Kick Start Challenge

One of the homework assignments in the Kick Start Class is to give yourself a challenge.   For this challenge I've teamed up with another Kick Starter, Debby, for a product challenge.  We've picked two stamps (Stampin' Up! Woodgrain Background and the Reason to Smile set) that we both have and see what we create with them.   She rocks the clean and simple style so I'm anxious to see what she does with these products.
Although I've used the Reason to Smile set several times before, I've never used this particular flower in the set.  It's always fun to try a new product.  I also went a little out of my comfort zone and did a little distressing with ink and tried to add a little vintage feel with some layering of stamps, but I'm not sure how successful that experiment was.

Moxie Fab World Challenge

I created this card today for the Moxie Fab World Challenge to use Natural Elements, which was also the theme of the card I had published in this months issue of Paper Crafts Magazine.   This challenge is totally up my alley.  

I was at work and remembered that I had some samples of wood veneer wall covering that I thought was really cool.   I work at an Architecture firm so there's a ton of inspiration in our resource library.  I brought home a couple of wood veneer samples.  I was planning on die cutting it, but then decided it might look cool to emboss it with white embossing powder.  I added some wood grain patterned paper, linen thread and a wood button that I cut off a shirt years ago.  This challenge was perfect timing because the topic of Kick Start today was to find a challenge.  Here's my card:

Kick Start

I'm taking an online class called Kick Start over at Online Card Classes .  It's about how to get out of a design rut and get going again - tips on finding inspiration, etc.  I suggested this class topic to one of the teachers and I'm so glad that she decided to do it.  It's a great class for both beginners and experienced crafters.  Everyone loses the mojo from time to time :)

Anyway, the day 4 homework was to use something old in our stash.  I found a pack of preprinted cards my mom bought from the $1 bins at Target a few years ago.  She thought I could incorporate them into my card making.  I've been meaning to do something with them for a while.  I also created the brown tall label on my Silhouette and cut a few in different colors so that was sitting on my craft table.  The cards and that label inspired this card...

10 minute craft dash challenge

This was a fun challenge, but I was nervous that I wouldn't finish because I'm a slow crafter.  I set the timer and finished this up in 9 minutes 52 seconds - just 8 seconds to spare.  I knew this would have to be a simple card.  I chose to use washi tape for the diagonal side pattern because it already has adhesive even though it would probably would have been faster to use a piece of patterned paper.  I had washi tape in my head for this so I went with it and I had never used it before.  The stamp and flower die I had out so went with those even though I wanted to cut a butterfly.  I couldn't find my butterfly die because I was rushing, but it was right where it was supposed to be.  Anyway, this is what I came up with...

{9 minutes, 52 seconds}