfect time!

It was even nice enough to photograph my card outside!  

HOPPY BLESSINGS!

Irish For A Day

Happy Monday!

I'm so late with this post!  So much going on this week and it's already not beginning on the right foot!  Oh well, hopefully by this afternoon things will flow better!  It's lunchtime and the sun is peaking out and brightening things and it's a warm day here in the Triangle!  

I have painting to do later, not the artsy kind either.  Well, I guess it's a little artsy, painting some old furniture for our bedroom.  So at least I can open the patio screen and get fresh air while I'm doing it!

Now back to the current task:

 Today is a new challenge at The Challenge!

Check out all of the team's projects:

Featured Designer for March

Narelle Farrugia 

Guest Designer

Becca Cruger 

Lesley Croghan - Always Playing with Paper (Creator)

Anita - Just A Pigment of My Imagination

Kim Heggins - Cupcakes, Cards and Kim

Kimberly Wiener -Wienerhoneymooners

Lee Barrett - Greyt Paper Crafts

Lori Tecler - Inking Aloud

Maura - BeesMom

Nance Salkeld - (That's Me-below!)

Stay tuned --- in 2 weeks ---- 

Lots of fun changes happening at The Challenge!  

Another St. Patty's Day card from me.  I couldn't resist using my YNS Irish stamp set and farm critter set.  My sentiment stamp is soooooo old.  I think I got it from the $1 Bin at Michaels like five years ago.  It's also a little sad that with Irish blood in me, I own very few Irish/St. Patrick's Day stamps.  I really have never known a lot of people to send St. Patty's Day cards much.  So this year I did invest in a couple new stamp sets for it.  For me, it's more of a party day to sit back with friends or family and have a Guinness or Irish coffee, listen to Gaelic Storm or Irish Rovers or maybe go to an Irish pub.  Since living in NC, our neighbors (Irish) throw a St. Patty's party so it's always fun to go there. 

Unfortunately my photograph makes my bright pink background look orangey.  Ick.  But it really is the same color as the pink band on the hat.    So I went back and edited my card so the pink showed up more.  Hopefully it does.

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Angelfish Kisses

Good Morning Monday!

I'm a bit late posting today.  Have several challenges to post for so I will get right to it.  

The first one is for 

2 Cute Ink Digital Stamps #124

Also, stop by the 2 Cute Ink Challenges blog and check out the rest of the team's projects and leave them all some blog luv'.  Then link up your own "glittered" card and play along.

The team is all using the "Angelfish Doodle" digi from Heidi.  Check it out in her store!

Here's my card:

Since the digi is an angelfish, I decided to double it, so I flipped it to make a mirror image.  I think they are adorable kissing under the sea!  I sponged the bluegreen background and stamped some coral along the bottom edge.  The fish I colored in Copics and then added crystal Stickles to their fins for the sparkle.  I added more sparkle with the glittered gem balls.

FOR FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

Clear It Out: 

Theme: Colour Challenge-Orange Stash:Orange things

2 Cute Blessings!

Celtic Crossings

The PINK Elephant Challenge #290

Color Challenge:  Use GREEN

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow!  

Erin Go Bragh!

So Ella's team have all made cards using the color green for the occasion!  For mine, I had hoped to have a cross die or stamp, but I don't.  Actually I do, but it's very small, so I just used it as a guide to make a larger Celtic cross for my card:

I decided to use the Irish flag colors.  I used an embossing border folder for the cross pieces and used the negative side because I liked how it showed up better.  I have some small celtic stamps and I used one for the inner circle, cutting it down and then popping up the center. The back circle I stamped with another decorative flourish circle stamp and then added a scalloped circle die behind it.  I embossed the background with a decorative background I thought looked more celtic then added layers of light green, orange and dark green.   

You'd think with a maiden name of Harrah (O'Hara before ancestors came to U.S.) and Irish blood my family would have been big on St. Patty's Day, but I think it got lost somewhere along the way.  But, since tracing my Dad's family back all the way to Antrim, Ireland, I do my own little St. Patty's celebrating.  And our neighbors have an annual St. Patrick's Day dinner party where I have a shot of Irish whiskey and Irish coffee with good food and get to catch up with all of our neighbors.  

For Following Challenges:

Great Impressions March Challenge:  Go Green!

"May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love." 

Irish Blessings!

Purple Dragons & Pinwheels

Another celebratory card for Cupcake Inspirations 300th Celebration:

I used the stamp set "Blow Me Away" from SugarPea Designs, one of our sponsors.  I was still playing around with dye inks and sponging techniques and this is what evolved.  I set a circle die on top of the middle top layer on top of the background layer and then sponged it all together.  Then, I cut a circle die out of the top layer with a stitched circle mat from Lil Inker Designs.The inside background is a mini chevron stencil from Heidi Swapp that I sponged with the same colors of the rest of the card.  I used Grape Jelly, Pear Tart and Bahama Blue from Memento.   I colored the dragon and pinwheel with Blicks and Copics and fussy cut them then popped them up.  I stamped the sentiment in Versafine and embossed it with clear emboss powder to hopefully dry it quicker, but it did still smear a little.  I was originally going to make a shaker card but then decided to leave it as is with some sequins and enamel dots.

I recently took a class on Stamp Nation on Dye Ink Pads and the versatile ways to use dye inks.  I used some of the techniques, that I was already familiar with on this card.  But wanted to give them a shout out too.

For Following Challenges:

 Lil' Red Wagon -#280 Cute, Cute, Cute

Sweet Cupcake Blessings!

Butterflies & Miracles

There's just four days left of Cupcake Inspiration's 300th Challenge Celebration!  If you haven't already, go check it out!  Lots of sponsors and awesome prizes!

Today I have a springtime card for you--

I used Everyday Miracles digital stamps by Sweet N Sassy.  I painted the butterflies using Tim Holtz Distress Inks with a top layer of some water color paints.  The background was sponged using the ghosting technique with Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Versamark, clear emboss powder and Pretty Posies stamp set by Paper Sweeties.  After embossing and sponging, I added a few water droplets and enamel dots.

At first, I was going for something elegant, but after doing the background and using distress inks and watercolor paints, I'd say I've created more of a mixed media card.

I should give a shout out to StampNation for the class on Dye Inks as I used some of the techniques from the class (ghosting) on my card.  

For Following Challenges:

Paper Sweeties March Challenge

The Shabby Tea Room #247 - Pop of Pink

The Card Concept #30 - Thinking of You

House of Cards - March Challenge - Enamel Dots

Miracle Blessings!

Southern Sass

We're still celebrating at Cupcake Inspirations  for our 300th challenge all this week!

And, we have some new Sweeties joining in the fun beginning this week also!

Welcome Amy, Sandi Lee, and Valentyna!

Here is another card I made for the Sparkle Challenge:

I used the Country Chick digital stamp and sentiment from 2 Cute Ink.  I colored her with Spectrum Noirs and added Blue Lightning glitter to her hat and her boots from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  The rectangle mats are from Lil Inker Designs, the scalloped oval is an old Sizzix die.  The tab die is Taylored Expressions and the enamel dots are Teresa Collins.

I used my inspiration from the Time Out Challenge #26:

Time Out Challenge #26

Stop by the Cupcake blog and check out all the fun and play along, there's still time!  All three challenges close on March 14th!  Play in one, play in all!  

Party Animal

The party is still going on over at 

Cupcake Inspirations 300th Challenge Celebration this week!

Thought I would share another DT card I made for it:

I pulled out various papers from my stash and used the cute little dog ballon stamp from Avery Elle one of our sponsors.  The black strips are black cardstock layered with sticky tape and then black fine glitter from Sparkle and Sprinkle, another sponsor.

Other items I used were the arrow die and cloud die from Taylored Expressions, Versamark ink, black embossing powder, Memento Black Tuxedo dye ink and hemp cord.

For Following Challenges:

Seize The Birthday - Topping: Masculine

Party Animal Blessings!

Carolina On My Mind

Good Morning!  Hope wherever you are it's beginning to warm up.  Here in central NC we are having a couple days of nice 70 degree sunny weather!  I'll take it!

No matter your weather, it's always a good time to check out the latest challenge Ella has created over at

 The PINK Elephant Challenge #289

 This week is a technique --- SHAPED CARDS

Of course, for this, I thumbed through my templates (I have a few) from The Cutting Cafe.  With March Madness upon us, my youngest son's 21st birthday in a month and his college graduation on Mother's Day, I decided to make him a special birthday card.  He's a Tar Heel, hence, the Carolina t-shirt card!  I started out thinking I'd die cut the letters and numbers, but my letter dies are kind of small.  So, I pulled out the ole scrapbook stickers.  I not only found alphabet and number stickers, I found some UNC stickers.  So I fussy cut one for the Ram mascot sticker.  The back of the shirt is just like the front.  Inside, I printed the UNC alma mater.  I should have taken photos of the back and inside.  If I get a chance later I will and repost them here.

For Following Challenges:

613 Avenue Create #114 

Clear It Out - Anything Goes

PINK Elephant Blessings!