OCC: Color Challenge

Happy Saturday to you all!

Quick post this week. Our challenge is hosted by Lori Rider this week and its a color challenge! 

Here's the inspiration for this wild set of colors from Lori's post on the OCC blog:

I wish I could have squeezed more lime into my design but the paper I had didn't have any pink in it so I had to find a way to pull in the pink.

So if you have a wild hair, join us this week and design a papercraft that includes all five colors. To get inspired and motivated, take a look at the other OCC team projects:

Linda Coughlin The Funkie Junkie

Sue Butler Scrumplescrunch

Anne Marie Hile Stampin' Anne

Wendy Janson It's All About Stamping

Marcy Kaminski En Papillote Arts

Irena Kowalczyk (aka Rudlis) Love, Life and Crafts

Meihsia Liu Simply Paper Crafts

Lori Rider The Diva Stamper

Sharon Wheet Designs by Sharon

and while you're out and about, say hello to our new team members:

Lisa Minckler You Made Me Ink

Kim Price Inkcognito

Paula McClane Scrap Addict's Attic

Liliana Inguanti Stampin' From Home

Chris Barnes Dot Dot Stamping Designs

As you may have noticed, four of our OCC designers are moving onto other papercrafting pursuits and leaving our team. Thanks, ladies for your contributions and I wish you all the best in the months and years to come!

Vicki Burdick

Anita Houston

Tui Nathan

Kristin Tierney

I'm excited to see what your color challenge creations look like!

Holly

OCC: Papercraft Tic Tac Toe

Good Morning, papercrafting friends!

I'm hosting this week at Our Creative Corner. I decided to take a little bit 'o inspiration from a game my son Grady thinks he knows how to play - Tic Tac Toe. I love him but he's no strategist when it comes to playing the game.

So the idea is to pick "three in a row" to use in a paper project. Here's the game board:

I chose the middle vertical line - pink, stickers and ribbon.

This is a fun, easy card that came together quickly and would make beautifully for a set.

I just love this soft set of paper from SEI. Buying a paper pad with a good variation of designs within the same color scheme is probably one of the easiest ways to get a set of cards together quickly and beautifully.

The natural paper flower is actually a sticker. Its hard to tell in the picture but the flower is pretty realistic and soft. I just love it.

My favorite part of this is the ribbon "leaf" tucked behind the flower. I thought it was a clever idea although now that I'm writing about it, it doesn't seem so "out of the box".

I hope you're inspired by this gaming challenge and that its enough to get you motivated to join us this week. 

Special thanks to our Guest Designer Tracey Vidal from My Creative Side. Take a look at what the rest of the OCC team came up with this week. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Holly

OCC: Fall Color Challenge

Good Morning! 

It's actually a sunny Fall morning in Washington - one of my most favorite things about the year. There's something really special about the cool, bright, sometimes slightly foggy mornings that make me feel alive and vibrant. Seeing Mt. Rainier lit in shades of pink and red as the sun is coming up is pretty awe-inspiring.

This week on Our Creative Corner, we're working with a color challenge from Lori and its all about Autumnal color.

Isn't it a pretty combination for fall?

I thought I'd take another run at the stamp resist technique I learned at the Inspiration Showcase online card class taught by one of my favorite paper crafters and stamper extraordinaire, Jennifer McGuire. 

I love this technique. It is really easy to create the color background of your choice like I've done here incorporating this week's challenge colors.

I love layering the butterfly dies and punches - they are oh so dainty and beautiful. 

So join us this week by creating a paper craft using the fall colors above as your inspiration. To get your ideas in motion, check out what the other designers have done this week with this rich palette.

Linda Coughlin

Lori Rider

Wendy Janson

Vicki Burdick

Sharon Wheet

Jen Rzasa

Kristen Tierney

Anne Marie Hile

Marjie Kemper

Tui Nathan


Have a great week!
Holly

Reject Blog Hop: Kid's Happy Birthday

Into every life a little rain must fall, right?

I made 4 cards for Paper Craft's latest call for submission and none of them got accepted so I am happy to contribute my favorite reject to Amber's Reject Blog Hop. Thanks Amber!

I love this card. I was sad when the Paper Craft people didn't love it for the ABC & 123 category. 

I printed a 4 that I liked, trimmed it out with my craft knife and used it as a template for the 4 cutout for the window. I really wanted it to be the focus of the card and looked to find a typeface that was bold enough to stand up on its own. I chose Algerian. Paper I used is from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist line.

My boo-hooing is over. Now on to another day of paper crafting. There are more calls (and a holiday craft fair - yikes!) to get ready for!

OCC: Not Big on Pink

Morning paper crafting friends!

Its Saturday so that means there's a new challenge to get your hands working on this week. This time, Sharon is hosting and she LOVES pink. She's challenging us to make something pretty by using blue as the main color, using pink as an accent. Throw in a texture like ribbon or fabric and a metal element like a brad or charm and you've got yourself an OCC Not Big on Pink project!

So join us this week on Our Creative Corner. Make something pretty using blue with a touch of pink! Check out what the other OCC designers have put together this week!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan

OCC: Stamp Happy

So this week is my very first week hosting the challenge blog at Our Creative Corner and I couldn't be more excited! Getting to be a part of a group that is looking for new ways to challenge papercrafters is a real treat. I'm a firm believer that a challenge is the best way to improve your skills. The OCC blog has certainly has its fair share of challenges in the past that have forced some real creativity. All I can say is hang on! Looking ahead to the next few months, there won't be any shortage of thought-pushing challenges in the near future.

I actually struggled a bit coming up with a card after I chose this week's theme - stamping on printed or designer paper -  but I am thrilled with the outcome. It took some thinking. It took some practice. It took some time. But in the end, I'm happy to share with you my card.

I started with a new set of papers from Echo Park that I just love. The Dots and Stripes pads are perfect for a project like this. They offer two pads in different colors, Metropolitan (using more manly colors like black, blue, grey) and the one I've used here - Candy Shoppe (using more girly colors like pink, yellow and orange)

With the same patterns on all the colors, it makes it really easy to mix and match.

I cut the strips to the size I wanted. and adhered them to a piece of cardstock. Then with Post-it notes, I masked all three strips separately and stamped my image (I put the stamps together on one single large acrylic block so I could stamp each color once.) Then I peeled away each Post-it, inking my stamps with the appropriate color, stamping then covering it back up and moving onto the next color. It took a few tries but I think the effort was worth the outcome. I added a stitch, distressed the edges and smiled.

I inked the twine a little to keep it from being pure white and raspberry. I added the tag with my sentiment and a cute little flower resin brad. I'm de-fin-ately doing this again. This is a perfect handmade card template to start a new set with!

So challenge yourself this week. Do something to stretch your creativity. Play along with us this week at Our Creative Corner and use this week's challenge as your inspiration and don't forget to check out the other DT blogs to see how they've stamped on patterned paper for their projects!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan

Have a great weekend!
Holly

OCC: Color Challenge

This week on OCC we're tacking a color challenge. Grey, red and black - a bit of a masculine color scheme to me.

But I have a problem.

Pretty frilly thank you cards. Done.

Flowery pink butterfly stamped birthday cards. No problem.

Masculine cards. Hard. Oye.

So this was my masuline card. My brother-in-law had his 30th birthday recently and this was the card I created for it. It was hard because I wanted to embellish. I wanted to distress. I wanted to glitter-fy. What I ended up doing was finding some grey and black papers in my stash. I had to mix and match on this but for the fact that there's three different paper makers on this card (five when you count the cardstock and sentiment banner), I really like how it came together.

I left the stitching a little long when I trimmed it. That was a happy accident. I liked how it looked so I left it.

 I also added some things on the inside to finish the card. I don't do that a lot but I probably should.

Play along with us this week at Our Creative Corner and use this week's color pallet as your inspiration and don't forget to check out the other DT blogs to see how they've incorporated these colors into their projects!

Linda Coughlin
Lori Rider
Wendy Janson
Vicki Burdick
Sharon Wheet
Jen Rzasa
Kristen Tierney
Anne Marie Hile
Marjie Kemper
Tui Nathan

Have a great weekend!
Holly

OCC: Red & Aqua Challenge

I'm playing along this week with Our Creative Corner's Red and Aqua Challenge.

When I was working on my idea for this challenge, I struggled a little. Looking through my paper I realized two things. I love this color combination. I hate this color combination. I actually made a trip to Michael's to find the light blue paper. While I think its close to the challenge color, I originally wanted something with a little more green (to actually, truly be more aqua). But such is life and after I found some inspiration in some mini-cupcake liners from Martha Stewart in my stash at home, this card came together beautifully.

My niece is turning 10 in a few weeks and I wanted to use this color scheme for her card because it instantly reminded me of her. She's so cute - a perfect balance of girly-girlness but athletic, adventurous and active. I have a few little gifts to put into a box and ship up to her but I wanted to share the card. Juliana...this one's for you!

Hope it doesn't spoil the birthday surprise!

I started with two shades of blue cardstock - one for the base, one for the mat. Then I got to turning the mini-cupcake papers into a little ruffle. It took a little bit of messing around but I finally got them where I wanted them.

Punched the doily, stamped the frame and sentiment and topped it off with a cute button.

Can't wait for next week - my first real challenge as a design team member. I hope I can come up with something good!

Have a great weekend!

Holly

Finally!

Ok. So I have to apologize..I haven't posted anything in about a week and its for a good reason. I haven't made anything in about a week!

Work has been busy (what's new) but I've also had a little side project to work on for a school auction AND both me any my hubby got sick this weekend. Not fun but I'm feeling much better now...him? Not so much. He's in bed so I was able to get a card done tonight. And guess what? I FINALLY got my MULTIPURPOSE PLATFORM today! So excited but also a little overwhelmed. So today, I started small. Just messed around with the Spellbinders I've had sitting here but actually used a simple PTI die for the card you'll see below.

So here it is. The card inspired by Pattern #108 from Card Patterns.

Here's the Card Pattern inspiration sketch:

I like this sketch. I probably should have challenged myself to use it the way it is displayed but was feeling a lil' more vertical today. Another day, another design...

I hope you enjoy!

Holly