WF11 - Say WHAT?

The "Say WHAT?" challenge on Two Peas in a Bucket was to create a card incorporating favorite quotations or sentiments, with extra credit if you used a Quietfire Designs stamp. I recently received a package of goodies from Quietfire, which I won for participating in the Queen of Hearts Challenge. I was itching to try out their products, and I finally got the tonic scissors which are recommended for trimming unmounted rubber stamps. It was my first attempt at trimming, which I did while holding my breath! But never fear, the Quietfire product stamped beautifully, with nice clear calligraphy. I spent a while weaving ribbon scraps together, and found some interesting handmade paper to use. I like how it turned out, and I'm looking forward to trying my other new stamps.

Speedy the Cat Friends Challenge 42

Challenge 42 was a sketch challenge. I was still working on valentines so I chose to use this adorable stamp which my daughters got me when they were in Paris last fall. They selected it because it was made in France. It seemed perfect to use a stamp from the City of Love on a Valentine!

Queen of Hearts Challenge

There's been a lot of Valentine activity around my studio lately, and this ATC was for the Quietfire Design Queen of Hearts challenge. The photograph doesn't do the subtle shading I did with chalks justice, but I did like how the calligraphy turned out.

Speedy the Cat Part 2

I also decided to play around with quilled flowers. I did a lot of quilling with my Girl Scout troop, mostly making snowflakes and valentines. It was good to try some flower-making. I combined this flower with some handmade paper and my own calligraphy.

Speedy the Cat Challenge 41

Marks Finest Papers is hosting Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge to use self-made flowers on your card. For today, I tried a layered flower using a scallop punch.

OLW37

The challenge for OLW37 was to use only sentiments on your card. I chose a collection of birthday messages for my card. I think this card works well for a guy, and it often is a challenge to come up with masculine ideas.

Simplicity OLW27

The OLW (One Layer Wednesday) 27 challenge on the Simplicity blog this week is to make a holiday card that meet the requirements of the North Dakota State Penitentiary-only one layer of cardstock, no metal, brads, glitter or gemstones. It is optional to send the cards for the prisoners to send to their families during the holidays. I found it kind of restricting to not be able to bling up my cards, but I did make two varieties.