MFT Creative Olympics Challenges 2 & 4

Well, I found a little time after my sedatives wore off to create another card before the deadline.  I decided on a card that could meet the requirements of both challenges, 2 & 4, of the MFT Creative Olympics.  Hopefully there isn't a penalty for combining tricks.  The themes of each challenge are as follows:

Event 2

Event 4

The time limit for the speed challenge was 20 minutes from start to finish, and the only stipulation on the freestyle challenge was it had to have a winter theme.  I set the timer on my phone and got to work.  Since winter is flu season {and it is definitely flu season around here!} I chose to make a get well card with a snowy winter scene.

As soon as I put on the last dot of "snow" to my card I stopped the timer and took a photo (with my hubby's phone) as proof.  As you can see, it was a pretty close call!

My card started with a white panel that I stamped the dragon image onto and put a die cut mask over him.  I used inking tools to quickly sponge two shades of blue onto the sky before removing the mask.  I colored him with Copic markers, but didn't bother doing any blending because there wasn't enough time for that.

I ran another piece of white cardstock through my die-cutter with a couple of edger dies to create the snowy ground the dragon is sitting on.  After gluing those layers in place and trimming away the excess, I stamped the two sentiments on the panel before gluing the whole thing onto a turquoise colored card base.  

For the finishing touch, I added some falling snow with Stickles.  I sincerely hope that the 20 minute time limit didn't include drying time, or my card will be disqualified.  The Stickles were certainly not dry when I took the first photo.  

Well, that's it for me and the Creative Olympics!  Now I'll cross my fingers until they announce who made it to the podium.  And in the meantime, I think I'll go back to watching the figure skating on TV until it's time for bed.  Go Team USA!!

PRODUCTS USED:

Inks:  MFT Black Licorice, Distress Ink Tumbled Glass & Broken China

Copic Markers:  BG13, BG18, YR16, RV25

Cardstock:  PTI white & Hawaiian Shores

Dies:  MFT Stitched Basic Edges 2 & Magical Dragons{to cut the mask}

Other:  Stickles Frosted Lace

MFT Creative Olympics Challenge 3

Well, I didn't have enough time to make a card for the 2nd challenge in the MFT Creative Olympics (Freestyle Challenge); so I'm jumping straight to challenge 3:  

The challenge is to choose one technique and one card type to combine on a card.  I went with Emboss Resist and Shaker for my entry.

I stamped a bunch of the images from the Lucky Dog and You Make My Tail Wag stamp sets on a white card base with VersaMark ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.  Then I inked up my panel with Distress Inks before die cutting it with the Birthday Centerpieces die.

I used my inked panel for the front of my shaker and filled it with confetti and sequins in coordinating colors to match my inks.  I used a white panel behind the colored panel to help the white embossed images pop a bit more.

I adhered the shaker panel onto a card base made from Lush Lagoon cardstock and stamped the inside with a sentiment and image from the Lucky Dog set.

That's it for my Crafty Biathlon!  If I have time tomorrow, I'll backtrack to the Freestyle Challenge.  {Unfortunately, I'm having dental work done and have to be sedated so I don't freak out.  So crafting might be out of the question tomorrow afternoon.  Or maybe I'll come up with a really entertaining card entry while under the influence of sedatives!  LOL}

PRODUCTS USED:

{MFT unless otherwise noted}

Stamps:  Lucky Dog, You Make My Tail Wag

Dies:  Birthday Centerpieces

Ink:  Ranger Distress Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, VersaMark

Paper:  Lush Lagoon, Papertrey Ink white cardstock

Other:  Papertrey Ink clear embossing powder, variety of sequins and confetti, craft foam

PTI Stripes Challenge

I'm back today with another Papertrey Ink challenge for their 11th anniversary celebration.  The theme of this challenge is stripes.

I pulled out a pack of Twig Wreath patterned paper and chose one of the diagonal striped patterns for my background layer.  I mounted this on a card base made of Classic Kraft cardstock.

I stamped and die cut the flowers and leaves and adhered them using glue runner and foam tape.  I added a bow of bakers twine for an extra bit of character.

The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder for some texture and shine.  In retrospect, I wish I had used a darker embossing powder as this color simply doesn't stand out that well on the darker paper.  However, this color does coordinate well with the other colors on my card.

PRODUCTS USED:

{all Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted}

Paper:  Classic Kraft, Twig Wreath patterned paper

Stamps:  Painted Petals, Bold & Beautiful Sentiments

Dies:  Painted Petals

Ink:  Sweet Blush, Melon Berry, Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides,

Classic Kraft, Dark Chocolate

Other Brands:  VersaMark ink, Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder, bakers twine

PTI No Stamps Challenge

My next card is for the Papertrey Ink day 7 challenge in their 11th anniversary celebration, and the challenge is to make a card using NO stamps.  That's definitely not my usual style, but it's good to step outside of one's comfort zone on occasion.

For this card, I reached into my stash of background panels that I've created and have not yet used.  I made this panel some time ago using Distress Crayons.  At the time, I wasn't happy with how it turned out because I wasn't able to master blending the colors.  However, I saved it because I figured I would find a use for it one day and today is that day.

The butterfly panel is diecut from white cardstock using the PTI Butterfly cover plate.  The sentiment is Winnie & Walter's In a Word - Hugs.  I diecut it once from teal glitter cardstock (from Walmart) and three more times from white cardstock so that I could stack the layers for dimension.

I threw in some Moonshine sequins from Simon Says Stamp and.....Done!!

MFT Creative Olympics Challenge 1

I'm playing along today with the My Favorite Things Creative Olympics in honor of the 2018 Winter Olympics.  I've been watching the figure skating events, and I'm absolutely in awe of the agility and grace those athletes have while competing.  They absolutely amaze me!

Anyway, back to the MFT challenge.

I am entering this card into two separate  challenges; 

1)  Creative Olympics Event 1: Stamping Slalom and

2)  MFT Color Challenge 87

The requirements for the Stamping Slalom are to use at least three separate MFT stamp sets on one card.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!  

I started by stamping a white card panel with my images and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.  Next I inked up the panel with Distress Inks that coordinate with the color challenge; Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry & Weathered Wood.  The clear embossed images stay white after the ink is applied.  Then I diecut some masking paper to cover each of the images I stamped before splatter the panel with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I mounted my stamped and inked panel on a piece of white cardstock and then a black card base.  I love how well the colors POP with the white and black frames around the colored panel!

[To be totally honest, I messed up my first inked panel and had to start over again.  On my first panel, I didn't mask off the images before splattering with ink and the images seemed to get totally lost in the black splatters.  Lesson learned!]

I stamped another white panel for the inside of the card using more inks to coordinate with the color challenge; PTI Picked Raspberry & Lovely Lady and Jenni Bowlin Weather Vane.

MFT STAMP SETS USED ON THIS CARD:

Lucky Dog

Tiki Party

Penguins in Paradise

You Make My Tail Wag

You Gnome Me

Lovey Dovey Sentiments

{The coordinating dies were used to cut the masks for the front of the card.}

That's six different stamp sets used on one card.  Challenge met!!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next Creative Olympics challenge will be!

Go, Olympic Team USA!!

PTI Retirement List Challenge

The latest Papertrey Ink challenge is to create a project using one of the stamp sets on their latest list of retiring stamp sets.  [sniffle, sniffle....I hate seeing their awesome stamps retire forever!]

I own several of the stamp sets on the list, but the one I chose to create with today is the Retro Style: Birthday stamp set and dies.  I copied the layout from one of Betsy Veldman's cards that she made with this same set ages ago.  I'll link to her photo at the end of this post.

Here is my card for the challenge.

PRODUCTS USED:

Stamps:

PTI Retro Style: Birthday

Winnie & Walter Big Bang Confetti & Bigger Bang Confetti

Dies:

PTI Retro Style & Scene It dies

Ink:

I forgot to write down the exact colors used but they are a mix of PTI & Altenew.

Paper:

PTI Stampers Select White, Aqua Mist & Raspberry Fizz

And here is Betsy Veldman's card which was my inspiration;

PTI Floral Challenge

Day 4 of Papertrey Ink's anniversary celebration is all about floral stamps. 

Here is my entry for the Floral Challenge.

 {I zoomed in here to show the shimmer on the flowers.  I used a Wink of Stella pen to sparkle them.}

PRODUCTS USED:

Paper:

PTI Stampers Select White & Winter Wisteria

Ink:

Ranger Jet Black Archival ink

Altenew Lavender Fields, Deep Iris, Volcano Lake & Lagoon

Stamps:

PTI Painted Petals (sentiment)

Altenew Beautiful Day

Dies:

Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles

Other:

PTI Clear Embossing Powder

Wink of Stella glitter pen

Scotch Foam Adhesive

Transformation Tuesday with PTI

I'm participating today in the Papertrey Ink Transformation Tuesday Challenge.

Here is a card I created way back in 2014.  I love this card!  But I also knew I could take the same basic layout and transform it into another amazing card as well.

So I waived my magic wand and......

Ta Da!!

I used PTI patterned paper from the Enchanted Evening pattern pack for the background.  The flowers and leaves were from my stash of stamped and diecut pieces that were leftover from older projects.  The flowers are stamped with PTI Lavender Moon and Autumn Rose inks.  I don't remember what colors were used on the leaves.

The scroll stamp is from PTI Boutique Borders: Thanks, and I decided to cut it into two pieces so that I could stamp one at the top and one at the bottom using VersaMagic Aegean Blue ink.  I also embossed it with clear embossing powder from PTI.  The sentiment is from the PTI Words of Comfort set and is stamped in Altenew Desert Night ink and clear embossed.

Transformation complete!!  :)

PTI Anniversary Sketch Challenge

One of my favorite stamp companies, Papertrey Ink, is celebrating their 11th anniversary this month.  I'm entering this card in their anniversary sketch challenge.

This is the inspiration sketch recipe that inspired my card:

I believe this is the first time I've ever used acetate as my card base.  The sketch recipe says to make the card base narrower than A2 size, which I did with the purple layer; but I chose to use PTI clear cardstock for my actual card base.  It gives the appearance of being narrower than A2, but it actually is not.  I really love the effect it gives to the card!  :)

I used foam adhesive to pop up my flowers for extra dimension, and adhered some of the leaves directly to the white frame panel to create more depth.

I didn't want the sentiment to be "lost" amid the flowers, so I heat embossed it with a purple metallic embossing powder.  The raised embossing adds a little extra texture.

For a finishing touch, I added some Wink of Stella glitter pen just to the darker areas of the flowers.  It did end up causing the ink to lighten a bit since it isn't a waterproof ink, but I love the shimmer and shine it adds to the card.

For the inside of my card I cut another white frame panel to match the front, but did not cut the diagonal stripes from the center.  This gave me the perfect place to stamp the sentiment on the inside.

That's it for today!  Now it's off to bed for me.

PRODUCTS USED:

Cardstock:  PTI Clear, Royal Velvet, Stamper's Select White
Ink:  Altenew Lavender Fields, Deep Iris, Frayed Leaf
VersaMark
Dies:  PTI Morning by Morning, Mix & Mat Flourishes Frame
Stamps:  PTI Morning by Morning, Butterfly Kisses
Embossing Powder:  Zing metallic purple
Wink of Stella Glitter Pen
A miscellaneous sentiment flag I've had for ages upon ages

Celebrate with MFT!

Wow!  I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I posted anything here!  All I can say is my life is crazy and time really flies!  I barely find time to craft, let alone type up blog posts and edit photos.  However, I do love sharing the things that I make and if there is a chance to win a prize along the way...well, why not?  Just gotta make the time to do it.

So, My Favorite Things is giving away a $50 gift voucher for their latest challenge called The Birthday Project: Celebrate Good Times.

Now, when I was creating this birthday card, I had totally forgotten the name of the challenge post....I only remembered that we're supposed to use the word Celebrate in our project.  It just so happened that I picked a sentiment that actually says "Celebrate good times".  It wasn't my intention to duplicate the name of the challenge.

The stamps are all from Altenew except for the sentiment which is from My Creative Time.

My flowers were stamped with the following colors from lightest to darkest:

Papertrey Ink - Sweet Blush (stamped 3 times)

Altenew - Sunkissed (stamped twice)

Hero Arts Shadow - Soft Cantaloupe (stamped twice)

Memento - Morocco (stamped twice)

I used my MISTI tool to stamp in the same place each time.  I also noticed that if I stamp all the color layers immediately after one another, the inks seem to fade into each other a bit when they dry which gives the colors a much softer feel.  I wanted a bolder look, so I let each new color dry a while before stamping the next color on top.  

I always start with my darkest color (the outline) first.  It also seemed to soften after stamping the other colors on top of it, so I stamped it again at the very last step to make it nice and bold.

All of the other ink colors used are shades of green from Altenew and that touch of blue is Altenew Sea Glass stamped 3 times.

I used the My Favorite Things Stitched Fishtail Frames dies to diecut the frame around my sentiment from their Copper Shine cardstock.  I photographed it from several angles because it's so shiny that it's difficult to photograph well with nothing but a desk lamp lighting my project.  (We have a photography light booth in the basement, but I didn't feel like going downstairs to take me pictures.)

The sequins came from 28 Lilac Lane's Spring Butterflies sequin mix.  The mix also has hearts and butterflies in it, but I just pulled out some round sequins for this.  The colors were an excellent compliment to my ink choices for this project.

I have a backlog of photos that I have taken over the past year, and I hope to find the time to post some more of those projects in the near future.

Happy 2018 to anyone reading this!  :)