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

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!

Challenge: Air Mail!

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


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

Challenging Myself and Sending Love from Seattle

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?