Category Archives: Challenge

Crafting in the time of Corona

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Misc, Papercrafts, Random Acts | Tagged , , ,

[Disclosure: This post contains some Amazon affiliate links.]

I have had the above print by Mary Engelbreit hanging in my home office/craft space for a while now.  I always find that focusing on a craft project helps my brain reset from lawyer mommy life.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may already know that in an attempt to keep myself sane, I am challenging myself to make a greeting card a day and send them to friends to communicate from afar.  It’s a win win since I get my creative energy flowing (and a sudden validation for my hoard of craft supplies) and the friend I send it to gets a lovely surprise.  Several friends who received theirs this week have already told me it made their week in this time of social distancing.  The other benefit of a card is that it’s the type of project that can fill as much or as little time as you want.  If you just want to do a quick card with a single stamp, you can totally do something clean and simple.  Or, if you have a bit more time, you can layer stamps and inks to your heart’s content.  Either way, you get the satisfaction of completing a project in one sitting! Continue reading →

Runway Inspired Challenge #60: Calla (aka the chow chow challenge)

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card | Tagged , ,

It has been forever since I played along with the Runway Inspired Challenge.  None of the fashions spoke to me but then came this one and holy moly, it was made for me!

As you may recall, we lost our two red chow boys Teddy and Smokey last spring, just six weeks apart.  We adopted a sweet and huggable black chow chow in August who we named Huckle Bear but red chows will always have a special place in my heart.  So when I read that much of this designer’s collection was inspired by her little chow chow Lilybear, who is apparently well known on the streets of Paris, I knew it was time to get busy on a card.  So, without further ado, here it is:

Runway Inspired Challenge #60

I masked the edges with thin washi tape and then used a dauber to apply Versafine in Smokey Gray.  Then I die cut the chow chow from Stardream Flame and added a few enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye.  The sentiment is an old one from A Muse embossed in Turquoise onto PTI Berry Sorbet cardstock and popped up with foam tape.

I am beary happy with the result.  And just so Huckle isn’t left out given all the focus on red chows, here is a pic of my sweet boy along with my other sweet boy 🙂

madebymamaleh.comShabbat Shalom!

All That Glitters

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Random Acts, Rubber Stamps, Wedding | Tagged , ,

Handmade Pug Thank You cards madebymamaleh.com

Sorry for being MIA – between all of the holidays, work and some health stuff, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.  I had high hopes for finally getting a good pic of our sukkah, made from our chuppah frame.  Alas, that didn’t quite happen.  But, I’m back with a little something I made for a dear friend who is in the midst of wedding planning.  There are just times in a girl’s life when no ordinary thank you note will do and goodness knows that in the months leading up to a wedding, there is no shortage of thank yous to write!  Continue reading →

Hanukkah in September!

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Hanukkah | Tagged , , ,

Please excuse the interruption in the regularly scheduled high holiday programming but there was a challenge over at Moxie Fab World that I just needed to enter and it required me to think of Hanukkah while in the midst of Rosh Hashanah prep.  OY!  So, over in the Moxie Fab World, there was a Holiday Gift Tag Challenge.  And yes, even though Rosh Hashanah is a clearly a much bigger holiday than Hanukkah, the challenge was for the winter holidays, namely Christmas but since Hanukkah doesn’t appear to be getting much love, I decided I better throw my hat in the ring.  Continue reading →

Challenge: Air Mail!

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Rubber Stamps | Tagged , ,

I will spare you all of the crazy details but life has really gotten in the way of crafting lately so when I saw the current Air Mail Challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, I just knew I needed to enter and get those creative juices going again!  You see, after finding this older Denami Space Needle “stamp” stamp on eBay a while back, it was simply screaming to be combined with Sending Love from Seattle.  I decided to make my own Sealed with a Kiss by combining one of my fave alphabets with the lips from Mama Elephant’s Cup of Wishes.  I finished it off with an airmail stamp from Paper Source and skinny airmail washi tape.  Inks used: VersaMagic Night Sky, Brilliance Rocket Red and Brilliance Starlite Black.  All ready to send to a far-away friend in need of some love!

Air Mail Challenge Card

Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge03

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Rubber Stamps | Tagged , , ,


I forced myself to get inspired yesterday for the Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge.  Spring is definitely in bloom in Seattle with lots of tulips and daffys but oy, was this weekend rainy.  It was a tea weekend for sure.  So here’s my card with some bright spring colors and nice cozy tea.  The photo doesn’t quite do all the details of the card justice, especially the gold “and cozy,” but you get the idea.  Perfect for one of my random acts of kindness that I really need to get back to!

Card for Mama Elephant Sketch Challenge03

Supplies used
Stamps: Mama Elephant Cup of Wishes
Paper: Paper Trey Ink Berry Sorbet and Aqua Mist
Ink: Embossing Ink, Brilliance Galaxy Gold
Other: Ranger Turquoise Embossing Powder, White Embossing Powder, Yellow Chevron Washi tape by Love My Tapes, Fruit Punch and Yellow Stickles

Runway Inspired Challenge#29 – DSquared2

| | Posted in Baby, Challenge, Handmade Card | Tagged ,

I wasn’t going to enter the current Runway Challenge.  I just wasn’t really feeling very inspired by the picture. And then all of a sudden it came to me as I stared at my Paper Trey Ink Raspberry Fizz Cardstock and I just had to make it.

I saw columns created by the suit, cardi and chambray shirt (which by the way convinced me I needed a chambray button-down myself) and what stood out to me was the bold brown buttons so it was the perfect chance to use this mini clear set I picked up on sale a while back.  Finally I added a few touches of chocolate Stickles and a brown velvet ribbon to reflect the belt.  A perfect baby card or perhaps for any little girl (or little girl at heart)  just because 🙂

Challenging Myself and Sending Love from Seattle

| | Posted in Challenge, Handmade Card, Misc | Tagged , , ,

Today’s post is something new for me.  I have loved making cards ever since I was a little kid gluing doilies on Valentines.  Now in the age of the blog-o-sphere, I follow a bunch of fun paper-crafting sites that give me lots inspiration and ideas for all sorts of things, not just cards.  Sometimes they have crafting challenges to inspire you to stretch your creative muscles.  I’ve found it a bit intimidating, never sure if my photos or designs are quite good enough to compete but I decided to give it a go and challenge myself to try something new. So, taking inspiration from two challenges, I am diving in.  Over at Runway Inspired Challenge (I absolutely love the melding of fashion and paper-crafting going on here by the way), the idea was to design a card based on this spring fashion:

While the challenge over at Moxie Fab World, Challenge #49 from Creative Card Challenges Week: was to create your own background paper.

So, drum roll please, here’s what I came up with:

Runway Inspired Challenge#27 card

For the background, I took my Rubber Soul rain stamp and Brilliance Starlite Black to create my patterned paper on my all-time favorite shimmery cardstock: Curious Metallics White Gold.  Now, I am generally one to just eyeball things when it comes to stamping, but for creating a background I used my stamp positioner to get it just right since for a background you have to line up the stamp over and over.  Then, using a little scrap of a floral-patterned washi paper that’s almost like vellum (sadly, the photos don’t do it justice), I stamped my little Amuse Art Stamps Tiny Butterfly (no longer available alone but new version here) in Fresh Ink Turquoise and Pool.  After adhering the butterfly panel, I then stamped Sending Love from Seattle by Impress in Turquoise over the top of both and embossed it using clear embossing powder.  A little of the powder stuck to the raindrops so I ended up deciding to embrace this and filling a few in with Diamond Glaze for that true glistening rain effect.  And last but not least, two little pale blue gems for some extra sparkle!

Here’s a close up of the raindrops:

ric#27

I think it sort of embodies Seattle at the moment…suffering through the onslaught of winter rain so that eventually we can find the colorful butterflies of spring.  What do you think?  How’d I do with the two challenges?  Have you ever entered a crafting challenge?