Challenges, challenges

And I'm not talking about the kind that make it hard to have your hair AND your teeth brushed before noon...

These were the fun kind that involve paper and glue and glittery things!  We just completed a two week online crop over at Love is in the Details!  I know more than a few people who got their scrap on in a big way!!

Here's a sample of the challenges I put out there...

The first is something I'm sure you've seen if you are a Pinterest addict like me.  The challenge was to create a treat container of some kind.  These are so easy to make and the multitude of ways they can be decorated and adorned is endless!  After cutting them out and sewing them almost shut, I stamped a variety of designs on them, filled them with chocolates and Sweet Tarts for Valentines day treats and sewed them shut.  Pretty sure I'll be doing something similar for many more occasions!

I used background stamps from Hero Arts, Rubbernecker and October Afternoon as well as Ali Edward sentiment stamps.

Example #2 is your basic pillow box that I ran through the BigSwiftKick with a heart die.   I adhered some clear acetate inside to create the window, and if you have a better memory than mine, you'll remember seeing that tag around here a few months back.  Quick, easy, done.

 Next, I challenged our players to pull out their rubber stamps and embossing powder.  After stamping and heat embossing with clear powder, I masked off the square and sponged on Tim Holtz distress inks  to highlight the embossed area.  A stamped sentiment, a strip of Washi tape, a trip through the Pfaff and  this simple card is done.

In this case, instead of sponging on the color, I mooshed two colors of distress ink onto a Splat mat and misted with water.  Then I laid the heat embossed design face down onto the wet color puddle and gently turned the paper slightly.  You can heat dry the ink, and then continue to build up the splotches and color by repeatedly laying the paper down on the color puddles, letting dry between times.

This was just way too much fun to stop, so I made a couple of tags that will probably show up on some future project!

And finally, a layout challenge.  This one was to create a tribute layout to a male figure in your/my/our life without going all valentiney.  So, no hearts, flowers, pink, lace, ribbon or other girly stuff.  I kept my sample layout monochrome in color and tough in theme, using wood grain paper, naked chipboard letters, and Mr Huey spray mists in a fairly muddy shade!  Pulled out my old Heidi Swapp alpha masks to create the title, and couldn't resist using a hashtag for a "current" "on trend" reference.

 Thanks for stopping by!!