These past few days, I have been giving my Create a Cupcake stamp set and matching Build a Cupcake punch from the brand spankin’ new Autumn/Winter mini a serious workout, and inspired by two different challenges this week, came up with this little card…

It was based on this Clean & Simple Fall-to Layout #134…

…which in and of itself is clean and simple indeed, but by the time I had finished stamping and punching all six cupcakes, white embossing all the “bows” deciding on each of their embellishments, putting them in order, sticking them down and wondering where on earth I was going to fit the sentiment (you will note that I went with a strip of vellum overlaying the bottom row of cupcakes so as not to obscure them too much…), well let’s just say that whoever gets this baby outta feel really loved.

Not that I have anybody in mind at the moment, I’m just sayin…

The colours were inspired by last weeks colourQ combination:

I took a bit of artistic licence with this, as technically the Cherry Cobbler that I used for my flower and cherry decorations and the So Saffron brads as the flower centres were not officially part of the line-up, but I’m pretty sure I can make out some So Saffron sprinkles on the bottom left cake in the above pic, as well as a couple of specks of Cherry Cobbler too.

At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.  Just as well we’re not playing for sheep stations here…

The other little project I have been having fun with involving the cupcakes is the project I’m demonstrating at my workshops this month.  Super cute, it must be said

With several workshop dates already booked and Easter looming, I have limited workshop opportunities left this month, but if you want to see this gorgeous set of products put through its paces (AND keep the cute project for yourself!) contact me asap and we’ll work out a date!

“Challenge Chewsday Cupcakes!”
Stamps: Create a Cupcake
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Vellum cardstock
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Cherry Cobbler, Versamark
Accessories: Build a Cupcake punch, Subtles brads, White embossing powder, Colour Spritzer and Crumb Cake Marker, Crystal Effects, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Right off the bat, I’m going to need to ask you to be kind to me today.

Firstly because I’m not at all sure of the card that I’ve made, but if I take the time to make another one, Challenge Chewsday will turn into Where the Heck Have You Been Wednesday and that’s just not in the rules.

Secondly, I have found a picture online that I rather like so have turned it into a bit of a challenge of my own – the first I have ever thrown out there, so make of THAT what you will.

And thirdly, I have just spent waaaaay longer than usual with the process of uploading and editing my photo as our hard drive packed it in on Saturday morning, presenting me with an error message that I simply could not decipher when I switched it on, so I have had no computer all weekend, got it back yesterday afternoon and have spent a goodly chunk of this evening re-loading my programs, trying and failing to locate the disc that came with our camera in order to load photo’s onto the computer (I managed a work-around), re-doing my watermark in Photoshop and getting myself all hot and bothered in the process in this incessantly humid Perth weather.

Whinge over.  Moving on…

This is the challenge that I set for myself this week…

The image comes from a blog I love to look at and have stashed away in my Google Reader in a file I call Gorgeous Inspiration.  I’m sure when you check out A Creative Mint for yourself, you will agree that it has been aptly filed

Here is the card that I based on the colours above and am still unsure of, but we’ve been over that, so here you go…

I just received the Sale-a-bration set So Happy for You last week, and this was its first foray out of the box.  I did plan to keep the card simple, but I think I may have erred too much on the side of simplicity as it turns out…

This stamp set is one of the four that is available to you for FREE with a purchase of over $100 during the Sale-a-bration period, which finishes up at the end of the month.

Check out all of the available freebie stamp sets –>HERE<– then contact me to place your order!

“Challenge Chewsday – One of my own”
Stamps: So Happy for You
Paper: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Brights DSP Paper Stack
Ink: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Whisper White 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon

Two weeks in a row – I’m on a roll folks!  And you’ll note that Challenge Chewsday got the nod from the majority of commenters (commentators?!) on the last post – not that I was taking a poll or anything, but since you offered your opinions, let’s go with it!

This week I headed back to Inkspirations HQ and used the fabulous sketch on offer there…

Combined with this PRETTY colour combination from ColourQ…

And this is what I turned them into…

On Thursday just gone, our gorgeous across-the-road neighbours added a beautiful baby girl to their already sweet and lovely family, so as a heartfelt thank you for giving me a brand new baby to sniff, with a little bit of congratulations thrown in, this is the card I made for baby Lily, that we headed over this afternoon to give them.

I also made a little matching gift tag to hang from the bag…

So there you have my challenge entry for this Chewsday!  Hope you’re enjoying my new blog feature – I certainly am!

• An oldie but a goodie – sponge the edges of your cardstock and paper for a lovely vintage look
• Punch a strip of cardstock with a border punch, feed it through the Crimper, then concertina the straight edge together and stick it behind an oval or circle shape for a pretty border
• Use a White Gel Pen in conjunction with watercolouring for some great highlights

“Happy Birth-Day Lily!”
Stamps: Awash with Flowers, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Watercolour Paper, Cherry Cobbler, In-color DSP stack,
Ink: Versamark, Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Ovals die, Eyelet Border Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Neutrals Brads, Crimper, 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Bitty Buttons, Owl Punch (heart), Blushing Bride Stitched Poly Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Stampin’ Sponges

I‘ve been thinking for a while that I ought to have more in the way of a plan in terms of what goes up on my blog and when.  Although flying by the seat of my pants is my usual MO of choice, it’s not really working for me anymore, so I’ve decided it’s time to get myself a bit organised.

So to get the ball rolling, I thought I would start simply, adding just one new thing to my blog schedule, or rather starting a blog schedule altogether, with a feature I’m going to call Challenge Tuesday.

For purposes of alliteration and perfectionism, I was half tempted to call it Challenge Chewsday but thought better of it.

The idea is that I will seek out some fun challenges to take part in, thereby possibly even alerting you, dear reader, to some challenge blogs and websites that you may previously have been unaware of.  Occasionally I may even throw in a home grown one, just for fun…

To kick things off, I have actually completed no less than FOUR challenges over the weekend, combining some sketch and colour challenges.

First up is the Pals Paper Arts PPA79 – Celebrity Colour Challenge…

…combined with the Clean and Simple Stamping Fall to Layout #126…

…for the following result:

It’s not a combination of colours I would ever have thought to put together on my own,  and I’ve left this card on my desk so that I can keep sneaking peeks at it to decide whether or not I like it…

• Use the Colour Spritzer to create a slight textured background on an otherwise plain cardstock base

• Use part of a Big Shot die instead of the whole thing for a different look and greater product flexibility

“Pals Paper Arts PPA79 + Clean and Simple Stamping FTL126″
Stamps: Growing Green, Occasional Greetings
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Riding Hood Red, Certainly Celery, Watercolour Paper, Lover Letter DSP
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Riding Hood Red, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Colour Spritzer, Rich Razzleberry Marker, Circle Scissors Plus, 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch, Big Shot, Top Note Die, Aquapainter, Stampin’ Dimensionals

For challenges three and four, I went with the combination of  Inkspirations Colour Challenge #56…

…and Sweet Sunday sketch Challenge 103…

and came up with this:

I rather like this one, although again, the colours are unlikely to have made it onto the same project of mine without the prompting of a challenge, which after all is the whole idea of challenges I guess.

I encourage you to give some a go if you need to step outside of your stampin’ comfort zone a bit

• A fine border of white or black cardstock is great for breaking up solid colours and adding definition to your layout

• Invest in one (or all!) of the packs of DSP  Patterns Stacks, that way you’ll have a DSP in all of your favourite colours

“Inkspirations Colour Challenge #56 + Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 103″
Stamps: Apple Blossom (L2 hostess)
Paper: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Neutrals DSP Patterns Stack, Jolly Holiday DSP
Ink: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Stampin’ Dimensionals

So there you have it, the first of what I hope will be many Challenge Tuesdays, although I should warn you right up front that they are unlikely to all feature more than one challenge at a time. I guess I got a bit carried away with the idea for this first one…

Right, let’s get this show back on the road and back into chronological order!

With a mere couple of hours until this week’s challenges close over at Helping Hudson, I have just managed to scraped in with challenges four and five.

At least I will scrape in if I can manage to keep the waffle to a minimum, so without further ado (or waffle), here is the colour challenge for the week…

And here is what I did with it…

A nice simple card – the best kind when the recipient is a bloke, as I can be close to certain that they’re not going to treasure it for the remainder of their days like the gals in my life are more likely to do

Usually I watercolour this stamp set, but I had a bit of a brainwave and paper pieced it with some scraps of DSP that I think can pass quite well for the amber fluid, complete with rising bubbles…

If you’re a super quick stamper, photographer and blog poster, chances are you still have time to whip up an entry into Helping Hudson Challenge #4 for yourself, but you’ll have to be quick…

HURRY!

Then pop back here, as I’m about to upload challenge #5…

“Helping Hudson Challenge #4 – Colour”
Stamps: Cheers to You, Basic Phrases
Paper: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Confetti White, Bella Rose DSP, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Ink: StazOn Black, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Chocolate Chip Double Stitched Grosgrain, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Alrighty, hopefully you’ve digested my previous post, ’cause here comes the next one!

With my woeful posting record of late, this lot is likely to give you indigestion, coming thick and fast as it is, but having made the cards, I’m busting to share them, so without further ado or mention of indigestion, here’s Hudson’s first colour challenge….

And here is what I did with it…

Now this stamp set is another with a certain sentimentality attached.  Heartfelt Thanks was one of the very first Stampin’ Up! sets that I got, being that it was part of the demonstrator Starter Kit when I signed up almost four and a half years ago.

The little puffy flower is just so cute and I love the depth that is achieved by the two-step stamping factor.

And Seeing Spots – the set that the circular sentiment comes from – was the first set I received as a Christmas present from Stampin’ Up! *sigh*

Next up, a technique challenge….

“Hudson’s Colour Challenge #1″
Stamps: Hearfelt Thanks, Seeing Spots
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Rose Red, Whisper White
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Rose Red
Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder; 1-3/8, 1-1/4 & 1/2″ Circle Punches; Eyelet Border Punch, 1/4″ Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon

Part two of my challenging week – this time set by Narelle, a member of my ‘A Klass Act’ stampin’ team, on our online forum.

Narelle issued a challenge to use three different shades of the same colour – a monochromatic type scheme – for which I chose to focus on blues, specifically Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue and Night of Navy…

It looks for all the world as though the focus is out on my camera in this photo, and truth be told, it may just be, but the blur is kind of magnified by the shadow stamping effect that I used with two different colours of blue ink…

This card gave me an opportunity to use some of the soon to be retired colours of cardstock in my stash – a stash that has been relocated to my stamping desk, right in front of my face so as to remind me that I really must use them as much as I can in these next few weeks.

Some of the retiring colours are already sold out, and many more are heading out the door in large numbers, so if you have yet to load up your stores with cardstock, ink and refills that are on the fond farewell list, be sure to get in touch to order some soon

“Upsy Daisy Blues”
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sanded
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla
Ink: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Brocade Blue 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

It’s week two of school holidays over this way, and I would have to say that it’s been one of the most enjoyable school holidays I can remember.

Despite the fact that we have had a couple of overly crisp weeks in terms of weather, which was promptly followed by rain in large bucket loads, and a bit of a head cold on my part, we have have been enjoying several sleep ins, a bunch of pyjama days, loads of visiting, a number of play dates, a movie and large amounts of pottering at home.

The girls have been absolutely delightful, reveling in each others’ company and being quite honestly, completely delicious!

So I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this relaxed time, which hasn’t left a whole lot of room for blogging, so apologies for that

I have been stamping though, and have spent some time this week playing along with a number of challenges, hence the title of this post.

You may have noticed that the Design Team over at Just Add Ink has been expanded by about double, meaning that we only have to design fortnightly for the challenges.  We are free to play along in our off week though, and this week I decided to do exactly that – leaving it to the very last minute as is my standard OP, but anyway, here it is…

I especially wanted to play along with this one, as it involves Elegant Eggplant – a colour that I need as much practise with as I can get.

Despite needing practise though, I do tend to use Elegant Eggplant very much as a highlight rather than a feature colour, but at least it’s there!

I combined the colour challenge with a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog – a place that I head to on many an occasion when I’m in need of a fabulous yet simple layout

So there you have challenge number one!  Next up I’ll show you a card that I made up for a challenge on my team stamping blog, and later this week the next JAI challenge!

All this is after we head to the park tomorrow followed by dinner with my bestie and her gorgeous family.

It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it

“Just Add Ink #25″
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dot,
Paper: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red
Accessories: 1-3/8″, 1-1/4″ and 3/4″ Circle Punches, Rich Regals brads, Vintage brads, Elegant Eggplant 1/4″ Grosgrian Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week, Just Add Ink brings you another colour challenge, and what a cracker it is!  The lovely Bronwyn Eastley – fellow DT gal – came up with this one…

I can honestly say that left to my own devices, I would likely never have combined these colours in a single project, but that’s why they call it a challenge, right?!

Here’s my contribution…

Saved by my DSP collection

All I did was punch out 1-1/4″ circles from whatever Designer Series Papers that I could find with the relevant colours.

A bit of embellishing here and there (quite literally) and I was all done.

Hop on over to Just Add Ink to check out some fabulous creations with this combo and while you’re there, have a go for yourself

Just Add Ink Challenge #22
Stamps: Seeing Spots
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Cottage Wall DSP
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Sunny Day Simply Scrappin’ Kit, 1-1/4″  and 1-3/8″ Circle Punches, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Boho Blossom Punch, Button Bouquet, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot grosgrain ribbon

So I have only just managed to make good on my promise to be back “later today” (at least according to my West Australian clock), but here I am with my entry for this week’s Just Add Ink challenge.

This week it’s another colour challenge for you and it was a large challenge for me as it involves Elegant Eggplant, which I can just never seem to make anything decent with!

Here are the colours…

And here is my contribution, that I’m not at all sure about, so please be kind…

As it turns out, the greatest challenge for me was finding a sheet of co-ordinating DSP to go in the background of the photo, but as you can see, that was a challenge that I didn’t manage to meet.

I got out my Circle Scissors Plus for this one, which I must do more often, as I am rather partial to a circular element on a card, but quite often forget to include one.

I also dusted off Garden Whimsy for the first time in ages, which is another thing I try to do with challenges – incorporate a recently neglected stamp set at the same time.

So there you have it, a very bright and very challenging combination of colours.

The challenge for the week closes at midnight this coming Wednesday, so if you’d like to have a go at these colours for yourself, pop on over to Just Add Ink and play along!

Some extra stampin’ tips for you to try….

• Add some visual interest by popping your feature images up on Stampin’ Dimensionals and extending them outside their “frame” as I’ve done with the butterflies

• Tone on tone stamping – as I’ve done with the curly stamp with Elegant Eggplant ink on the Elegant Eggplant background – fills a bare space, but without being too busy and ‘in your face’

“Just Add Ink Challenge #19″
Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Paper: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Melon Mambo
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Melon Mambo Polka-Dot grosgrain, Scallop Edge Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals