Card Challenges are a fun way to show of your talents

If you have read any of my blogs recently, you know that I enter my cards into card challenges. Now, you may ask, what is a card challenge exactly? Well, card challenges are typically set parameters for making cards. They are wonderful ways to get your creative juices flowing. Sometimes we all need a little push to get started and these challenges are a fun way to get me started. Sometimes these challenges have themes or sometimes sketches that must be followed. Typically you need to have a blog to post your completed cards and link your finished products to the challenge you are participating in and sometimes there are even prizes.

 I found a wonderful site called Paper Playful that does a wonderful job listing the daily challenges and winners of the prior challenges. I have had so much fun making and selling my cards, that I decided to take my chance at becoming part of a Design Team (DT) for one of the challenge blogs. I am happy to announce that I was chosen to join the DT for Suzy Bee's Bloomin Challenge Blog.

This is a brand new Blog designed for Beginners and Advance Crafter's. The Challenges will be on a weekly basis starting on Saturday November 2nd. There will be prizes and blog candy along the way, but to be eligible to win the candy, you MUST become a follower of Suzy Bee's Bloomin Challenge Blog. So make sure you pop over and become a follower so that come November 2nd, you are ready to join the fun. Oh and while you are at it, don't forget to follow me, TaylorMade Cards4U.

To start my Monday, I have decided to enter a couple of Card Challenges:

Card Mania - #30 use a Button
Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Embellishments make the card

Paper Flower Embellishments

Brads

This week's theme is Purple. It is always fun to go out and look for an item that fits the theme. I found these great paper flowers over at Tiger Creek gifts. These flowers are great! I use items like these all the time on my cards. What is fun about this item is that the flowers are made to look like different cosmetics that fit perfectly in to a compact. The company that manufactured this product also makes glass nail polish bottles loaded with mini brads, and embossing chalks in what appears to be a lip gloss compact. What a fun idea! Tiger Creek Gifts has the flowers as well as the brads nail polish bottle available in her store. Stop by and take a look. You can pick up some great embellishments for your cards and have a fancy case to hold them in all at the same time. 

You never know where your creative path will take you

It has been a lazy Sunday afternoon. Raining all morning so it was a perfect time to be creative. I wanted to put together a "Fall" card kit using some Floral Embellishments by Recollections. I am creative once I get the juices flowing, but I usually will go out to the Web or Pinterest to give myself some inspiration. I thought It might be cute to use one of my Framelits from Stampin up as a base for the card. I love cards with unique card folds and even have a pinterest page to prove it. Well, as I got to working on the card, I didn't really like where it was taking me. While the shape was cute, it wasn't really what I had envisioned. I started looking through my scrap paper and found a template of a card fold I had started. Hmmm...this got me thinking. I wanted to use a Chianti color to match some of the colors in the leaves and had some raffia I found at goodwill if you can believe it. I will have to share with you some of the places I find my stuff..but that is another day and another blog. So this is what I came up with:

I love this fold because it allows you to see your inside message when your card is closed.

Supplies I used:

• Paper from Cloud 9 Design and DCWV (the Cafe Mediterranean)
• Framelit from Stampin up Labels Collection
• Button, Raffia and leaves from Recollections
• Stamp is from Stampendous

Now that I have the design down, I can put my kits together. Hopefully you will have as much fun putting this card together as I did.

Summer Time

Well...we are in full blown summer in Phoenix, AZ. Everyone always says it is a dry heat, but I hate that saying. Hot is Hot. My garden is struggling, unlike many others who's are probably thriving in other parts of the country. One thing I do love about summers in Arizona though is the fresh fruit! I made some strawberry freezer jam last night to keep me in the summer mood. As I mentioned before, I am part of an On line sellers group and the theme this week is "Grass". Perfect theme for summer...I found a nice book at Eccentric thrifter called Designing Beds and Borders. Great ideas to get that garden going...or in my case, save your garden. My last post was about Christmas. While it is important to start thinking about those holiday cards, I would like to enjoy my summer months just a little longer. So I will see what I can come up with in my playroom. As always, I will share my creations. "Happy Summer"! Well, as promised, I said I would share what I came up with. This seemed appropriate, since I do live in the sunshine every single day!