challengecards Archives - Cricketleg Creative

“Fun with Dies” Challenge

December 8, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Hey, this “Fun with Dies” Challenge is the part 2 from the “Alcohol Inks” Challenge, basically. Two birds, one stone.

We last left our heroine (me) with lightheadedness and some kind of ugly first tries at alcohol inks. But now you get….the rest of the story!

If you read that last post, you’ll know that I decided to die cut my rather unsightly first alcohol ink attempts hoping that this would make them usable.

And it did!

I much prefer the look of the one color plus gold mixative, but the others aren’t too bad. Artsy fartsy and all that. So after die cutting them, I chose background papers and built then cards based on the mood and colors in the die cuts.

Here are my double-duty entries into both the “Alcohol Inks” Challenge and the “Fun with Dies” Challenge. And since ’tis the season, I made them all Christmas themed.

Merry & Bright Wreath

This is my least favorite of the five. I love the die itself, but it’s larger than a standard A2 size so I don’t use it very often. I allowed it to be trimmed short on one side and just positioned it flush with the card top fold as if I had always intended it to be that way.

Hey, work with what you got!

The colors on this one ran together so much that it made for a rather busy color combo so I kept the background papers simple and solid. I did, however, use trim the red cardstock with some scraps from the experiment. I also used those scraps to back the sentiment.

The Ornament

Using a die from a recent Hero Arts kit, I made one of the alcohol inked cards into an ornament shape. This was pretty busy too, but looked kind of high end and glam so I paired it with a gold and white patterned paper and a simple gold trimmed sentiment.

Merry Christmas Wreath

This wreath die cut, unlike its cousin in the first example, actually does fit the A2 card size! Huzzah! I thought this one looked nice on some cardstock from a recent Simon Says Stamp kit that I then trimmed with gold metallic tape.

Joy

This card turned out just lovely. I used one simple leaf die to cut the cardstock at random places that had a lot of color variation in the teal ink. I arranged them into a wreath shape onto gold metallic cardstock.

Using an alphabet die set, I cut out the letters for the word “joy” from the leftover scraps. The overall effect is so much prettier and more elegant in person. Hard to photograph the metallic papers for me.

Peace

My favorite one. It’s not what I would normally design. But the overall look of this card….yeah, I just really love it.

I paired this orange-red and metallic gold alcohol ink experiment with some patterned paper from a Simon Says Stamp card kit. Die cuts were used to create the branches and the word “peace.” And I used some gold scrap from the Joy card to trim the edge by the word “peace.”

And that’s it, y’all. I flirted with death (why am I so dramatic about the fumes?), lived to stamp another day, and now have five entries into both the “Alcohol Inks” and “Fun with Dies” challenges.

Now, I’m off to write my memoirs about my near-death experience. Pretty sure I’ll be on a TED talk soon, so be on the lookout for that.

Y’all take care!

“Alcohol Inks” Challenge

December 4, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Simon Says Stamp challenge for this past Monday is for using Alcohol Inks! (And this will be kind of a part one, so stay tuned for next Tuesday’s post to see how it ended!)

Each Monday and Wednesday I look forward to the announcements for new themes. I’ve really come to appreciate the creative challenge it offers me.

However, this past Monday I was disappointed. Alcohol inks? Yes, they are cool. Yes, I want to try them. No, I did not have any.

So I decided I wouldn’t participate. It’s fine. I can try alcohol inks another time I guess.

Psych!

Well, I really did think that but when I was buying paper supplies for a church youth activity, I spied this little alcohol inks starter kit from Ranger at my Hobby Lobby.

Hmmm. With the 40% off coupon I figured it was worth a shot. It comes with all that you see in the picture (regular price was $24.99). All I really needed were some colors, the blending solution, and appropriate paper. So the rest was bonus. This would give me a chance to play! Maybe I could enter the challenge after all!

A Word of Warning

Um, they don’t say to work in a “well ventilated area” for nothing, folks. I made myself sick.

The kit comes with 5 notecards to use. So I figured I’d quickly play with the five notecards and I was in my craft studio which I thought was a fine place to work.

Nope.

After three cards (and mind you, I worked quickly) I was feeling dizzy and, um, just weird. I stepped outside for a few minutes and breathed some cool autumn air. Then stepped back inside to quickly finish the other two cards. (Note to self: in absence of blower thingy, don’t use a drinking straw and then huff and puff your way through faking having a blower thingy.)

Then I spent three hours resting in bed till I felt normal again.

Yep. Be careful. Next time I will likely work outside. I don’t know if I’m super sensitive or what but I do NOT want to feel like that again!

I do, however, want to keep practicing with alcohol inks!

How It Went Otherwise

The basic technique is very fun. Lay down some blending solution, some ink, more solution, move it around, play, add the mixative, play some more. Not super complicated.

I can’t say that I loved my results. I don’t have one of those little blowers that effortlessly moves the color around so my end products are less “ethereal” than I would have liked. But hey, it’s my first time.

Three of the cards have all three colors plus the mixative (the metallic gold). Two cards have just one color plus mixative. Meh.

The cards, I thought, were a loss. A worthy experiment, yes. But for a card? Ick.

Then I thought that maybe I could just die cut some shapes out of them. Maybe they’d be prettier then?

Lo and behold, the next challenge was announced and it was “Fun with Die Cuts.” Well, there you go. That’s my answer.

So for the first time since starting the Simon Says Stamp challenges (see my very first “batch” entry here), I decided that I would enter the same 5 cards for both the Alcohol Inks Challenge and the Fun with Dies Challenge.

What did they look like? You’ll have to wait for my next post on Tuesday of next week!

“Anything Goes” Challenge

December 1, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this time is no rules–just anything goes!

As much as I love freedom, you’d think I’d cheer with an “Anything Goes” challenge theme. But what I’ve found is that I actually enjoy some light parameters within which to work. Still, I do love me a challenge, parameters or no.

So, without further ado, here are my five entries into this “Anything Goes” challenge.

Camellia Thanks

Well, I don’t really know if it’s a camellia, but it looks like one to me! I stamped it on cardstock, colored it in with Copic markers, fussy cut it out, and mounted it onto patterned paper.

You can’t tell it from the picture but there’s also super fine glitter on the center parts of the flower.

Simple card, but the camellia is the star of the show!

Birthday Wishes

I have really come to love ink blending. That’s the technique I used to make this rainbow starburst card. Post It notes were used to section off the “rays” and I ink blended between them.

The lines were not as crisp as I’d like so I used different colors of metallic tape to cover them. I love that look!

A simple white-embossed sentiment finishes off the card.

Busy Bees

The star of this card, in my opinion, is the inked and embossed background. It was touch-and-go for a while there as I got the hang of which colors seemed to work best, as well as which embossing folders worked best.

Simply put, you ink up one side of an embossing folder, carefully lay a notecard down on that inked side, close it, and run it through your die cut machine.

Sometimes it comes out looking like a fail, but once the ink dries, the color usually evens out.

Discomfort

This may seem like a strange quote to put on the front of a card, but I sent this specifically to the author of the quote, Brooke Castillo. She’s a life coach, trains other life coaches, and is the host of my favorite podcast (The Life Coach School Podcast).

I just wanted to send her a note of thanks for all the good she puts into the world! And I thought that using this letterboard die set from Sugar Pea Designs was a perfect way to highlight her contributions.

Happy Thanksgiving

Look how versatile that letterboard die set is! I get to use it on another card!

The possibilities are somewhat endless for this set as it can be used for any season, any (short) saying, any mood. I love it!

And I think we all know that the vibe of this particular card is especially true. I don’t know about y’all but those Thanksgiving leftovers…..phew. They ’bout did me in.

Embellishments are from a recent Simon Says Stamp card kit of the month (items from that kit also used on this card).

“Food and/or Drink” Challenge

November 27, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

The most recent Monday challenge from Simon Says Stamp has the Food and/or Drink theme.

Well, hi!

Hey, it’s a non-holiday challenge this time. Whaaaaat??

And, it’s one that I had to stretch a little for. Don’t have a ton of food related stamps. Luckily, I pulled it off! Five entries for the Food and/or Drink Challenge await you below!

Burger and Fries

I like this simple card. I think sometimes I overcomplicate a card, or maybe it’s just that I like to do more complicated techniques. But a clean and simple card (CAS) is pretty satisfying when it’s done well.

And I think this one is.

I used stamps from this Sunny Studio set (the same one I used to make this card). To make the plate, I used circle dies. Some patterned paper and a stamped sentiment, and we done, y’all!

You’re The Zest

While perusing Pinterest the other day, I saw a similar card and thought I would recreate it using what I happen to have on hand.

The orange stamp is from a Stampin’ Up! set from way back. You’ll see most of the set in a card further down in this post. I stamped it in a warm gray color but stamped it once in black and colored that in with Copic markers. I used a blue marker to color in the negative space. There’s no gradation in that blue background. It’s just the weird lighting!

I made a sentiment on Canva and printed it out onto cardstock.

Breakfast

This card features another Sunny Studio stamp set that I used to make this card as well. It comes with lots of fun sentiments that can be mixed and matched, but because of the size of this slimline card, I made my own sentiment on Canva and printed it out onto cardstock.

The foods are stamped in black, colored in with Copics, and fussy cut out. I mounted them onto patterned paper and mounted the sentiment above.

And whoever I give this to better believe that sentiment….if I say this to you, I freakin’ love you cuz I love me some breakfast foods!

Fruits

Here’s that old Stampin’ Up! fruit stamp set I mentioned above. There are a couple more stamps in that set than what you see in this card, but these are the big ones!

Just stamped in black, colored with Copics, and filled in the negative space with Copics as well. I did some very subtle shading around the outside edge of each fruit. But it’s still blue on blue. Loving this…I mean, it almost looks like it’s just patterned paper and it came this way!

The scripture is printed out using Canva.

Cookie Sheet

I think this one is my favorite because I had fun making the cookie sheet. I tried to make it look like my cookie sheets….kinda hammered and discolored. But I don’t know that the look translates well on camera.

I cut out some metallic paper and made a score line near the top edge to simulate the slanted edge of a cookie sheet. Using a mini hole punch, I made the hole (I’ve never used that hole on a cookie sheet IRL!). Using brown, rust, and golden stamp pads and sponge daubers I tried to layer some color to give the look of age to the paper.

Now, I don’t have any suitable sized gingerbread men or cookie stamps so I bought some digital stamps on Etsy. I bought a couple of sets….this one and this one. Digital stamps are kind of fun because they can be resized or tweaked before you print them out. I colored them and fussy cut them out and then glued them to the cookie sheet.

Leftover cookies got glued to the, yes, Canva-made sentiment. All items then were adhered to patterned paper on the card front.

You can kind of see the “aging” coloring on the edges in this pic. My cookie sheets are way more, um, aged than this one.

So. The Food and/or Drink Challenge entries are done! What is your favorite one? And if you can’t answer that….what’s your favorite food and/or drink? 😉

Y’all take care!