Catered Crop's Quick Fire

Happy Easter to you!!!

It's Quick Fire time at Catered Crop and this week our challenge is to include 'brads' in our creation. That's pretty easy-peasy.. so there's no reason to not jump in and play along with us.

I used "Teddy Bea"... a digital image from the Teddy Bo Company that I finally got to color up and she was fun to bring to life. Isn't she the cutest?

Check out Teddy Bo also.. I think he might be her brother? 'Not sure, but perhaps you might know.  I think my card is pretty self-explanatory... a bit of Copic coloring and shaded with Prisma pencils and Gamsol, leather cord, coordinating DP's, SU button, cotton ribbon and sentiment. The brads are from my stash.

For this challenge, we are being sponsored by Eat Cake Graphics and our Top Chef, Linda McClain is always so great about finding neat treats for our participants. For this challenge, it's a $30 gift certificate to their shop for one very lucky randomly-selected winner who plays along with us.

At Eat Cake Graphics you will find mounted and unmounted stamps as well as quilt patterns by illustrator/owner, Holly Mabutas, so please check out her wonderful shop.

Be sure to visit the Catered Crop challenge blog to see what our Chefs have dished up for you using brads this week, then create something and play along with us.

Stitching it up at Catered Crop

Our recipe this week at Catered Crop is to include stitching on our project. In addition to stitching (I did some faux stitching to outline my DP), the design team was treated to the cutest little "Bitty Bags" from our sponsor, Whisper Graphics. They are just the cutest little pieces of packaging just waiting for some creativity!

Here's my contribution for this week's Catered Crop challenge using a Bitty Bags... which just so happens to be the absolute perfect size for a gift card.

One very lucky (random) person stands the chance of winning three spools of Divine Twine Baker's Twine from Whisper Graphics.. and aren't these colors just beautiful? That's one VERY lucky person.  I'm jealous!

I'm also entering my gift card holder in these challenges today...

Color Create: Pink, Blue, Sage, Cream or White
Paper Crafting Journey: Pretty Pastels
Whoopsie Daisy - Use Your Stash
Card Mad Fairy's - Use a sentiment
Milk Coffee - Anything Goes
Inspire Me Fridays- Anything Goes
Make It Mondays- Anything Goes
The Poodles Parlour - Anything Goes

Thanks so much for stopping by... I do hope that you will check out the Catered Crop challenge this week and that I'll get to see you there.

Catered Crop - Quick Fire

Sometimes I have to step away from card-making to work on a 3-D project.. gotta get my fix. This week for our challenge at Catered Crop we were treated to a selection of ribbon from Corinna McGregor, owner of Ribbon Carousel. She has a Ribbon Club Kit each month and I just know that I'll be weakening and sign up.... Her selection of ribbons for the kits is delish! You can check out the entire package of all of the lovely green ribbon I received here.

I took a simple white box that had a tent top fold and an acetate oval window in front. Sorry, but I failed to take a picture of the box before I started attacking my project. I cut the oval on the main piece of the designer paper using a Nesties and allowed for the white border to offset the black papers.

The sunflower stamp is one I had to have now that I live in the Sunflower State of Kansas.. it's from Rubber Stampede... and I use it often. I stamped and colored the flower several times and popped up the pieces with dimensionals for a 3-D effect. My papers were all picked from my scrap pile and the ribbon, of course, is from Ribbon Carousel. And to make it even more fun, it's filled with Ghirardelli Dark & Mint chocolates. Viola.. it's now ready for gift-giving.

I hope you will check our Quick Fire challenge at Catered Crop... the chefs are always cooking up something fun. If you need a bit more inspiration, here's the board that Linda McClain, our fearless Top Chef, put together for us.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little spot in blogland. Have a fantastic day.

I'm also entering this in these challenges today....

Bloggers - Something 3D

Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge - Special Mom 

Crafty Ann's - Anything But A Card

Crafty Catz - For a Special Lady

Fairy Tale - Paper Piecing

Hotshot Crafts – Ribbon

Poodles Parlour - Birthday

Raise The Bar – Go Green

Stempelsonnen Challenge - Easter

Totally Papercrafts – Favorite Things

Wags 'n Whiskers - Spring Break

CCEE Stampers - Flowers, flowers, flowers

Crafty Ribbons - Celebrate Mom

Crop Stop - Use at least 4 different colors

Delightful Challenges - St. Patrick's Day

Do You Stack Up? - Go green

DRS Designs - Green, yellow & black

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything made with paper goes

Pixie Dust Studio - Show us your Irish

Catered Crop

We've got a new challenge going on at Catered Crop... and it's to create a card or paper project using newsprint/bookprint/script which has been a hot element in card-making for quite some time.  We always have an inspiration board to share with you...our Top Chef, Linda McClain always creates the best boards. And, this week we're sponsored by Texana  Designs - so check out their unique stamp collection.

I wanted to create a homespun/vintage look and I think this fits the bill. The image is not colored with pencils or markers, but is a digital download I found online at the Graphics Fairy... what wonderful things you can find there.

I did the crackle technique over the rooster image using several coats of UTEE. I chose to use a page from an elementary school version of Webster's Dictionary for the newsprint and everything was antiqued with distress inks. It was an enjoyable project to pull together.

Check out all of the great projects that the Catered Crop design team ladies have put together. What a talented bunch they are! I hope you will come an join us in this fun challenge.


Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Something spooled - Twine & Ribbon
Stamp-N-Doodle - Include an Animal
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Birds of a Feather
Crafty Bloggers Network - Distressing
Creative Stamp Friends - Old-Fashioned or antique
Critter Sketch -  3 embellishments
Heart Song Inspirations - Red, white and/or Ribbon  
Lollipop Crafts - Wing it
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Make it Monday with Kraft - Kraft cardstock - "Tie It Up"
Scrappers Delights - Anything goes
The Crazy Challenge - Vintage
The Ribbon Reel - Ribbons/twine, button
Truly Madly Crafty Challenges - Anything goes

Catered Crop Meets Jelly Park

Illustrator Claire Keay is the owner of Jelly Park, and our sponsor for this week's challenge at Catered Crop. You might have met Claire and her darling little peeps before when she designed for My Favorite Things.

Even her logo is adorable. There's all kinds of cute digital stamps, party and craft supplies and more at her shop. The Catered Crop design team was treated to a couple of Claire's images for use in this challenge, and you can see all of them at the Catered Crop challenge blog in the upcoming days.

The challenge recipe ingredient for this week is buttons... and we've got an inspiration photo for you. Just use a button (or buttons) on your card and link it up at the Catered Crop kitchen. We'd love to see what you create.

I'm always at a loss for card layout ideas as I prefer to keep things a bit on the simple side and not so busy. So, I cased a layout I found on Dawn B's blog, my dear friend who shares similar styles and likes as me (Thanks, Dawn!).  AND... she just joined us at Catered Crop. You will love her creations.

Isn't she adorable? Her little coat and scarf were paper pieced. All designer papers are from DCWV's Nana's Nursery. There's a bit of icy glitter on the ground, and the sentiment is ?? - mounted on a sheet of plastic without a company name. I love the soft, feminine look of this card.

 

I'm often asked about the miniatures that I use in my photos. I guess I'll have to 'fess up and admit that I love miniatures - another very expensive hobby. The little items I use are from the "General Store" that my kids and I put together over 30 years ago. How would you like to have been surprised by this dollhouse for the dollhouse? It was made for me by my oldest son, Thom, when he was about seven years old - and yes, he used an x-acto blade when I wasn't home. It looks pretty beat up now and has seen better days... but I will treasure it forever. 'So creative and thoughtful for a mere seven-year old.

I'll get the General Store cleaned up and share that with you soon. It's definitely going to be passed on to my first granddaughter, someday.

I'm also entering this in these challenges:

Allsorts - Paper Piecing

Catch The Bug - Anything goes
Crafty Emma - Anything goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - New Year, use something new
Di's Digis Designs - Something new
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle -  Winter something
Sweet Stampin - Spots and Dots & use a stamp

Thanks so much for stopping by.. enjoy your day! See you later this week.

Cooking Up a Bit of Autumn at Catered Crop

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Lewis Stevenson

At the Catered Crop challenge, the results are in and the very talented Cheryl Gorka had two entries... both of which were chosen for our recipe challenge inspiration for this week. Cheryl celebrated both Fall and Winter and used these ingredients in her cards.

• Stamps: girls, banners, farmer, crow
• Colors: pink/burgundy, green; jewel tone fall colors
• Theme: Christmas or Fall
• Inks:  Distress Ink, markers
• Papers:  stripes and polka dots (in the green paper that you can hardly see), kraft
• Tools:  sewing machine, die cuts (for the sunflower), circle punch
• Embellishments:  Fun Flock, seam binding, gemstones, spray/glimmer mists, glitter jingle bells, lace, buttons, burlap, twine, and cord

From the list of Cheryl's ingredients, the items in red are the ingredients that I chose to use from her creations to make this card for Autumn.... my favorite season!

I recently found the sunflower flower tutorial that Linda Coughlin, The Funkie Junkie, created and shared with us. I've always been in awe of her creativity from when we were on a design team together. She does such great work. Being in the sunflower state of Kansas, I had to try my hand at making this adorable embellishment. I see a lot of potential for this flower.

My challenges for this card...

CCEE Stampers - Use 4 different embellishments (button, flower, twine, burlap)
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Thank You or Thanksgiving
Gingersnap Creations - #124 Farm Fresh
My Mum's Craft shop - #30 gratitude

Anything Goes Challenge - #53 Stitches Real or Faux

Sweet Stamps - #39 So Thankful

Tuesday Throwdown - #73 Thanks


Thanks so much for stopping by, friends. Have a fantastic Sunday and a great week. See you later this week with more card posts.

Follow The Recipe #21

It's time for the "Follow The Recipe" challenge at Catered Crop. Each challenge, the top chefs stir up their own recipe using the ingredients of the winning entry from the last challenge, which was Sara's entry.  In her darling creation, she used these ingredients...


Colors – Vintage tones (sepias, gold, cream, muted greens)
Papers - Design Paper (K&Co), torn book page, doily, paper scraps
Stamps – flowers, leaves, sentiment
Color Mediums – Distress inks, Archival ink, Crackle, Viva Gold, cream paint
Embellishments – ribbon, lace, mini-tag, button, press-studs, thread
Techniques – stamped resist technique (on bird), stitching, Grunge Rose, sewing, distress
Tools – Die cuts - bird, cage, flower
Themes –Vintage, tag, bird cage


And here's what I created using some of Sara's ingredients (my ingredients are listed in red).  It's a perfect Fall/masculine card, but not with the traditional Fall colors you would expect.

If you are so inclined, check out the "Follow The Recipe" challenge at Catered Crop. It's a fun challenge with lots of artistic latitude. Chances are that that card, tag, or 3-D paper project you have in the making meets some of the ingredient criteria. Look and see for yourself. Hopefully, we will see you there.


I'm also linking this up to these challenges.

Anything Goes - Anything Goes

Card Makin' Mamas - Punches

Cardmadfairy's Digi Days - Lots of Layers

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenges - Autumn

Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes

Creative Belli - String

Inspire me Fridays - Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes
Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes

Simon Say Stamps - Dies/Punches

Southern Girls - Anything Goes

Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle - Fave Color(s)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Anything Goes

The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes

Challenge #20 at "Follow The Recipe"

It's time for the challenge at Catered Crop's "Follow The Recipe".. and this week, the chefs and our followers chose the beautiful creation submitted by E. T., a lovely shabby-chic card. You can see all of her lovely creations here. What a talented lady!

E.T. used these ingredients in her recipe...

Colors – Soft pastels
Stamps and Stickers – Butterflies, flowers, sentiment
Color Mediums – crayolas, stamping ink,
Embellishments – ribbon, glitter, lace, rosettes, tag, rhinestones/gems, pearls, ribbon
Techniques – use your own handwriting, embossing, stitching, make a bookmark
Tools –Die cuts, digital stamps
Themes –Shabby Chic

And those in red are the ingredients that I used in my recipe... to create this card for our Quick Fire post.

If you get a chance this week, check out the challenge and join us. We're sponsored by Heartfelt Creations this week...and there's bound to be some goodies for a lucky winner.

I'm also entering this in these challenges...
Secret Crafter - inspired by a song (All I Have To Do Is Dream - Everly Bros)
Speedy The Cat's Friends - Use a punch
Stamp Challenges - Stamp something
Stampin' For The Weekend - Tickled Pink
Colour Create Challenge - Pink, Cream, Brown, White
Delightful Sketches - Bling it

Bearly Mine - Flowers

Blog a Doodle - anything goes
Catch the Bug – punches

Creative Card Crew - Anything Goes

Crop Stop #36 - Use Spellbinders Dies

Fun with Shapes and More - Anything Goes

Inspire me Friday - Anything Goes

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon - Diecuts

My Mums Craft Shop - Layers

Paper Creations Ink - Vintage or distressed

Pile It On! - Layer It Up!

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Ribbon Carousel - Anything Goes
Show and Tell - Anything Goes

See you then!  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fantastic day.

Follow The Recipe #19

One of my favorite challenges kicks off a new one today (alternating Sundays)...it's "Follow The Recipe" at Linda McClain's Catered Crop. Talk about one very talented lady.. sheesh!!

This week, after a nation-wide vote to break a tie, the winning entry selected was created by Dana. Using a bit of wizardry magic, here's the recipe that Dana used to create her lovely card. The items in red are the ingredients I picked from Dana's elements to create my own card with a vintage and masculine twist.

- Colors – jewel tones of pink, violet and blue, gold/yellow and brown

- Stamps and Stickers – gears or clock works, wizards and magic, butterflies, text/script, sentiment
- Color Mediums – stamping/distress ink, markers/Copics (to tint the ribbon), acrylic paint
- Embellishments – ribbon, brads, tags, polymer clay, glitter/Stickles
- Techniques – mixed-media, collage, use and/or layer digital stamps, edge the card with paint
- Theme – just because, Halloween, magic

I added some UTEE to the postmark, some chipboard, twine, lots of pop-dots, and changed my colors to black, tan, kraft and cream papers. That's the beauty of this challenge. You get to use the elements you want and then add your own.

Our sponsor this week is Stampee Crafts One lucky winner will get to pick 4 foils and also get free bonding powder. Turns out, it's a great sponsor for this week's challenge.

I'm also entering this in these challenges...

• Challenge Up Your Life – Something for Men
• Crazy 4 Challenges – Male Themed
• Ellephantastic – Add some layers
• Sugar Creek Hollow – Make It Masculine
• Totally Gorjuss – as you like it (whatever you like)
• Cooking it up with katie - Brads, Embossing, borders

Check out the "Follow The Recipe" challenge and join us.. it's a blast!

Thanks so much for stopping by, friends. See you later this week.

Follow The Recipe - Challenge #18

At Catered Crop's "Follow The Recipe", our challenge theme is made up of the ingredients the designer of the winning card used in his/her creation, and this week we had two winners and you can see their winning cards here.

This is a really fun challenge to try...and I hope you will give it a go. We get to pick recipe ingredients used in the winning entry. With a choice of  two themes, I selected 'gardening' which led me to combine two Mo Manning digital images (The Big Guy Gardening and Potter's Bench) to create a perfect retirement card.

These are all of the ingredients were used in the winning cards, but the ones in red are what I used in my creation.

• Colors – primary colors like red, yellow, blue (and green), and a little brown for dirt
• Stamps and Stickers – anything that grows from a seed, gardening, back to school, worms!
• Patterns – circles, checked/gingham, notebook paper
• Color Mediums – stamping ink, markers (ProMarker, Copics)
• Embellishments – buttons, ribbon, thread/twine
• Tools – border punch, die cut shapes, embossing plates
• Techniques – make a bookmark, mat your panels, tie ribbons through your buttons, machine sewing (I did faux sewing)
• Theme – garden, back to school

Hope to see you at our "Follow The Recipe" challenge at Catered Crop.

I'm also entering this in these challenges...

Cute Card Thursday - Clean and simple

Ellephantastic - Layers

Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Straight Edges
AI Factory - Anything Goes
Crafty Ann's - Scallops and/or Fancy Borders
Crafty Sentiments - Punches & Dies
Totally Papercrafts - Food & Drink

FTR #15 at Catered Crop

It's that time again... time for the Quickfire post for the "Follow The Recipe" challenge at Catered Crop.  This week our winner is Crystal and her entry included this mix of great recipe ingredients. 

• Colors – red, yellow green
• Stamps and Stickers – shrooms! (fungi, garden or just anything that grows in the ground)
• Patterns - hearts, polka dots
• Color Mediums – Prisma pencils
• Embellishments – buttons, bakers' twine
• Tools – digital stamps, dimensional adhesives
• Theme – love and friendship

To emulate Crystal's entry, I used:

• Bright, summery colors
• a floral theme
• 'Friendship' for the sentiment
• Prisma pencils
• A digital stamp - this darling image is from Mo's Digital Pencil
• Button and twine
• Dimensionals

Come and join us at the Catered Crop challenge this week.. there's lots of inspiration and it's pretty fun to play along. You get to take your entry just about anywhere you want to go.

Thanks so much for stopping by, friends.

FTR #14 at Catered Crop

Today the chefs at "Follow the Recipe" have selected Hannah Clark's adorable design for our challenge inspiration.

Using Hannah's ingredients, I created this masculine card, perfect for Father's Day.

I used these ingredients from Hannah's card:

* Colors – blue, brown, green
* Stamps - nature, birds
* Color Mediums – Copic markers
* Embellishments – ribbon
* Techniques – distressing
* Theme – nature, birds, shabby chic

Then I added a few of my own ingredients:

• Paper punch for the sentiment
• UTEE to create an enamel look which was cracked and antiqued
• Antique brass brads

Our sponsor this time is a dear friend of Linda McClain, our esteemed Top Chef. You can find Texana Designs at this link at their Etsy shop.

Want to play along with us?  It's easy to do and we give you so much latitude in creating your design. Just check out Catered Crop to see how it's done. I hope to see you there, friends.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a fantastic day and an especially terrific Father's Day.

FTR #12 - Something Masculine

Each week at Catered Crop, we get to select one entry that gives us the inspiration for our next "Follow The Recipe" challenge and this week, the selected entry was very masculine...here's the recipe from the winning card.

* Colors – brown, blue, red
* Stamps and Stickers – nautical, light house, sentiment
* Color Mediums – stamp ink, Copic markers
* Embellishments – twine/hemp rope, charm
* Tools – die cuts, air brush system
* Techniques – make a scene, use a creative fold
* Theme – masculine, Father's Day

And, here's my response for the winning recipe.

I created this scene using stamps from Cornish Farms... colored it up with Copic markers, added some white twine with a nautical knot and colored the sky with soft yellow and aqua inks.  The background paper was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Simple, elegant, and definitely masculine.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Becky Roberts of Inking Idaho. The random winner gets to choose any of her templates. Here's the link: http://inkingidaho.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by, friends.. and have a fantastic day!