Happy pre-4th and for fun!

Happy 4th of July (a little early)! Well, this makes two weekends in a row that I'm posting so maybe I'm back in the groove?!? I hope so because I think it's helping me get sane again! :) Here's a couple of creations plus pictures of the finished insides...of course the challenges I was inspired by are below the pictures.

For the first one I used the SU! "Fourth of July" stamp set, SU! DSP "Big Top Birthday," Taylored Expressions "Seeing Stars" dies, SU! star punches, a shiny star brad, a shiny rhinestone star, and glitter paper. Oh yeah, that ribbon is SU! too! :)

1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Red, White, and Blue plus optional glitter/bling: got a litte of both of the optional
2.  365 Cards - Sparkle and Shine (two techniques/itmes to add sparkle/shine): I have glitter paper for one of the starts, a shiny star brad, and it's hard to tell but I used "platinum"ink for some of the firewords and used a starburst pen to color the "4th" on the sentiment.
3. Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog - bingo: I used "happy", ribbon, and die cut (the stars on the bow are a die cut)
4. Bearly Mine Challenges - anything goes
5. Card Makin’ Mamas - red, white and blue
6. Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - summer or 4th of July
7. Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - metal
8. Crafty Creations Challenges - embellish (use at lest 3 different embellishements): mine are ribbon, brad, die cut and punched stars
9. Crafty Sentiments - red, white, and blue
10. Cute Card Thursday - patriotic
11. Delightful challenges - celebration
12. Frosted Designs - circles
13. "Just Us Girls" Challenge - stars and sparkle (see above)
14. Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - national flag's colors: I used a shade of blue from red, white and blue from the US flag
15. Mark's Finest Papers – Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge - metal
16. Paper Pretties - red, white and blue
17. Scrap-Creations - 4th of July
18. Simon Says Challenge - sporty or patriotic
19. Simply Create Too - country where you live
20. The Sisterhood of Crafters - stars
21. Totally Stampalicious - red, white and ?
22. i{heart}2stamp - sketch

Next up is another creation using a few of my new and old SU! products (thanks, Mom!). This one uses the "Language of Friendship" stamp set, the sentiment is from the "Touch of Nature" set, images were punched out with the bird punch and Boho Blossoms punch, the images are mounted on a die from Apothecary Framelits set and trimmed with the matching piercing template. The paper is an old SU! DSP "Le Jardin". The lace is some from my stash. The images are colored with Prismacolor pencils. Pearls are MS.

1. allsorts challenge blog - In bloom

2. C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - feathers/birds

3. Cooking It Up With Katie - make it sunny (used yellow for this!), add some lace, and include some flowers

4. Craft your passion challenges - things with wings

5. Cupcake Craft Challenges - birds of a feather

6. Fairy Tale Challenge blog - soft color tones

7. Incy Wincy Designs - anything goes

8. Papertake Weekly Challenge - sketch

9. Wags ‘n Whiskers - use craft: cardbase

10. Whoopsi Daisy - things with wings

I'm baaaaack...

Aloha everyone!! It's been so long but I'm still here and slowly getting back into cardmaking. :) Since my last post back in February (!), I was super busy with work through the third week of May and then got to go back to Missouri for a much need vacay with the 'rents. Unfortunately my mom was sick for about 1/2 of my time there but it was nice to just laze around and rejuvenate. Still got a few weeks before the next school year starts (July 30) for me again so hopefully I'll get some quality "therapy" time in with my craft gear before then!

Of course my blogging/cardmaking hiatus did not prevent me from getting new materials which you will find in my creation below (thanks, Mom, for all the SU! stuffs!).

The front uses the new SU! "Layered Labels" stamp set, Paper Piercing Pack Essentials, and Apothecary Accents Framelits. My mom shared her Mocha Morning DSP (thanks again, mom). I also used some old Martha Stewart brushed gold paper (which matched perfectly) and plain old satin ribbon.

I want to get back into finishing the inside of my cards, so I started with this one...used scraps and bit of satin ribbon.

As always, I'm still creating for challenges too. Here's some that inspired this creation:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - anything goes
2. allsorts challenge blog - Dies to Die For: I used a die to cut out the sentiment and to edge the vertical layer
3. Crafts and Me - anything goes
4. Crafty Calendar Challenge - flowers in bloom with optional extra of swirls/flourishes
5. Creatalicious Challenges - anything goes
6. Delightful challenges - anything goes
7. Robyn’s Fetish Challenge - anything goes
8. PaperPlay Challenges - use a die
9. The Deconstructed Sketch - sketch
10. Try it on Tuesday - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon!
Aloha,